********************* QL CLUB INTERNATIONAL ********************* ISSUE 103 September 1997 EMAIL.106114,710 COMPUSERVE.COM MIKEKENNEALLY1@COMPUSERVE.COM ALL SOFTWARE SENT TO THE CLUB IS ASSUMED TO BE PD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED AND WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH. QXL2 WITH A PACKARD BELL ATTACHMENT 2XQL'S,1X3.5 DISC DRIVES,TRUMPCARD,CANON BJ4100 COLOUR PRINTER. Hi Everyone, Yes I'm back!Before I go any further I'd better get this down while it's still fresh in my mind. While using Xchange the other day on the PC with QXL,I hit a snag.I don't know if this is general knowledge or what but here goes.As I said I was using Xchange when Margaret called me for our evening mail,I saved my data and went to eat,I was away about 20 minutes,on getting back to what I was doing I found that the Xchange prog would not respond to the key presses required ie.it recognised the ENTER key as the SPACE key.For example,I tried to load a Quill using the SPACE bar as requested,then press ENTER to load it,it would not recognise the ENTER key except as another SPACE key,thereby flicking past the Quill and going round again! Whether or not its just me I don't know,but the only way I could use Xchange again was to reset,it wouldn't even reload from QPACII,except with the same problem. It may be as well to put this in the Quanta mag just in case anyone has the same problem,or perhaps has a solution to it,is it Xchange or the QXL? Enough,lets get on with the newsletter.Thank you Graham for a sterling job with the last issue,funny how you miss it when you are not here! Spike,sorry mate but it won't let me copy your letter over,come on what have you done to it? Some of you missed 102 while I was away mainly due to the fact you sent your disc to me rather than Graham and it arrived while I was away,so I shall try and put both on yours Geoff,I hope you can use unzip! Those of you who send in a blank disc for the newsletter,any chance you can drop us a line next issue,even a bit of heavy breathing,we do like to know how you are all getting on.Or do I have to come and knock on your front door again Mike? It was an excellent holiday,untill we started home that is!We had covered exactly 27 miles before the exhaust fell off the car!Then it was a case of a hire car from the south of France to Boulogne,accross as foot passengers on the ferry,a taxi to Dover to pick up a hire car there for home,a very eventful 2 days! The holiday was great,I would recommend it to anyone,so long as it isn't mid summer.It was fairly quiet on the roads thank God,especially for someone who had never been to France before.The French drivers are complete and absolute nutters!Imagine this,a mountain road with a 4000 foot drop on one side,a sheer cliff on the other,a 1 in 6 gradient,blind corners everywhere,and the pillocks are overtaking you!!!Motorbikes doing 60 mph through city centres!,its enough to give you heart failure! The food was ok,but no english bread,sausages or bacon,beer and wine and spirits are cheap though!They had to be to put the fluids back into your system,well thats my excuse anyway.The weather was unbelievably hot during the day and we were still sat out at 11 at night,we had 2 nights of rain,but none during the day,until the Saturday we left and that didn't last long. Franks at it again I see,you know for about 100 issues he always says the same thing,that he doesn't know what to write but invariably he manages to write something,more often than not with a little gem or insight in it! The thing is Frank we still do have a common interest the QL,but as with most things,as we learn we grow.Peoples interests are varied we know that and always have done,some people do DTP,some Linedesign,some the Internet and so on,but the idea is still there whereby everyone can pick someone's brains for information.A lot of the information gets lost through the cracks I must admit,people who ask a question get a phone call off the ones with the answers and this is all well and good,it gets them sorted without delay.In the process of course what happens is that the others who have read the article are still waiting for an answer that never appears,because the person with the answer having delivered it to the questioner,then forgets to put it in the newsletter for all to read.This is what we have to be wary of. I totally agree with Franks comments in QL102 and I hope everyone read them and took them to heart,let us know about your new progs and things,but in a way we can grasp. WE DO NOT WANT TO LOSE OUR WAY! Now I need some help,does anyone out there still have copies of issues No.22 to 31 and also No.66 and relevant progs for 66? These appear to have got