HP Forum Archive 21

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Another Emulator Message #1 Posted by Mike T. on 23 June 2013, 9:57 a.m. It is still very early days but I've (finally) got around to starting to rewrite my original emulator in C using Xlib. I've not worked out how to use a bit map for the symbols on the keys so I'm restricted by the available fonts. I'm finding that it is a bit of a steep learning curve (for someone who has never used C much before now - this is only my 5th C program), made slightly more difficult by making the source code 'portable' between systems, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Screenshots below show emulators running under GNOME and Motif. I like the aspect ratios of the buttons as they are but I'm trying to decide if I should make them slightly higher and wider to allow me to use the same font for both the alternate function labels (blue) and the shifted funtion labels (yellow). I thought about using ATAN or ACOSH instead of TAN-1 or COSH-1 to save one character, but decided to stick with the 'original' format for now... Comments welcome - Mike T. Edited: 23 June 2013, 6:56 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

Re: Another Emulator Message #2 Posted by BShoring on 23 June 2013, 2:51 p.m., in response to message #1 by Mike T. They look very nice. Any plans to port them to iOS?

Re: Another Emulator Message #3 Posted by MikeT. on 23 June 2013, 6:16 p.m., in response to message #2 by BShoring Unfortunalty not - I'm having quite enough 'fun' with just X11/Linux for now. Added - And VAX/VMS with DECWindows MOTIF (why - because I can!) Edited: 24 June 2013, 6:54 p.m.

Re: Another Emulator Message #4 Posted by Thomas Radtke on 23 June 2013, 3:07 p.m., in response to message #1 by Mike T. ... or Android? :-)

Re: Another Emulator Message #5 Posted by Olivier De Smet on 23 June 2013, 3:57 p.m., in response to message #4 by Thomas Radtke For android : Free : go25c, go33c, go12c, go41c Pay: go34c, go38c, go65c, go67c, go97c, go11c, go15c, go16c, go41cx, go41cxt, ... Those are hardware emulators (no go29c as I don't have the 29 rom) Edited: 23 June 2013, 4:18 p.m.

Re: Another Emulator Message #6 Posted by Thomas Radtke on 25 June 2013, 6:42 p.m., in response to message #5 by Olivier De Smet Hi Olivier, I have go33c installed and like it much. Thank you for this one, I'll probably even 'update' to the 34c :-). Unfortunately, the legends are very hard to read. Surely, this is caused by the limited resolution of my small display (Huawei U8180/Ideos X1/gaga). If I knew where the artwork is located, I'd try to pixel something better readable on 240x320 displays (upgrading my phone isn't an option-I love this inexpensive and very handy mobile). Thomas

Re: Another Emulator Message #7 Posted by Ivan Rancati on 9 July 2013, 9:15 a.m., in response to message #6 by Thomas Radtke By the way, I tried the (excellent!) go48g on a Nexus 10 tablet. The keys resize nicely, the screen is a bit small. I understand it might be difficult to resize properly on such a high resolution screen (I believe it's 2560x1600). I can send a screenshot if you're interested thanks and best regards Ivan

Re: Another Emulator Message #8 Posted by Thomas Radtke on 9 July 2013, 10:09 a.m., in response to message #7 by Ivan Rancati Thank you for your offer, Ivan. I'd have to redraw most of the image anyway, so it's more important to know where it is located and what format it's in. I'd be grateful for any pointer.

Re: Another Emulator Message #9 Posted by Mike T. on 23 June 2013, 6:20 p.m., in response to message #4 by Thomas Radtke If I ever own an andriod device, then I might try just to see if I could. However Olivier has already done a much better job than I think I could ever manage. Mike T.

Re: Another Emulator Message #10 Posted by Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove on 23 June 2013, 4:35 p.m., in response to message #1 by Mike T. They sure look nice. I for one would not increase the "height" of the keys. I personally find the slightly smaller font on the slanted side of the keys to give a three-dimensional impression that contributes to the realism of the emulation. Of course, there is also the factor of available screen real estate: if you want to port your emulation to smartphones (especially with smallish screens), you might want all key legends to be sufficiently readable. Thanks for sharing and good luck! Jeroen BTW: are you implementing the P/R switch by clicking on the screen? Just curious. Edited: 23 June 2013, 4:37 p.m.

Re: Another Emulator Message #11 Posted by BShoring on 23 June 2013, 6:05 p.m., in response to message #10 by Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove Currently there are no Spice emulators for iOS. I'm hoping somebody will make some available. Bob

Re: Another Emulator Message #12 Posted by MikeT. on 23 June 2013, 6:30 p.m., in response to message #10 by Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove No. Nice idea though - I'm sure I should be able to use it some how. Currently I plan to try drawing some sliding switches (my older VB code just used a text label), right now though I just want to iron out the layout, tidy up the code and make these buttons clickable. I know that sounds easy but I already have over 800 lines of code just to draw them and they don't even move or do anything yet! Actually to be fair it isn't really that hard, it is working out what the best way to do it (in C) that is is the difficult part. Mike T. Edited: 23 June 2013, 6:37 p.m.

Re: Another Emulator Message #13 Posted by Pete Wilson on 6 July 2013, 6:06 p.m., in response to message #1 by Mike T. Looks pretty good, except the hyphen in the inverse functions appears to be too low - lines up with the base function and not the superscript 1.

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