QL-Switch

QL-Switch was a program which addressed the issue that each of the individual Psion Xchange programs Quill,Archive, Easel and Abacus would use the maximum amount of memory available to the Sinclair QL.

There appear to have been two versions of QL-Switch - one written by Andrew Pennell and published by Transform in 1985 and another version released by Psientific Software in 1986.

QL-Switch by Transform

QL-Switch limits the memory for each program to 128K and allowed you to run up to 4 copies of the Psion programs simultaneously (each program requiring 128K, so you needed 512K available memory to run all 4).

QL-Switch added a new SuperBASIC command, MULTI which allowed you to load several programs at a time, such as

10 MULTI "flp1_ABACUS", "flp1_QUILL"

Oddly QUILL had to be the last program in the list.

Once loaded, you could move between the programs by pressing ALT F1, ALT F2, ALT F3 and ALT F4.

The other programs are suspended in the background whilst the current program runs.

Title: QL Switch
Language: 68000 Machine Code
Author: Andrew Pennell
Publisher: Transform
Year of Publication: 1985
Reviews: Unknown
Platforms Suitable for: All Sinclair QLs and emulators
Commercial Status: Commercial
Sources Available from: n/a
Latest Version available from: Unknown

QL-Switch by Psientific Software

QL-Switch as released by Psientific Software would appear to be similar in functionality to the above version.

This version of the program works with any executable program, not just the Psion programs.

It adds a SuperBASIC keyword SWITCH which lists the programs available and their turn on keys - which can be CTRL+F1 to CTRL+F5, CTRL+A to CTRL+Z and ALT+F1 to ALT+F5.

When setting up the programs, you can also set an amount of job space for each task, as well as the heap space; and add a prompt to be displayed on screen when a task is launched (for example to prompt you to insert a different microdrive cartridge).

The other programs are suspended in the background whilst the current program runs and this version of QL-Switch even adds facilities to auto-launch programs by POKE_W 163978,245 (for example) and even pass defined strings to the console when a task is launched (for example to load a specific document into Quill).

Title: QL-Switch
Language: 68000 Machine Code
Author: Barry Ashfield
Publisher: Psientific Software
Year of Publication: 1986
Reviews: Unknown
Platforms Suitable for: All Sinclair QLs and emulators
Commercial Status: Commercial
Sources Available from: n/a
Latest Version available from: Unknown