lost in the shuffle somewhere,so if you have them could you let me have copies,zipped up they should go on one disc which I shall of course return. Not having yet heard any news or views about Darren's show,no doubt I will when I open his input,I do hope it went well.He has put it in a seperate doc file,I have not yet read it so I cannot comment until next month. Mike. 23RD SEPTEMBER, 1997. QL & COMPUTER GEAR INCLUDES: 2QL's one JS and one Running MINERVA v1.97, Miracle Trumpcard, AMSTRAD GT65 GREEN SCREEN, Twin NEC 3.5" DS/DD Drives & Twin Miracle DS/DD Drives both joined by a Miracle Disk Adaptor (flp1_ to flp4_), 150+ Disks of Software, Epson EPL4000 Laser Printer, Serial 8056 Thermal Printer, Joysticks, Tandata 3 stack Modem, PHILIPS 286 TURBO WITH AN 8 MEG. QXL2, Gateway 2000 Pentium with 1.5Gb HDD, 16 Mb RAM, etc.,Zenith Minisport 286 Laptop PC, Cambridge Z88 Laptop, Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128K +2a, Sinclair ZX81. Dear Mike & all, Still getting used to using the QXL2 - it really is a joy having a Hard Drive, and not having to root around looking for a boot disk every time I fire up the QL now. I may even use it more as an office computer now, as there still is a PC in there somewhere when I need it. the VGA resoloutions are great though, so much space - takes getting used to! Hers a tip - I used DOUBLESPACE to make my QXL.WIN file bigger. As I only had a 40 Mb Hard disk on the 286 I was using, I typed DBLSPACE from the C:> prompt and used doublespace to compress it - I had to, as after installing MS-DOS 6.2 and WINDOWS 3.1, I had only 26 Mb of my 40 Mb Hard Drive left!! Yet after using double space, I could get all of the above plus a 50 Mb QXL.WIN, and still have around 12 Mb free for other stuff!! I managed to get 76.2 Mb from my 40 Mb hard drive - not bad, eh? IF YOU ZIP ALL YOUR QL FILES AND UNLY UNZIP THEM WHEN YOU NEED THEM YOU CAN GET EVEN MORE ON IT! DENNIS SMYTH: As for your competition about the DATE$ and DAY$ line from your boot prog, DEAD EASY MATE!! It wouldn't have anything to do with a certain famous soap on ITV, and by setting the alarm for 19.25, you're allowing 5 minutes to get in front of the telly for Coronation Street?? Just a Guess!! SO THAT'S WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOUT! JOHN SOUTHERN: Thanks to John for those wonderful ZIPped progs he sent in last month - great stuff. I said it before, but surely the greatest asset of QLCI is the fact it has a disk EVERY month, so why let it go out virtually empty?? COLIN BASKETT: I just recieved the September Issue of QUANTA a couple of Days ago and I must say Colin, Its the best issue I've read since joining QUANTA nearly 2 years ago. Keep up the Good Work Mate!! (you can count on some more acticles from me to follow too.) Oh, Nearly forgot!! I bet you're all wondering how the First Irish QL show went; well, lots of alcohol and QL's basically sums up the whole weekend!!! I had a ball, a really great time - dear 'ol Jeremy Reeves (of Miracle Systems') didn't want to leave, and was considering moving here!! Too much black stuff I reckon! :-)) ! JEREMY REEVES??? WHO HE? STUART HONEYBALL. I bought a copy of ProWesS at the show, but am unsure if I like it or not, so I may sell it - any offers anyone? cost `48.00, but `40 + Postage would be accepted. Its essential if you're considering buying the new versions of LineDesign or DataDesign, but I don't know if I need those, as I've rather fallen in love with Dilwyn's IMAGE PROCESSOR (Its so easy to use!!) SO'S LINEDESIGN WHEN YOU GET TO KNOW IT,BESIDES YOU MAY NEED IT WHEN AND IF THEY DECIDE TO USE THIS AS THE NORM FOR "NEW"PROGS. I also make a list of MDV software I want rid of, Swaps or to a good home, and some hardware I no longer have room for, see JUNK_doc!! I've included the _doc file of the show review (IrishQL_doc) that I've done for QLTODAY for you all to have a free read!! :-) Further to Dennis' flaming comments over using SMSQ/E to transfer MS-DOS and QDOS files, I'm including a pointer P.D. program by Thierry Godfroy called MULTI-DOS, which does the job, and also Jonathan Hudson's IBMDisk (I recently reviewed this for QLTODAY, so get you sub in today - you don't know what your missing!!) So there, Dennis!! :-)) If you want to know what the :-)) are in this letter - see Jochen's article in the latest QLTODAY! Anyway, TAFN, TAFN? OR SHOULD IT BE TTFN.I STILL THINK YOU HAVE A HANGOVER FROM THE SHOW! DARREN. #! Martin Burke. Dear Mike and Friends, JM version + Trump 768 + twin 3.5" disks, Philips CM8833 colour monitor (under repair) and its Tandy twin, 8056 printer, Epson RX80 F/T, and Brother HR10 daisy-wheel printer; PSION3a, Z88. Found myself confused reading ql102 as there