You will find an interview of Marc Maulin, co-author of the Amstrad CPC utility Discology, on CPC Rulez.

A work in progress version of GrafX2 is available to draw "mode 5" pictures for Amstrad CPC.

GrafX2 is a bitmap paint program inspired by the Amiga programs Deluxe Paint and Brilliance. Specialized in 256-color drawing, it includes a very large number of tools and effects that make it particularly suitable for pixel art, game graphics, and generally any detailed graphics painted with a mouse. The program is mostly developed on Linux and Windows, but is also portable on many other platforms.

SAMdisk v3.3 by Simon Owen is out.

The utility supports transfers between floppy disks and disk images, and is designed to work with almost any soft-sectored disk format compatible with the PC floppy controller, including some copy-protected formats.

Low-level floppy device access requires the fdrawcmd.sys driver to be installed.

Version 3.3 (2012-06-14)
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- Added built-in support for zipped and gzipped files
- Added support for repairing 8K sectors with bad CRCs
- Added support for raw hard disk images
- Added identify device data reading, where available (non-USB)
- Added --hdf to force HDF version (10 or 11), with v1.1 now the default
- Added --no-identify to ignore source identify data
- Added --no-cfa to suppress CFA festures in generated identify data
- Enhanced identify to include  CHS/LBA28/LBA48 sector counts and CFA
- Enhanced verbose disk list to show serial+firmware and MBR partitions
- Changed disk list to show all devices by default, not just BDOS
- Fixed repairing to blank target tracks, with new density check
- Fixed HDD access beyond 4GB boundary, extended -s range to 2TB
- Fixed SAD image writing with custom sector sizes
- Fixed status messages being written to log and not erased correctly
- Improved FDC integrity checks during sector reads, for suspect hardware
- Improved total sector count to CHS mapping

The last version of the CPCDiskXP utility is available on CPCMania.

You will also find various programming tutorials, especially tutorials about using C compilers like Z88dk and SDCC, or assembler compiler like Pasmo.

SAMdisk v3.2 by Simon Owen is out.

The utility supports transfers between floppy disks and disk images, and is designed to work with almost any soft-sectored disk format compatible with the PC floppy controller, including some copy-protected formats.

Low-level floppy device access requires the fdrawcmd.sys driver to be installed.

Version 3.2 (2012-04-08)
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- Added general support for 1Mbps data rate, used by ED disks
- Added 1Mbps support to IMD images, using new track modes 6+7
- Added --tty option to output console messages to non-console streams
- Fixed crash reading gap data from oversized sectors (thanks Philippe!)
- Fixed crash using --verify when writing non-simple images
- Fixed gap data trimming when writing FDI+IMD images

GrafX2 is a bitmap paint program inspired by the Amiga programs Deluxe Paint and Brilliance. Specialized in 256-color drawing, it includes a very large number of tools and effects that make it particularly suitable for pixel art, game graphics, and generally any detailed graphics painted with a mouse. The program is mostly developed on Linux and Windows, but is also portable on many other platforms.

GrafX2 v2.3 has been released in April 2011. It can of course be used to draw Amstrad CPC screens.

SAMdisk v3.1 by Simon Owen is out.

The utility supports transfers between floppy disks and disk images, and is designed to work with almost any soft-sectored disk format compatible with the PC floppy controller, including some copy-protected formats.

Low-level floppy device access requires the fdrawcmd.sys driver to be installed.

Changelog:

Version 3.1 (2012-03-18)
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- Added --repair option to help combine damaged image dumps
- Added write support for D88 images
- Added support for IMD mixed sector sizes
- Added record name from source basename, if no label available
- Added more file sizes for raw image recognition
- Added verbose track output for floppy->image dumping
- Fixed IMD creation using 500Kbps instead of 250Kbps
- Fixed bit alignment during IPF track wrapping
- Fixed converting images to BDOS format when setting label
- Increased --rescan matching distance from 32 to 64 bytes
- Updated to zlib 1.2.5, using zlibwapi.dll instead of zlib1.dll

ManageDSK v0.20g by Ludovic Deplanque is out. Its interface is available in english, french and spanish. It features :

• create an empty .DSK file,
• add files in a .DSK file,
• extract files from an .DSK file,
• rename files in a .DSK file
• delete files in a .DSK file,

To write a single DSK image file you can either use :

• ManageDSK by Demoniak (windows)
• iDSK by Sid (it's an unix/macos port of ManageDsk, it seems that you will need the dsktools by Andreas Micklei)
• WriteDSK by Targhan (on Amstrad CPC only)
• CPCDiskXP by Mochilote (windows)

Beware, WriteDSK works on the CPC (you must have a PC 3,5" with the .DSK which will be copied on the same 3,5" drive or another 3" drive). It supports the CPC Booster by Antitec.

