************************* QL CLUB INTERNATIONAL ************************* Issue 106 January 1998 HI ALL. I'VE BEEN SECONDED ONCE MORE TO PUT TOGETHER QLCI, SINCE MIKE IS AT ODDS WITH HIS PC AGAIN. I THINK HE'S CURRENTLY ON HIS SIXTH HARD DRIVE AFTER IT SEEMS CONTRACTING A VIRUS FROM AN E-MAIL. I THINK I SHOULD ADD AT THIS POINT, THAT NO ONE IS IN DANGER OF CATCHING A VIRUS ON THEIR PC FROM AN E-MAIL. BUT... IT IS POSSIBLE TO INFECT THE SYSTEM FROM AN ATTACHMENT WHICH IS PART OF AN E-MAIL. IF YOU RECEIVE AN E-MAIL WITH AN ATTACHMENT FROM PERSON OR PERSONS UNKNOWN DELETE IT STRAIGHT AWAY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.... ON THE QL SIDE OF THINGS, WE WELCOME TWO NEW CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH. WELCOME TO PETER GRAF (OF QL40 FAME) AND PIERRE THONNE. MIKE HAS ALSO BEEN CONTACTED BY A QL USER FROM HONG KONG, NOT ALL THINGS PC ARE BAD AFTER ALL (ARE THEY ??). WELL, ENOUGH BLURB, ENJOY THE NEWSLETTER AND HEAR YOU ALL NEXT MONTH. GRAHAM *! Martin Wheatley martinw@ndirect.co.uk QL, SuperQboard, Twin Disc Drives, Green Screen Monitor Mersey Mouse, PC running Xchange Hi everyone, Nice to hear about Bill Johns again. As newcomers may not know he was the original inspiration behind ClubQL Mike writes ---------------------------- 'IS THIS WHERE WE START THE QXL/QPC WARS?' ---------------------------- Its a subject that does interest me. It would be good if those who have use either or both could give us some idea of the relative strengths and weaknesses. The hardware option is I suppose solider but the software one is more easily upgraded and may therefore pull ahead technologically THIS ALSO INTERESTS ME MARTIN, AS I HAVE YET TO DECIDE WHICH WAY TO GO. I QUICKLY NEED TO GET MY PC EQUIPPED WITH AN EMULATOR, AS MY QL IS NOW IN THE SPARE ROOM AND GETS LESS USE THAN IT SHOULD. On this subject there was a recent post to the QL Users list which is relevant. Davide Santachiara, the writer of it has given me permission to include it in ClubQL -------------------------------------- 'I made some speed comparison tests on the following platforms: 1. QPC v1.40 - AMD 200 MHz - 32 Mb - Matrox Mistique 220 - VESA driver operating system SMSQ/E 2.84a 2. QXL 68040 20 MHz - Pentium 100 MHz - 40 Mb ram - Matrox Impression Lite operating system SMSQ/E 2.85 3. SGC 68020 24 MHz - Aurora graphic card - 4 Mb operating system SMSQ/E 2.85 4. QemuLator running on AMD 200 MHz (like QPC) operating system Minerva + Lightning (640 Kb memory) I did two tests Test 1: QSI speed index (it mainly measures CPU speed) Test 2: LIST of a 640 line SuperBasic program (mainly measures graphic speed) Here are the results Machine Test 1 Test 2 Graphic factor QSI Listing time list time*QSI 1 200 7s 1400 2 410 5.5s 2255 3 270 23s 6210 4 180 16s 2880 The QSI speed index measures the relative speed compared to a Gold Card QL: QSI 100 is the speed of a Gold Card QL. The QSI test was performed with Archive238 with some QPac 2 buttons. Here are my comments on the above results: 1. QemuLator, which is a Windows 95 program, compares very well with QPC rough CPU speed (180 Qemulator, 200 QPC on the same machine). Instead the graphic speed of QPC is much better. 2. QPC graphical speed is the best of the four system. QPC v1.40 has not only the smoothest graphic but it is also the fastest. This can be seen in the graphic factor. Greater the number, worst is the graphic speed compared with the CPU speed. 3. The QXL is still the fastest system as rough CPU speed. It has also an interesting graphic factor, pity that the graphic smoothness is realy poor (screen is refreshed slowly - this is the usual QXL limitation of poor i/o) 4. QemuLator graphic speed is in the medium range. Anyway I consider very good both its CPU and graphic speed because QemuLator is a native W95/NT C compiled program and it compares very well with "competitors" in both fields. Please note that QemuLator used Minerva + Lightning while other systems use SMSQ/E. 5. SuperGoldCard(+Aurora) graphic speed is really poor. Maybe NASTA will explain better why. I suppose this has something to do with the old QL bus conception. I remember that Nasta said