was no missive from me. I checked my disks and found that there was no back-up file and presumably I just sent a blank disk. Next time I shall have to save a "blank" file just so's I know. I THINK WE HAVE A LOT DO THAT MARTIN! Re. Colin's comments about the usefulness of Minerva's dual screens: I have the same problem thinking of how QPAC2 could benefit me. The problem is that to derive the full benefit someone else needs to know the way you would like to operate or you need to know - almost - all about the software or hardware involved. I still fume over the fact that in my early days with Quill and microdrives I did not pick up the idea that I could print a few pages of each document to a file. Instead, as each file grew, I laboriously split it into two by reading the file in twice, deleting one half and then saving as two separate files. I don't have the original manual to hand: it may have actually mentioned the "print to file" process but when I read it I did not understand the potential. I have no doubt I still don't appreciate the benefits of QPAC2, the Pointer environment, ..... I KNOW THE FEELING WELL MARTIN,I STILL FIND OUT THINGS I CAN DO WITH QUILL,EVEN NOW AFTER ALL THIS TIME. Yours, Martin Burke. #! #! Dennis Smith. NET1(downstairs) = (installed in a mini tower) Aurora, Super Gold card, SuperHermes, Qubide, 420Mb hard disk, 2 ED drives, (SER3)Pace 33.6 modem, (SER6)3 button serial mouse, Printers: (SER1)Star LC10, (PAR)HP 540 Deskjet, 15 inch SVGA monitor. Operating system = Minerva 1.97, SMSQ/E. NET3(upstairs) = (installed in a mini tower) Gold card, Hermes, Qubide, 540Mb hard disk, 1 HD drive, 2 DD drives. Printer: (SER1)Brother HR5 thermal with fax roll paper. Operating system = SMSQ/E. Hi, Good news, this one's going to be a short effort, not enough hours in a day. Time, time, time,I'm rushing flat out. Graham Buck: FaxeQl. No it is not a modified or same as Phil Borman's program, Sendfax. FaxeQl is a front end for Qfax (class 2), Lfax (class 1) and group 3. It will send a fax, receive a fax, wait for a fax then stop, wait for a fax then wait for another and another etc., view the last fax, print a fax, turn text into a fax, make a fax do the dishes then put the kettle on and other things, very good and free. WILL IT BE ABLE TO ACCESS MY FAX THROUGH THE QXL? Big sub group do on Sat. 25th. October. The Notts/Derby sub group now named "SeQueL" will have Ron Dunnett of Qubbesoft in attendance. Some of you will be receiving a 'flier' in your Quanta mag. as a reminder. Ron will answer all questions on why and how, other speakers will guide you through the darkness into the light. In these scribblings a lot of you are saying how much you don't know, well here is an opportunity to turn that around. Here are the directions. The Group will meet at The Methodist Church, Mill Lane, Codnor, Derbys. The General location is between junction 26 on the M1 and the Ripley turn off on the A38. The actual road is where the A610/A6007 (which runs between Ripley and Heanor) join. Codnor is a small town with one main road and a row of shops. In between the shops a road leads off, this is Mill Lane, a few yards up Mill Lane is a car park on the left, park in there. The car park is next to the Methodist Church. We start to set up at 12 noon and roll at 1pm, come early there is a lot to get through. Tea, coffee, something to eat and a laugh are available. This is not a mini Quanta workshop and is funded by group leaders Derek Stuart, Graham Underwood and Dennis Smith. To recoup expenses a small charge must be made of `1-50, please show your support by attending the meeting. I MAY TRY AND ATTEND DENNIS,ITS ABOUT TIME I MADE THE EFFORT! Time's up. I've got to go to bed, bye. Graham D Lutz Gear includes:- Minerva 1.93 AURORA QL with Super Gold Card, ED and HD disk drives, 40Mb IDE HD, SyQuest 128 HD, Goldstar EGA monitor, Canon BJC-4100.Various other QLs. Dear Mike and fellow Quantum Leapers, Short and sweet this month Mike. I now have a working copy of Fileinfo II v3.02, if I can find time I'll write a "How I did it" type article. Oh !! and by the way, its very good !! THANKS GRAHAM,IT WILL BE MOST HELPFUL TO THOSE OF US WHO HAVE IT BUT DO NOT HAVE A CLUE AS HOW TO USE IT! I have included two programmes from John S, that did not make it last month, they were compressed, but I have sent them uncompressed. The program cuboct_min_bas is written for Minervas two screen mode, but never fear, just remove all the MODE statements and it will run without Minerva. Keep on QL'ing Graham FRANK MERRISON, 17-9-1997 GEAR includes 2 x JM QL's: Gold Card: DMP: Epson Stylus 800 printer: 2 x HD disc drives. Knee deep in paper & problems! AND NOW WE COME TO FRANK'S "I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE,SO HERE'S A COUPLE OF PAGES" Mike: A bit early this month but I'm taking the opportunity of a few spare moments to reply to some points in QL102. Firstly; I hope you had a good holiday and are - A) not broke and - B) fit for further battles with the QL! Secondly - many thanks to our stand-in Editor for holding the fort and for a good job well done - Thanks again Graham! The details of page settings in the newsletter has come up again. As it was me who claimed that since no one was using a TV as a monitor we could now drop the old margins which were originally designed for mode 8 TV screens; I will again suggest the best way of getting a full screen with as little wasted space as possible. Can I ask everyone to agree the following settings and to make them our standard? 1) F3 Design Top 0 - bottom 0 - page size 62. 2) F3 Margins Left 0.5 - Indent 0.5 - Right 7.5 3) No Header or Footer. 4) Justify Left While you (Mike) are the worst offender I have to admit that you were out weighed last month by John Southern who used margins set at 0, 0, 12.5 - would you believe? OH,I BELIEVE FRANK.BUT I STILL PREFER,LEFT MARGIN 0.5,INDENT 1.0 AND RIGHT AT 7.0.I THINK IT LOOKS TIDIER,BUT WHO AM I?I'LL GO ALONG WITH THE CONSENSUS. You have ofter said, Mike, that Quanta should use it's vast financial reserves to produce various productions for the members' benefit. Have you seen the August issue where it is stated that, due to loss of membership, there has been a shortfall in the funds for years and this year is expected to show a deficit of some `4050.00? Various changes have been put to the members including increasing the subscriptton (not changed since issue 1 (1984)?) or going bi-monthly. I prefer to pay a bit more and have the pleasure of it's regular arrival. The main costs are printing and posting the magazine and paying for workshops. I feel that this last item might well be looked at as the workshops are not well attended now and members who do go, or even the arranging sub- group, might well assist with the costs in some way. I AGREE FRANK,LOCAL SUB GROUPS COULD WELL SUPPORT THE LOCAL MEETING AS THEY BENEFIT FROM THEM AS WELL.AS FOR PRINTING COSTS SEND IT OUT ON DISC LIKE WE DO.THE COST OF A DD/DS DISC THESE DAYS ARE SO MINUTE AS TO MAKE IT A VIABLE SOLUTION AND AS FOR COPYING IT,WELL THEY MUST SEND IT TO THE PRINTERS AT LEAST A WEEK IF NOT TWO BEFORE ITS DUE OUT.AS FOR THE DECLINING NUMBERS,IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO KNOW WHAT THE SUBS ARE FOR QL TODAY. Last month there were a load of zip files on the disc. Isn't it a bit strange that people who would cheerfully pay `300 for a new super gold card to save fractions of seconds with the loading and running of a program have - for some unknown reason - got into the habit of providing files in a compressed form that takes people like me ages to unzip? I don't have time for this sort of thing lately and the consequence is that I have to let these things pass me by. What is the purpose? Since we all use discs the need to save space cannot be the reason. THERE ARE A NUMBER OF REASONS FOR THIS FRANK,I USUALLY GET THEM IN ZIP FORM,THE PROGS SENT IN,IF SENT OUT UNZIPPED WOULD REQUIRE 2 DISCS.IF YOU SAVE ALL THE ZIP FILES SENT ONTO DISC,THEN YOU CAN UNZIP THEM INDIVIDUALLY IF THEY APPEAR TO BE OF ANY INTEREST TO YOU,WHEREAS THE OTHERS CAN BE LEFT UNTIL A LATER DATE.TO SEND THEM OUT BY EMAIL I HAVE TO ZIP THEM AGAIN.THE FILES AND NEWSLETTER LAST MONTH EVEN WHEN ZIPPED CAME TO A STAGGERING 615000 BYTES(APPROX). Can I repeat something that I appealed for two months ago? Can those who are experts not assume that we all are and give a bit more information on what they are talking about sometimes? Someone in Quanta said that the manual for SMSQ/E doesn't even tell us what these letters stand for. I personally have no idea what the Program(?) is for or what it does. QBranch will sell me an Aurora, a Super GC and SMSQ/E for `330.00 so they must all be of some value but for what? Can someone explain? I really do miss QL World with it's reviews of new products. ALL I CAN TELL YOU FRANK IS THAT SMSQ/E IS THE OPERATING SYSTEM UNDER WHICH IT RUNS,COME ON SOMEBODY SET US RIGHT.IN EASY TO UNDERSTAND LANGUAGE PLEASE. I thought that Ron Dunnett's article of disc drives of various sorts was simply brilliant and a perfect example of what I am on about. He was writing in a style that even I could follow and understand. If only he had more time to cover reviews of other items and programs! It must now be nearly a month since I last used my PC. Apart from the extra fonts and the fact that it is hooked up to my ink jet printer so that I need to use it for a reasonably produced letter there is still nothing that I cannot do both easier and a lot quicker on the old QL. LONG MAY IT LIVE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Frank Merrison. THERE YOU GO FRANK,ITS LIKE ME.I USE MY PC 5% OF THE TIME AND AS A QL 95% OF THE TIME.IT SOMETIMES MAKES ME WONDER WHY I BOUGHT IT! #! Colin Baskett 19 September 1997 EQUIPMENT: QL FITTED WITH SUPERGOLD CARD; MkI MINERVA - version 1.82; SUPERHERMES; 170 MB HARD DISK; SINGLE 3.5" HD DISC DRIVE; ED DRIVES; PHILIPS COLOUR MONITOR; SERIAL MOUSE; PRINTER BJ10sx; XCHANGE 3.90L. Various other pieces of software I am hoping to learn in order to edit QUANTA better. Dear Mike, I hope that you have had a good holiday and that you enjoyed your visit to Glendalough. Sorry that I couln't join you all and meet Darren. It sounds as though the crack was excellent. I DIDN'T GO MATE,MAINLY BECAUSE I WAS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE AT THE TIME. I did get to Selston, however. Excellent arrangements by Dennis and Graham Underwood, despite my best efforts to confuse them! Listened to so many good points it is difficult to remember them. Ah, well! Such is life at my age. We are just off on holiday ourselves and I am at present writing this on my daughter's machine at Weston-super-Mare on the way to Cornwall. That is why this contribution will actually be on time but rather short! QUANTA Thank you to everyone who has helped with suggestions or with contributions. And thank you to Dennis and Graham Buck for their kind remarks about the editorship. It really is great fun when there is a good flow of articles. From the various responses from QUANTA readers and others it is clear that there is a whole range of opinions about the possibility of attracting new users to "the QL". Some clearly feel that the capabilities of today's software for the the PC and the Mac make it unrealistic to hope to interest new people in what we have to offer. Loyalty, nostalgia and inertia are what keep the QL going! Others feel that the QL does offer a better system for doing certain things - mainly, I think, programming and tinkering with software (and hardware). Yet others have no time for the PC and use it only when they must - Dilwyn Jones being one example and Mike perhaps another(?). Whilst it is comforting to read about people's exasperations with the PC and with Windoze we must expect that, in time, PCs will stop crashing and Windows will be made fast to load and slick to run. If our system has a future it must be based on its virtues and not on the weaknesses of the competition. Wouldn't it be great if we could spell out the selling points of "the QL" in a few pithy sentences. Then we might have something to show to lapsed QLers and to potential new users. Admittedly the problem remains whom to contact and how. We might also be able to help our developers and traders to concentrate on the sort of products that are most likely to be profitable. HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT I DID AND GETTING THE "OLD" MAILING LISTS FROM SAY 10 YEARS AGO AND SENDING THEM A FREE COPY JUST TO REMIND THEM WE ARE STILL AROUND.YOU COULD EVEN PUT IN A COVERING LETTER FOR THOSE WHO HAVE GONE ONTO A PC,TELLING THEM ABOUT THE QXL OR QPC,THE THING IS MAYHAP THEY HAVE STOPPED USING THEIR QL'S,BUT THEY COULD STILL HAVE THEIR SOFTWARE WHICH THEY WOULD STILL LOVE TO USE,AS IT IS SO "USER FRIENDLY",JUST A THOUGHT. May I offer these thoughts for a cock-shy. Please knock them about if they are no good or preferably replace them with something better. Excuse me for starting with a negative. 1. The QL is NOT the PC and NOT the Mac. It has something to offer to those who want to be different, for whatever reason . NO,BUT I THINK A LOT WISH IT WAS,THIS IS WHY A LOT HAVE "MOVED"ON.WINDOZE BOOTS UP,LOADS A MENU,YOU PICK YOUR PROG AND IT LOADS.A BIT LIKE QPACII BUT FANCIER,IT LOOKS GOOD. 2. SMSQ/E is an attractive programming language that is simple and economical in code to use and therefore lends itself to easier and faster programming (Is this true? - I am trying to understand what I read. Can we say why it is a good programming language?) especially for beginners with limited means. THIS I WILL LEAVE IN MORE CAPABLE HANDS THAN MINE. 3. Whilst our software has less capabilities than good modern competitive soft-ware, in some cases it lends itself to programming by the user more easily (Is this true? I can only think of Archive here and possibly our boot programs but then I have hardly used anything other than the Psion suite). THIS I WOULD IMAGINE IS TRUE,NOT A PROGRAMMER MYSELF(HAVEN'T GOT THE BRAINS FOR IT)BUT YOU TRY AND DO ON A PC WHAT SOME OF OUR LADS DO,IF YOU DARE! 4. Increasingly, QL systems are hardware independent. They can be run on most modern personal computers. Entry for the new user, who already has a computer, is therefore inexpensive. Emulators enable the user to enjoy the best of both worlds. THIS IS ALSO TRUE,THIS IS WHY I WENT THE WAY I DID.AN IDEA TO GET PC/MAC USERS TO TRY OUR PROGS IS TO MAKE THE EMULATORS INEXPENSIVE AND SOME OF THE "OLDER"SOFTWARE FREELY AVAILABLE TO THEM,SO THEY CAN SEE HOW GOOD IT IS AND MAYBE PERSUADE THEM TO BUY THE "MODERN"PROGS. 5. QL hardware can generally be upgraded piece-meal avoiding the need for periodic purchases of complete new systems. QL soft- ware developments do not require the purchase of complete new hardware systems every few years. THIS IS ALSO TRUE,BUT I THINK THIS IS WHAT PUTS PEOPLE OFF.AT THE TIME I WAS THINKING OF UPGRADING MY QL,I THINK YOU WERE LOOKING AT A COST OF MAYBE 6-800 POUNDS FOR EVERYTHING I WANTED,TO GET THE BEST OUT OF IT.PUT THAT ALONGSIDE A QXL AND A PC AND GUESS WHAT?ACTUALLY IT WAS MARGARET WHO SUGGESTED IT TO ME WHEN I WENT TO BUY A HARD-DRIVE THAT WOULD WORK ON THE QL. Come on! Knock 'em down and put something in their place! PROBLEMS - BJC4200 I have mentioned my daughter's BJC4200 before. This comes set for Epson LQ emulation which is what she wants, fortunately. The programmer's manual says you can change to the emulation mode by using the BJ setup utility program but seems to give no other information. Does anyone know what code to send to change the emulation to BJ Mode and back again to LQ code? WHAT IS SHE USING IT WITH,A PC OR QL?CAN YOU HELP GRAHAM? Best wishes Colin B. Email : dilwyn.jones@bbc.co.uk GEAR: JM/Minerva QL+Gold Card+ED drives; Aurora, Super Gold Card v2.49, Qubide 1.37, 420MB Conner Hard disk, ED and DD drives, HP Deskjet 320; Amstrad ALT286+QXL+Zoom modem+Canon BJ10sx; Toshiba 2100 Laptop+QPC. Dear Mike, Apologies for missing the last issue, but thanks to Graham and co. for sending it to me via email. YOUR BOSS DIDN'T SCREAM AT YOU THEN OR DID HE MISS THAT ONE? Can anyone help me with a little Unix problem this time? I was asked to convert a more recent version of the CIA World Factbook I convertd a coupel of years ago. For anyone not familiar with it, it's an electronic book of data about the countries of the world, containing such data as population, language, and so on. I've been asked by so many to update it (the most recent version on the Web is the 1996 one) that I want to get it done but have run into a big, big problem. We have managed to download the file WFB-96_T.GZ and I'm guessing that .GZ means it's GNU-ZIP (an Unix compression system). I have a copy of GZIP on the PC, and both QL versions in Steve Johnson's PD library. However, all report the same error message, that the file contains additional data and the format has been violated. Having downloaded it twice and got the same results each time, I think it must mean that the decompression routines are too old. I used the standard command EX GZIP;'-d FLP2_WFB-96_T.GZ' (-d meaning decompress) and it startd OK, but quickly failed. Can anyone with Unix experience help me? I'll send a file on disk to anyone who can help, and it should decompress into a single large text file which I can then cut down into managable sections. Alternatively, if anyone can download a plain text version, I'll do the QL conversion. Don't send me any .GZ files, I've wasted enough time trying them already. MAYBE SOMEONE CAN PASS THIS ON TO JERRY,I HAVE TRIED EMAILING THE ADDRESS HE SENT BUT IT KEEPS COMING BACK TO ME. I agree with what Dennis said about Colin Basket. Being a magazine editor is a lot of work, and when Quanta has been facing up to potentially painful change, it was a brave thing to take on the editorship of the Quanta newsletter, especially at a time when contributions were down. Referring back to the issue of Club QL we used as a cover disk for QL Today, there was some question of who doctored Dennis's letter. It was brought to my attention by Mike and others that the article might have been seen as negative in-fighting by non-members, so we made it more anonymous and potentially less off-putting. If this caused offence to members, I apologise. I had only the best intentions in mind when I amended it. You may have noticed that the version used as a cover disk had a problem when running on a non-SMSQ system. I tried to document the error in the last issue and got it completely wrong. The bug itself was correctly listed, but it wasn't in BOOT, it was in the basic program ClubQL_bas. Simply change the integer FOR variables to floating point (remove the '%' symbols). I like the idea of the Equipment Exchange. We don't get so many 'bits and pieces' traders at workshops now. I used