But if you want to write a double sided DSK, you will have to use CPCDiskXP by Mochilote for the moment.

P.S. : from the WriteDSK documentation, it should support double side DSK.

QuickCMD v2.3 is out, a shell-based user interface by NoRecess.

This adds support for a new command history to be used through UP and DOWN keys (was requested by many of you !). Also, a critical crash has been fixed with ROMS command when listing ROMs having corrupted names. Another critical problem (involving stability) has been fixed with direct drive parsing. And finally, the RSX got renamed to |Q for even faster switching from BASIC to QuickCMD.

To help using your HxC floppy emulator, vous can use the last version of the HxC Floppy Emulator Manager (v2.3) by NoRecess.

It's now faster to launch, spaces in directory names can now be used, and the user interface is now using the default system font with new color scheme (aligned to ParaDOS and QuickCMD's ones). As previous releases, ROM version is also available.

QuickCMD v2.2 is out, a shell-based user interface by NoRecess.

These are the changes:

• Added support for Bryce's MegaFlash
• Renamed RO and RW commands to READONLY and READWRITE
• Removed CRTC command
• Reset screen to QuickCMD’s default if external RSX changed video mode
• DELROM now clears a rom with &FF value (was using &00)
• Fixed: was overwriting first byte after HIMEM
• Fixed: not assuming anymore than Amsdos area is always at &A700

What about an Odiesoft interview as a starter, then an update of ManageDSK and SDCC2Pasmo for the main dish and dessert on NoRecess web site ?

Following v2.0, QuickCMD v2.1 is out, a shell-based user interface by NoRecess. Since v2.0 QuickCMD is a real ROM (small RAM footprint) and adds new featureslike low-level file management. It's now written in assembly with a bit of C, instead of using C only. Use CTRL + TAB from Basic to launch QuickCMD.

QuickCMD v1.0 is a new utility by NoRecess. It's a shell-based user interface running on top of the system. Its aim is to provide a faster way to launchprograms. The idea actually came from a fact about NoRecess own usage of a CPC : most of the times, he turns on my computer to only execute CAT/RUN commands. He thought there were rooms to improvethat process :

• a really fast text output (really appreciated for discs containing lots of files)
• no need to type RUN" prefix anymore, simply typing a filename is required to execute a file
• faster approach to execute a file : even if the pattern Shift+Arrows + copy/paste a filename + Control+LeftArrow + Control+Enter is handy to fast-launch files after a CAT command, I found myself more efficient to uniquely deal with program's filename
• autocompletion : just type F then I letters then TAB key ; if FILENAME.BIN exists on disc then it will be automatically completed !
• fully compatible with the system : you can launch BASIC as BINARY files the same way, you can quit to BASIC then getting back to QuickCMD, DIR command also supports Cat'Art, etc.
• extensible command system : instead of typing a filename to launch, you can also specify a Resident System eXtension (RSX) ! By example, to launch HxC Floppy Emulator Manager, instead of getting back to BASIC and type |HXC, you just have to enter HXC as any other command. Parameters are also supported, so by example you can use default REN command or Arnor UTOPIA's COPY commands !
• respect the system : if an external command use the classic char output routine (BB5A), then its output will be merged to QuickCMD's user interface. This is possible thanks to usage of hardware scrolling provided by the system.
• handy shortcuts : pressing two times TAB key acts as a DIR, ESC two times acts as a quick exit to BASIC, etc.
• history management ! It's working like MSDOS's DOSKEY does (use up/down keys)
• auto-launch. When QuickCMD is installed on your system, it will get launched automatically after all other ROMs will get properly initialized
• not intruisive : credits are voluntary kept hidden behind ABOUT command ; the aim is to provide a neutral program, not a front-end for personal advertising or whatever
• clean, efficient and simple Z80 implementation using a mix of C and assembly programming language