that with the Coldfire+ Aurora combination the graphic speed will be improved a lot. Bye to all Davide Santachiara' --------------------------------------------------- Mike D writes 'As my video machine jumps from 28 Feb to 1 March, but if I put up a calander or set my clock on the QL to the same dates. I can get 29/2/2000 .' ---------------------------------------------------- I think this is one instance where the QL has slipped. There is no 29th February 2000 ---------------------------------- Darren B writing about Panasonic's new LS-120 disks 'The drive units cost around `85, while the disks are `10+-ish, so would be a load cheaper than EZ, ZIP or QubIDE setups.' -------------------------------------------- Actually this is around the current price of a Zip Drive and discs As one who has a Zip Drive on his PC I can tell you with one permanently attached the lack of floppy drive compatibility is not really an issue as you tend to only use floppies in emergencies. With the new versions of the PC BIOS it is possible to boot from an internal Zip drive (not a parallel port one) ------------------------------------------------------- Martin Burke writes : 'But I may have to exclude Uncle Clive from that: I sent for one of his radios, they took the money but so far no radio. ' ----------------------------------------------------- When the laughter dies down welcome to the world of Uncle Clive! That's how he has always operated. Makes an announcement and takes orders. He then uses the money to make the things, building to the price with any short cuts that may entail the second part is that he doesn't bother about testing for any bugs or problems. He lets you do that and then issues an improved version. This is not the way you can currently operate in the computer world but then he is not currently in the computer world is he! Martin Wheatley WELCOME TO PETER GRAF (OF Q40 FAME). PETER E-MAILED MIKE LAST WEEK AND HAS SENT FOR INCLUSION A USER PROFILE. THANKS PETER. Dear Mike, I am 29 years old and live near Marburg, that is in the middle of Germany. I have always been a Sinclair fan and used the ZX81 and the Spectrum for a long time. I own two QLs in the black case and have access to my brothers Minitower-QL with Goldcard. Other hardware: Epson Stylus Color II, 14kBaud Modem. My hobby for the last years was to work on a mainboard for a modern QL style computer, named the "Q40". It has a 68040 running at 33 or 40 MHz, up to 32 MB RAM, fast 32 bit graphics (QL modes and 64K colours at 512x256 and 1024x512) etc. Jochen Merz published some details in QL Today Issue 3 so I do not want to bore you with a long list here. The prototype is running and I am waiting for the redesigned multilayer board now. The adaption of SMSQ/E has not started yet. A 68060 version of the board is under construction. Greetings, Peter KEEP US ALL AT QLCI POSTED ON DEVELOPMENTS PETER. FROM WHAT I'VE READ SO FAR Q40 SOUNDS IMPRESSIVE. -------------------------------------------- Dipl.-Ing. Peter Graf Email: pgrafq@t-online.de WELCOME TO ANOTHER QL USER, THIS TIME FROM BRUSSELS (WHERE THE BEERS ARE GREAT, BELIEVE ME, ESPECIALLY THE TRAPPISTE BREWS !!). Hi Mike, I'm a Ql user from Brussels on Gold Card QL and QPC. I'll be glad to receive your newsletters by e-mail. Can you put my email address in your database? NO PROBLEM PIERRE. My E-mail Address is Pierre.Thonne@RocketMail.com Thanks. Best regards, Pierre Thonne. Greetings from: Ian Pizer e-mail 100675.632@compuserve.com ----------------------------------------------------------- My Gear: AURORA, SGC v2.49, Minerva v1.97, SuperHermes v1.05, QPAC2 v1.38 Prowess, SMSQ_GOLD v2.85. 