to enjoy rummaging through Steve Bourne's (QBits) stands at workshops for rare but useful old bits of QL hardware and software. Ron Dunnett keeps some, of course, but I think there is room in the QL scene for someone who enjoys gathering bits and pieces and selling them on at a modest profit, as Steve Bourne and the late Dennis Briggs used to do. LOOKING AT DARREN'S LIST I THINK HE HAS TAKEN ON THAT MANTLE! Line Design users may be pleased to hear I've converted a large amount of Windows Metafile PD clipart to Line Design format and sent them to Steve Johnson, they may be available shortly after you read this. Subjects include Health, Space, Drinks, UK an EU Flags, Cartoons, Borders, Army, Food, Education, Occasions, Farming, Abstract, Aircraft and Famous Faces. If anyone has some Windows Metafile .WMF or Computer Graphics Metafile .CGM clipart they'd like converted to Line Design, get in touch, I may be able to help, as I have a program on the PC which converts these outline graphics formats to Adobe Illustrator .AI files which will import to Line Design. The only snag is that .AI files are MUCH larger than the original .WMF or .CGM files, so anyone who asks me to do the conversions will need to send a few empty disks for each original disk. Until I came across graphics Converter Gold from IMSI I hadn't realised it was possible to convert WMF and CGM files in this way. NOW THERE'S AN OFFER WE CAN'T REFUSE. Dilwyn Jones Terry Williams 25/09/97 GEAR: 2 JS QLs, 1JM QL,SGC,GC,TRUMPCARD,TWIN EHD DRIVES,TWIN HD DRIVES,TWIN DD DRIVES,14", QMIMI MOUSE, GOLD STAR COLOUR MONITOR , 9"SONY TRITRON MONITOR, 12" FERGUSON GREEN MONITOR, SPECTRUM 48K WITH TELETEXT ADAPTOR Hi Mike I sent my contribution for the QL101 month and am still waiting for my disk to come home again!! As you were due to go on holiday I thought your PEE ZEE may have decided it was a good time to pack up in order to cause the maximum amount mayhem. In case it was the post office which stopped my disc getting to you, I herewith repeat my contribution, you can edit out if you have read it all before!!. IT ARRIVED WHILE I WAS AWAY TERRY ALONG WITH GEOFF ROGERS' DISC. I hope you got nicely browned and are back in harness. I enclose three disks this month to enable you, if you will be so good, to let me have Ql101,QL102,and the current Q103 Many thanks, in anticipation !! QL101 Hi All! I finished my six week stint at the hospital's Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre on Friday. It is a twice weekly event, Tuesday & Friday, 12.00pm to 3.00pm, greeted by a cup of coffee, then a talk on various subjects such as angina,causes of heart attacks, what the various pills do, and other 'heartening' subjects on how to avoid another!!. This is followed by a short warm up march in a circle, lifing legs, waving arms etc. Then a series of 10 exercise periods of up to two minutes, carefully monitored to a patients ability, on exercise machines, to raise the heart rate!. Then a cup tea/coffee and a snack if you took one, to put back any weight you may have inadvertently lost in the process!!. This is then followed by all lying on the floor, with thin mattresses & pillows, with the lights dim, and the Relaxation Therapist whispering sweet nothings to teach you how to avoid stress!! AND THEY'RE USUALLY THAT GOOD LOOKING YOUR ALL STRESSED OUT LISTENING TO HER! All in all it was quite a worthwhile exercise, enabling you to meet and discuss any problems with the staff and other fellow patients. I was paired up, for the exercises, with an 83 year old gentleman, 12 years my senior, who was quite hard work to keep up with!! (I discovered he was a coal man in his youth!!) All thought it was quite a feather in the cap of the much maligned NHS!! That's enough of that. QPAC2: After my remarks last month I have now added a few more buttons to my boot file such as : ERT HOT_THING('6','FILES','\dFLP1__doc') and: BT_HOTKEY'6','FLP1__doc' Which writes up all the doc files when selected. I have also done the same for aba and bas files but I still have to go back to basic to select other wild cards. I have not come to grips with partitions as I only have floppy disc's. *************************************************************** QL103 Eureka! I have now found, by consulting the QPAC2 manual, how to click on to the Title Label which comes up when the directory is selected and opens a window with the WILD CARD menu!!! and it works! (Thinks "Must try to read all the manual some time!!) All the best Terry MANUAL?WHAT'S ONE OF THEM? *! Martin Wheatley Flat 3, 45 Canterbury Grove London SE27 ONX 0181 761 4069 martinw@ndirect.co.uk QL, SuperQboard, Twin Disc Drives, Green Screen Monitor Mersey Mouse, PC running