zxsp 0.8.0.pre6

Hello,

this is the start of some sporadic posts about my software projects. Featuring today: 

zxsp, my ZX Spectrum emulator for Mac OSX.

Space Invaders - animated game for ZX80

Currently i'm busy rewriting source from the latest public release for Qt. I switched to Qt 4 years ago but then suspended work because i worked on another project, my self-built cpu.
I switched to Qt because it has the better API and i don't have to bother with obj-c any more. I took the chance to do a redesign in order to separate model and view which will make the source better portable, if ever. Version 0.8.x marks the switch to Qt.
One major drawback comes with the use of Qt ( nothing comes for free :-/ ): I have to include a lot of Qt libraries which explodes the size of the binary. But on the other hand, hey, today even 10 or 20 MB take only a fraction of a minute to download...

The current state of zxsp is roughly like this:

• ZX80, ZX81, Jupiter Ace, ZX Spectrum 48k, 128k, +2 and +2A emulation working flawless (i hope). 
• load & save .z80 files
• load & save other model-specific snapshot formats
• read .tap and .tzx tape files
• fast load standard tape blocks for ZX Spectrum models
• misc. joystick interfaces, AY sound interfaces and Sinclair IF 2
• USB Joystick support
• Images of all machines and interfaces
• virtual keyboards for all models
• save gif snapshot and movies

Missing so far:

• Debugger
• Save to tape
• Whatever was missing in 0.7.2

Not yet tested:

• Audio input from standard microphone input
• Audio output to speaker for models other than ZX Spectrum 

A new pre-version is ahead: 0.8.0pre6. I tried to fix some bugs in pre5.
What's new in 0.8.0pre6?

• load ZX80 snapshot from .o or .80 file
• load ZX81 snapshot from .p, .81 or .p81 file
• Management of ToolWindows reworked
• Re-organized source: Qt/, Mac/, Uni/
• Splashscreen after start without snapshot  
• reduced size (zip from ~15MB down to ~11MB)

I started this blog because this enables you to leave some feedback and because i have the faint memory that there is a possibility to make polls. Let's see...

    ... Kio !