2-key mouse via QIMI. 2 DD/HD/ED drives QUBIDE v1.53, 2 Hard Disks (Connors 420MB, Seagate500?MB). All in a Mini-Tower. EPSON Stylus 800 BW Printer. ZyXEL U-1496E modem. Sony monitor Multiscan 200sf. I was in Ireland with my wife for the QL meeting - it was a pretty thin meeting but we have good memories, staying chez Darren as well as being tourists. I nearly tried Darren's idea of modifying DD disks to become ED but worried about bits of plastic getting inside the casing so decided instead to buy EDs from EEC. I was interested in the sort program in QLToday by Steve Poole. I made some errors copying it because of 1 (one) and an l (little L) looking similar but Steve straightened me out. I then modified the program so I could sort any unsorted list in a file (e.g. open_new#3,ram1_x:extras#3:close#3 which I used as an example). Steve has made a really smart sorting program. I would have liked to go to Eindhoven (already been twice) but decided to await a meeting in UK which hopefully will be well attended by programmers and hardware people. With no QL group nearby I find it very worthwhile to attend QL meetings. I keep dithering about buying a PC and QPC. Am I alone in having only one computer at home? I can surf the net elsewhere and even use WWW from home using LYNX (a browser without images) via a modem connection to my old institute. It would be nice if this was possible directly with AURORA and with images. I had a curious "defect" with my monitor. At 10pm the image began to wobble badly, coinciding with the time when the electric hot-water system turned on. I called an electrician to inspect the house wiring and he found that there was a missing wire for the neutral for the mains feeding the boiler heating element. When he fixed it, no more wobble. Before I realised the source of the trouble I of course suspected AURORA (sorry, Nasta/Ron) or the Monitor, to be faulty. Jonathan Hudson's QASCADE is an amusing "Start menu" (QLToday Nov/Dec '97 page 31) but you must download some programs or get them elsewhere. Regards, Ian ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Sep 1997 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Editor, I read with interest Adrian Vickers' report on QLAY in the September issue. I am in the process of purchasing a PC but concerned about all my QL files. I have accumulated a lot of data, some of which needs to be kept for tax purposes etc., although I have hard copy of the most important stuff. I don't think I'll have much room to keep the QL readily available, it will probably be consigned to the attic. The article on QLAY was interesting, therefore. Could I keep my data & dispose of the QL? Although I am an experienced computer 'user' I am far from being 'computer literate'. I've spent many happy hours on Abacus, Archive, Quill and even Easel occasionally but still at a loss when it comes to operating systems, peripherals & the like. I am confused by the article on QLAY, therefore. I have never used an Emulator so I'm looking for some guidance. Adrian says 'here I am, typing away in Quill on an IBM PC'. This sounds excellent, but how? He then goes on to talk about microdrive emulation but says that there is no emulation for 'flp' devices. This is where my ignorance sets in. It sounds fine to have a virtual microdrive device on the PC. I assume that you can save QDOS files (quill_doc & _aba files etc) to this device but what device did Adrian load Quill from in the first place? Does QLAY contain the Psion programs pre-loaded? If not, how are QDOS files loaded/downloaded on to a PC? Is there a clue in the reference to 'QLTools'? I had always thought that QDOS & MSDOS files were incompatible. Adrian says 'I will try to store this document on a QDOS disk' (presumably the document he was typing in Quill on his PC). If he had no flp emulation then how was this done (I assume that it was successful or the document would not have been reproduced by the Editor) and can the same procedure work in reverse, i.e. load QDOS files? As Adrian's QL had a busted membrane I assume that QLTools is a piece of software for use on the PC. If so, what does it do & where can I get a copy? If this has been reviewed in Quanta can someone tell me which issue to look at? Malcolm Roberts I DOWNLOADED QLAY A FEW WEEKS AGO, AND AS YET HAVE NOT GOT IT TO WORK PROPERLY, ALTHOUGH TO BE FAIR, I HAVE NOT HAD MUCH TIME OT PLAY AROUND WITH IT. I MIGHT HAVE ANOTHER BASH AND PASS ON THE RESULTS THROUGH QLCI. #! Dennis Smith. NET1(downstairs) = (installed in a mini tower) Aurora, Super Gold card, SuperHermes, Qubide, 420Mb hard disk, EZ135 removeable 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. Hello '98 Clubbers, How would you like some 1998 QL related news? O.K. well I'll give you some anyway. SeQueL - our Derby/Nottingham group - have produced this new product, here is our prototype advert. Announcing a new and very useful piece of hardware from SeQueL - M-C Panel (Multi-Connector Panel) SeQueL - the Derby/Nottingham sub group - have produced what we believe to be a very quick and useful method of attaching all of your connectors easily when you build your QL into a tower casing. This panel fits in place of the slotted panel, at the rear, that already exists on a mini tower for example, although the size of tower is irrelevant. To give you an idea of what connections are catered for, here are a few suggestions. (6) 9 pin 'D' (6) 25 pin 'D' (2) DIN (2) Network These could be used for 9 and 25 pin 'D' for ser1, yes both. 9 and 25 pin 'D' for ser2. If you have superHermes a 25 pin 'D' for ser3, whatever you like for ser4 and ser5 and a 9 pin 'D' for ser6 (the mouse). For a standard QL motherboard you would use one of the DIN mounting holes for your RGB monitor connector. If you had an Aurora motherboard you could use one of the 9 pin 'D' slots for the SVGA monitor connection and one of the DIN mounting holes for an RGB connection, switching between the two as required. The other DIN connector hole would be used for a keyboard connector such as superHermes, DI-REN interfaces or any other that you may think of. 2 holes are provided for the network jack sockets. The parallel printer port of Gold card and Super Gold card should be mounted in any of the spare 25 pin 'D' slots. After all that there are more spare slots that can be taken up by any weird and wonderful things that come along in the future. There's more. After taking care of all your connections M-C Panel has another facility. M-C Panel allows you to also mount Qplane (from Qubbesoft). As you probably know Qplane is the mounting board (PCB) that Gold card, Super Gold card, Qubide (hard disk interface) and eventually Goldfire all plug into. Thus giving you a complete modular sub-assembly (of the above expansion cards) that can be withdrawn from the rear of the tower case and replaced in seconds using quick fasteners. The M-C Panel is exclusively produced by SeQueL and sold through QL traders (Qubbesoft and Q Branch so far) or by phoning Dennis Smith on 01773-748470 and ordering direct. Any questions or comments may be directed to the BBS areas International QL, Quanta or direct to our local BBS Derek Stewart's Holborn_View 01773-741335. The SeQueL M-C Panel is available in two forms. Firstly the plate on its own purely for attaching your connectors to and secondly with a mounting kit for Qplane, Aurora, Super Gold card etc. The price is 5 pounds for the M-C Panel on its own, plus 50 pence for p&p (UK). The price for the full Qplane plus kit has yet to be arrived at. We will release this price in a few weeks time when satisfied with development. M-C Panel is available now. Graham, Derek and Dennis. - SeQueL There you go thats another project sorted. We have something like 3 more outstanding projects to be looked at/completed. We don't stand still. SeQueL has been offered the Quanta AGM on the 25th. April 1998, which is on Saturday. Details next time. Mike : Have you ever considered putting 2 zips on the Fidonet BBS. One zip with the QLCI Quill_doc and the other zip with all the bits on. If you set up an off line reader (PD) it will zip your files for you and drop them in the right area and at the same time you could pick up all the text sent in for the next one which is also zipped for you and you collect it. It's all quite automatic, I bet you don't press more than 6 keys online. Your off line reader unzips it and presents it to you, off line. A couple of minutes job done. It does not cost anything apart from a local cheap rate call (no I don't know who your local BBS is but that is easy to find out). It was just a thought. As I've said before 'I don't like Internet, I don't do Internet', that's why I don't go that way. See ya later, Dennis. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Darren Branagh, Rep. Of Ireland. 