Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Linus Torvalds' 1986 Sinclair QL code listing (imageshack.us)
18 points by parenthesis on July 17, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments



Can anyone tell what the app did?


Well, according to the first couple lines of the article, GMOVE stands for "Graphic MOVE". Further down it talks about pixels and graphics, x/y coordinates and leveys/korkeus which I take to mean width/height. (I don't speak Suomi, so that's about as far as I got)

Also, in the bold part in the middle of the first column, it gives the calling syntax:

GMOVE (#ch),x1,y1,l,k TO x2,y2

All of this evidence leads me to believe it's a blitting function. As for how it's implemented, I have no idea - looks to me like the DATA statements basically contain Sinclair QL bytecode. Anyone got a disassembler handy for that platform? ;-)

Out of interest, does anyone know what the (#ch) might be? The rest of the parameters are obvious.


> Onko joskus tullut eteen tilanne, jossa olisit halunnut siirtää osan ikkunasta toiseen paikkaan? Homma ei onnistu ilman oheista Basic-laajennusta. Se lisää QL:n käskysvalikoimaan GMOVE-käskyn, jolla voi siirtää grafiikkaa esimerkiksi piirto-ohjelmissa.

Here's one attempt at an awkward translation of the introductory paragraph:

"Have you ever come across a situation in which you would have wanted to move part of a window to another location? Your task won't be successful without expanding the set of Basic instructions. It adds to QL's selection of commands the GMOVE command, with which you can move a graphic, for example, within a drawing program."


Thanks for that. So it is indeed a blitter routine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitter


Wow, this is probably the first confirmed purchase of a QL. I think the thing was based on a 68008 (8 bit bus, 32 bit registers).


It was great. I remember playing with it. It had these funky microdrives which were small "fast" tape cassettes as far as I can remember.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: