This article is about the QUICK programming language from Germany. Taken from the newsnet system, transferred using UTIL on an IBM PC, and tidied by Dean Garraghty.¢-----------------------------------¢Bill Kendrick writes:¢> I'm not sure if I missed it or not, but...once a Quick program has been¢> compiled, does it need ANY sort of runtime package? If so, this makes me¢> wonder about programming in it and then selling your final product. This¢> is illegal with Action!, is it not? (c) (c) (c)...such pains in the ass!¢¢No, as far as I know Quick always creates pure machine language. It doesn't need a runtime package to run. Therefore you can sell what you've created with Quick. Actually there is a commercial game on the market programmed in Quick (compiled of course). I've a PD demo version of this game. It's called 'Rubberball'. I'll upload it to the archive (I've put this in the PD library -ed).¢¢> So...give us some details on where we can purchase "Quick" and how much¢> does it cost? I REALLY think I want THIS! :)¢> Speaking of Quick being easier to find and stuff.... it was a magazine¢> article (set of them, I'll suppose), correct? If so, then it's a¢> disk-based language. THAT's cool. (I really like disks better for some¢> reason..!? - price I suppose! :) ) Anyways... where can one GET¢> Quick!?!? And for how much? I might just try Dean Garraghty's idea¢> about mailing German cash rather than an IMO. Humm... (IMO=internat'l¢> money order AND in my opinion. I wonder if BTW means anything else!?¢> hehe)¢¢Yes, Quick is definitely disk-based. The price is 39DM for the version 2.1 including documentation (in German). (about $25 ???).¢¢There is also a disk-based 'Quick-Magazine' about programming in Quick (again in German). They have released 12 issues so far. Each issue costs 9DM.¢¢As I said on the digest the only source I know for Quick and S.A.M. is this German distributor. It is a small publishing company that used to publish a magazine called 'ATARImagazin'. Now after a break 'ATARImagazin' again is on the line. Now it is a user supported magazin in German, much similar to what AC will become some day. :-)¢¢This distributor offers a wide range of Atari software and a few hardware supplements.¢¢How to order: for German customers there are three ways to pay for the stuff¢¢ 1) send cash along with the order (p&p included)¢¢ 2) to supply a cheque + 4DM p&p¢¢ 3) paying to the postman as your stuff is delivered + 6.50DM p&p¢¢The distributor doesn't say anything about foreign customers. Wait! There is one note on the ordering form I have: they write that you can pay with a cheque +10DM p&p if you are abroad. They don't say what kind of check.¢¢I posted a snail letter on monday to the distributor to ask him about other possibilities for American users to order software. We'll have to wait for the anwser. I'll inform you about it as soon as it arrives.¢¢Now the address of the distributor:¢¢ Power per Post¢ Postfach 1640¢ W-7518 Bretten¢ Germany¢¢ Tel. +(0)7252/3058¢ Fax. +(0)7252/85565¢¢ or¢¢ Verlag Werner Raetz¢ (Power per Post)¢ Melanchthonstr. 75/1¢ W-7518 Bretten¢ Germany¢¢These two addresses are equivalent, you can choose the one you better like. The distributor gives these two addresses. I don't know why.¢¢Marek Tomczyk¢¢-----------------------------------¢¢¢perhaps a week ago Jeff McWilliams writes:¢>Can you give more details on this interesting sounding language?¢>Could we possibly get some generous bilingual person to translate the¢>documentation for us? It sounds very interesting.¢¢After a hard week of taking maths I'll now try to describe the language Quick (better late than not at all) :-)¢¢Very much like S.A.M. (you remember: this mouse supported user interface) Quick has been published as a series of articles in the Geraman "ATARImagazin". Now this language is still commercialy sold. ¢The latest version is 2.1. Quick is a compiler language primarily designed for programming games. The designers of Quick tried to implement a quick language which takes advantage of as many new developements on the 8-bit Atari as possible. Therefore it supports gadgets like ST-mouse, digitized sound, a Voice-box or fast graphics routines.¢¢I would compare Quick to Action! It is sort of equivalent, that means very close to assembler. You have mainly three different types of variables in Quick: BYTE, WORD and ARRAY.¢¢I think I should give you an exapmle of variable declaration.¢¢BYTE¢¢LMARG=82¢¢¢with this you have created a BYTE variable with the name LMARG. This variable is located im memory at the location 82 which controls the left margin of the screen. To set the left margin to say the 7th column all you have to do is to write:¢¢LMARG=7¢¢now look what the compiler makes out of it. In the compiled progarm you'll find:¢¢LDA #7¢STA 82¢¢you can't make it faster. That way you needn't a POKE but it is still available.¢¢Quick supports procedures with local variables and passing variables from and to the main program. You can even define a procedure for the VBI, Quick is fast enough for that. Of course there are structures like REPEAT....UNTIL, IF...THEN...ELSE, WHILE...WEND.¢¢Quick hasn't been designed for extensive scientific calculations, but there are floating point libraries included.¢¢Libraries are very important in Quick. You can write procedures by yourself, store them on the disk and then include to your next programs like this:¢¢INCLUDE¢¢D:KEY.S¢D:CODE.S¢¢¢All functions in Quick refere to a vector area in memory. These entries are documented. If you think you can write a faster DRAWTO command in assembler than you simply redirect the proper vector to point to your own routine. But this work has been done.¢¢Quick has a library with this fast PLOT and DRAWTO routines making advantage of fast functions like VLINE or HLINE. This flexible concept allows you to improve the language.¢¢Currently Quick allows multitasking of two programs with various priorities to each program. What's more, your compiled program can be up to 42KB long on a 800xl/xe or 68KB long on a 130XE.¢¢There is still a lot of support for Quick. Once a month or two the programers of Quick release a new "Quick magazin" which is a disk magazine with programs in Quick and articles about programming in that language. Also the printed "ATARImagazin" has a series about Quick. In a few weeks there will be even a book about Quick.¢¢At the begining of my posting I told you that Quick were well suited for programming of games. It really is. There are even some commercial games available in Germany written in ..(guess) yes, you are right written in Quick. I have a demo version of one of them. I'm sure it is PD.¢Maybe next week I'll go home for the weekend and then post it to the archive to give you an example of what you can do with Quick. (Rubberball demo is in the PD library -ed).¢¢I mast admit, I haven't programmed very much in Quick yet. My Atari is at home and I don't have much time here on the campus. Maybe at the summer vacation I'll go into it. Then I sure will be able to write more about it, but until now it looks fine.¢¢Jeff, I could probably be able to translate the docs. But then I'll need someone to go over it and to "smoothen" my English and to correct it.¢¢Hope you got an idea....¢¢Marek Tomczyk¢