17th December, 1997. QL & COMPUTER GEAR INCLUDES: One Gateway 2000 Pentium PC running QPC (demo) and PC Xchange, A Philips Pro-286 PC running an 8 Meg QXL 2 card, 2 QL's one JS and one Running MINERVA v1.97 (also JM Roms), Miracle Trumpcard, Ferguson Monitor, Twin NEC 3.5" DS/DD Drives & Twin Miracle DS/HD Drives both joined by a Miracle Disk Adaptor (flp1_ to flp4_), 280+ Disks of Software, 3 Epson EPL4100 Laser Printers, Serial 8056 Thermal Printer, Joysticks, DIY SERmouse, Tandata 3 stack Modem, Zenith Minisport 286 Laptop PC, Cambridge Z88 Laptop, Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128K +2a, Sinclair ZX81......... ...........and a Partridge in a very heavy pear tree !!! Dear Mike and Qlers, Aurora users, QPC'ers, QXL'ers, QLAY'ers, and dabblers in SMSQ/E......(hope I left nobody out!!) Another Festive season lurks upon us, and anther great year in the long lasting life of the QL passes by. It amazes me how much life there still is in the old girl... Anyway, with all the Xmas cards etc, I got a nice letter from a man I made contact with in the summer when trying to drum up some attendance for the Irish QL show I planned. His name is Jim McCleery, an I got his name from Dilwyns old DJC database of customers (Ta, Dilwyn). Seems that he hardly ever uses the QL, in favour of his new 486 Gateway be had bought a year or so ago. However, I sent him a copy of the QPC DEMO to use, along with the latest version of QLAY and QL TOOLS, etc. and he wrote back in his card saying his first purchase of the new year is for a fully working copy of QPC. I must say I felt rather prould of myself in the fact that I had "saved" another QL'er from going in Bill Gates direction fully, and gave myself a bit of a pat on the back. I also said that he should join the ranks of QLCI, too. Jim McCleery is unfortunately confined to a wheelchair now, so computing is now a great part of his life, and communication too. I gave him your address Mike so I'm sure you'll hear from him, probably after Xmas - I think a few mates in the QL world is all he needs and he seldom gets to go to the northern QL meeting now as a result of his condition, not that there are many of those now either - the hall they used to meet in was bombed a few years ago.... Anyway, there you go. I got some wonderful hard drive utilities for the QXL from Dilwyn too. Seems Tony Tebby wrote these to help repair cock-ups in the directory and map of the hard drive, so I'll give them a try on my QXL as I've been experiencing a few problems of late. I'll report my finding next month as they may appeal to you, mike. Glad everyone is jumping on the bandwagon (or should that be bandwidth?) and buying Sir Clives latest, the mini-radio. I thought it would be a good idea to send Mike the original PhotoStat of the Ad from the SKY TV Guide (November 1997, Page 171 if anyones interested). I've already promised Dilwyn I'll do a brief review of one when mine arrives, for QL today, so I'll keep you all posted. I hope it arrives before Xmas, although the post is terrible here at present. Knowing my luck, Santa has probably stolen mine so he can listen to the Xmas Carols on Radio 4 while delivering the pressies.... FRANK MERRISON:- Frank, I have been looking for a cheap ED drive for over a year now. If you can get me the set of ED's you mentioned last month for only `10, Its a deal. I'll send you the dough plus whatever postage Is needed. Just let me know if they're still available, and how much postage is.... COLIN BASKETT:- Yes, I have tried DDtoED, but on older DD disks, and it isn't as successful as the HDtoED bodge, anyhow, getting brand new DDdisks unformatted is virtually impossible here in Ireland (or ask Jochen Merz - he gets Roy Wood to bring him some everytime Roy visits Germany, virtually impossible to get DD disks in mainland Europe too!!) If you hae some unformatted DD disks, then try it and let me know how you got on.... Colin, I loved your comments on the QL, and the synopsis of comments from Dilwyn, yourself, and Mike. Personally I think Mikes idea of sticking all the available QL/PC emulators such as QPC DEMO, QLAY, etc