CADPAK

CADPAK is a bitmap drawing program produced by Sandy which was controlled through a series of icons.

It appears to be an updated version of the earlier MPaint, compiled with Q-liberator and packaged with the SuperQMouse interface, with a small inbuilt machine code extension to use Pointer Interface routines (no Window Manager routines) to control the program with the mouse and to restore the main window while using the pull down menus.

Quite a neat utility, this provides the most common commands you require. Only handles the standard QL 4 colour screen mode. Alas it cannot handle 512 x 256 pixels and can only handle (384 x 182 pixels) meaning that screens are only 23296 bytes in length (compared to the normal 32768 bytes).

CADPAK also moved away from the _pic file suffix for pictures to a _draw file suffix.

However, the screens can be loaded directly to the QL's screen memory although they only show as 216 lines of pixels, rather than the original 256 lines. The 384 pixel display by the program is given stippled grey edges on either side.

Although originally reliant on the mouse interface, it can be adapted to work with the free standing version of the pointer interface, although the in-built machine code extension is not very good and only works with a standard 512x256 screen.

A keyboard driven version of this program, called CAD PAK and badged as a computer aided design program was also released in 1986, under the Datalink Systems Wales software label.

Title: CADPAK
Language: Q-Liberated SuperBASIC
Author: Thomas Campbell
Publisher: Sandy
Year of Publication: 1985
Platforms Suitable for: All Sinclair QLs and emulators (512x256 mode)
Commercial Status: Commercial
Price as at December 1985: Unknown
Reviews: Unknown
Sources Available from: Unknown
Latest Version available from: Unknown