Xchange Ho everyone Hope you had a good holiday Mike In a previous letter I referred to the QLAY free software emulator for the PC. Mike asked what the Internet address was to obtain this. It is http://www.inter.nl.net/hcc/A.Jaw.Venema If anyone with a PC wants it but doesn't have Internet access send me a PC formatted disc and the return postage and I'll send you the latest version (for the really flash amongst you there is a Linux version on the Web site as well) It's now easy to get files in and out although as usual I haven't found any way of getting it to read Quill files of any size like the newsletter transferred from the QL - it has to be translated to textfile format first. It seems that Quill files put on to the PC from the QL lose their end of line symbols and the PC progs see each paragraph as one complete line causing an 'out of memory' error on just about any editor or word processor if the file is anything but very small. Dennis Smith wrote ------------------------------- Personal attack alert, Martin Wheatley: The first few lines of my text refer to you then I break from that to wind everybody up in general. I use a blank line to change subject as you can see above, unfortunately one of those ever so useful page breaks has dropped in just below my end of paragraph (when Mike merged the text in, I don't use page breaks) and made the paragraph look continuous but its not. Afterwards you are refered to by one liners only and the last one is deliberately misleading as explained above, see.Look a new line, I now move on. ------------------------------- Well if I want to be patronised I'll know who to come to - I do know what a new line is thank you. Judging from my conversations with and the contributions from other ClubQLers in the last couple of newsletters other people drew the same conclusions from your letter as I did. One thing you don''t seem to appreciate is that when Mike has done the Quill doc version of the newsletter he then prepares the e-mail version. This is saved as a textfile on his QXL - then transferred to the PC side of his machine and then to his e-mail prog where it is sent out. Since the different progs all work in different line-lengths the subtleties of formatting don't tend to survive. The same is of course also true the other way when Mike is translating our e-mail contributions into the Quill doc on his QXL. Look, Also a new line (perhaps) Graham Buck commenting on Dilwyn's problems said ---------------------------------- There is little point in making a back-up of the information that you have on a CD, you only then need to back-up your own information that you have added, and then there is a way of just backing-up the files that have actually changed. As you then discovered, you only need one floppy to boot up the system to get it to recognise the CD and then you are off again. Alternatively you can use a DOS boot disk to get it going to get access to the HD. It can be done but I don't know the actual details and if I speculate, Martin will shoot me down. -------------------------------- No I won't - you've used a PC as much as I have! I agree with you that all is needed is to backup the configuration and the data files + a couple of system discs to get back in if the hard disc shuts you out or if you you mess up something (which is quite easy to do in DOS and Windows 3.1 but harder in Windows 95). I don't know enough about Windows 95 to know if you can get to the CD without running Windows first since the CD probably uses 32 bit drivers that need Windows to run. NO MARTIN,YOU HAVE TO START COMPLETELY FROM SCRATCH,I KNOW I'VE HAD TO DO IT TWICE! Now I want to make a few comments on the situation regarding a possible ClubQL get together. For recent comers there have been two in the past - one generally accepted as being succesful and one less so. Last year Frank, John and I were turned somewhat undemocratically into a ccommittee to make decisions on any further ones in order to take some of the pressure off Mike who had done the organising up till then. It was agreed that spring and autumn where the only realistic times for this and it wasn't relevant last spring because there were a series of work shops at which most people met up anyway. Since then I have not felt there has been any demand for a further meeting. The makeup of the committee is now even more inappropriate since Frank can't leave his wife overnight which means I (and Cyril) would lose our transport and I couldn't afford anything anyway. So you have a 3 man committee two of whom wouldn't be going! Not realistic Martin Wheatley WELL MARTIN IT APPEARS AS IF IT WILL HAVE TO BE LEFT UNTIL NEXT SPRING THEN.HOPEFULLY RENE WILL BE BETTER AND FRANK ALSO.