onto a disk with progs like QL TOOLS by J,Hudson for the PC, or SHOWQS ( a utility to display QL screens(_SCR) on a VGA PC screen) by C.Delhez, or QLREADER by Utility room Software - all great programs for the PC, and FREE too. I managed to fit all these mentioned progs onto one HD disk, which is what I sent to Jim McCleery - and you've just seen at the top of this letter how successful an outing that was, as Jim is now a QL user again, via his 486 PC !! DILWYN:- Thanks for the Clipart, mate. (The amount of things I owe this bloke is not ordinary; I honestly feel that a handful of people like Dilwyn are what has kept it alive for a decade and a half!!) Also, I can sympathise with Jochen wondering who the Stranger on the emd of his Modem was; to hear Dilwyn Jones saying a PC is "fun" or "useful" is like hearing Barbara Cartland say she hates wearing pink!!! PAUL McPHERSON:- Glad you got my disk of PD Giff/Tiff programs for the QL, I had thought It got lost in the post. Sorry to hear of your ailments (That goes for Mike K too, I missed your comments in my Letter, last month Mike - due to your bout of sickness, no doubt). Also Paul, to answer your query, a scanner CAN be connected to the QL. ordinarily its a catagorical NO, but I know that Phil Borman for one uses a VICTOR flatbed scanner with a QL with some degree of success, how or why I have no idea. And another of your Queries was the question of the month - Yes, you can get a version of Pascal for the QL - it was produced by Computer One Software back in the dawning of time when mdv's were all the rage (RAGE being the operative word there!!) I have a copy of it on MDV, but unfortunately the manual is missing, but If you want it anyway, Its yours, just let me know and I'll post it to you. No Problem. Aren't I nice? Well as another year draws to a close, I bid you Farewell until 1998. All the Best, Darren Branagh. *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_ #! Hilary O'Kelly, 18th December, 1997. Dear Club QL, I am being threatened at mouse-point (instead of gun-point or knife-point) by Darren Branagh to write something for QLCI. I must apologise for not writing regularly but I'm a lazy bugger at times and being secretary of the local Neighbourhood watch scheme (called Community Alert here in Ireland) takes up a fair bit of time too; OK, OK, Its no excuse!! TRUE !!! Just thought I'd wish you all a happy new year, and a peaceful Xmas too; if this will reach you before then!! I bought a SuperHermes LITE at the Irish QL show, and It has revolutionised my QL; I now seldom make typing errors, and it looks much more professional too, with a shiny new PC keyboard. The LITE is Just a Hermes with better serial ports and a IBM keyboard interface - a bit better than a hermes, but not as good as a full superhermes, if you know what I mean!! I also got a Z88 at the show from Bill Richardson (who, being a keen sailor too, meant we got on like a house on fire!!) I am still unsure of the little beast - sometimes I love it, other times I hate it. I'm still waiting on it to grow on me. I got it as I'm writing book on the mining history of Glendalough and the surrounding areas, so thought it would be useful for making notes on the move. Darren is currently writing a demo copy of a new Z88 magazine, called Z88 INTERNATIONAL. Its being distributed by BIll Richardson, and the first edition should be out by mid-January 1998. Darren will act as Editor, and has asked me to write a bit on my experiences from a beginners point of view. (bugger!!) Enough rambling; enjoy the Xmas and keep safe, Regards, Hilary P. O'Kelly. __________________________________________________________________ #! Martin Burke, 20th December, 1997. 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. Hope you're fully recovered Mike. I haven't had my annual bug yet - it sometimes waits till January. Thought I had something a few weeks back - after I had hit three vehicles in the course of one hour! (When I say hit, this means anything from slamming the bike into the side of a vehicle to merely brushing mirrors or handlebar muffs, which is all I did. I went home to wait for something to develop. Nothing did. It was a couple of days before I realised that my eyesight had deteriorated by a small but dramatic amount. New Year, New Specs. Colin Baskett: what's a cock-shy, when it's out? Is it related to a cockonut-shy? QL Plus Points: I don't really know enough to make much of a contribution but I think the original restriction of MSDOS names to 8 + 3 characters was absurd, as was the naming of drives with letters of the alphabet rather than a drive name. Shorter perhaps but less natural. What happens if they ever reach Z plus 1? Are chips hard wired to only accept a single alphabetic capital or will any (sequence of) character(s) be permissible? These niggles may hardly matter to users now but they should have been avoided much earlier. I suppose most have heard that Bill Gates had to delay moving into his new house because of problems with the joinery. The door-frames are okay but they keep having to reinstall windows. Just goes to show that people who live in Gates' house shouldn't throw stones. (Oh! Yes! They should! Oh! No! They shouldn't! Oh! Yes! They .... Well, it is Christmas. Oh! No! it isn't ....) Glad to see Paul McPherson back in harness. Railguns may sink warships but it would obviously take more than that to sink Paul. Yours, Martin Burke. #! Malcolm Roberts Mike, I was unable to read QL105 on my QL but with some help from Martin Wheatly I have managed to read it on the PC. My QL is disconnected again at the moment so I am sending this in as a text file which I hope you can do something with. It is some time now since I have been able to get a readable disk to you and I am out of touch with QL matters. AS YOU CAN SEE, IT ALL LOADED IN FINE. It is a bit difficult getting the QL set up so I have only had about 2 hours of QL time in the last 4 months. My only contact has been via Quanta magazine. It was there that I read about QLAY which revived my interest in the QL. I had been looking for a way to access my QL files on the PC & this looked like a possible solution. My niece (who has a modem, I don't) managed to download the QLAY files for me but unfortunately I couldn't get it going & despite some help from Adrian Vickers who wrote the original article in Quanta I am still having difficulties with this & have decided that it is too complicated for me at the present time. Adrian is planning to write a user-friendly Windows program to transfer files between QL Disks/Qlay. Until he is able to do this I shall probably leave it alone. However, Martin has suggested an alternative prog, QDOS.EXE which enables text files to be read on the PC. However, although I have got this to work I have hit a snag. This prog refuses to read any disks that have been formatted on my QL. It seems to work fine on files that have been formatted on other people's QL's. For example, supplier's master copy disks read OK but my working copy disks will not. The QL105 disk that you sent me also worked OK, so I have been able to read it in Lotus WordPro. Although my QL diskdrive is quite old I haven't had too many problems with it so I don't know what the problem is. Can anyone help? WHAT DENSITY IS YOUR DISK DRIVE MALCOLM ? I ASSUME WHEN YOU SAY ITS QUITE OLD THAT ITS A DD TYPE. THE ONE ON YOUR PC WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY BE HD. ALTHOUGH HD DRIVES ARE USUALLY COMPATIBLE WITH DD DISKS, THEY ARE NOT BOUND TO READ THEM WHEN FORMATTED AND WRITTEN TO FROM ANOTHER DD DRIVE. Although I am not using the QL at the moment I am in 2 minds about it. I bought a PC because I wanted an up-to-date spreadsheet (I chose Lotus Smartsuite) & in order to justify the cost to Hazel I told her that I would recoup some of the cost by selling the QL, but I am a bit reluctant to finally part with it now. When I originally bought my QL some 9 years ago, apart from the obvious benefits of Word processing & Spreadsheets I had hoped that I could learn some basics of programming or at least get some understanding of the IT environment. Although I achieved quite a lot with Archive, my attempts with Superbasic were amateurish & when I got hold of a compiler I failed to achieve anything at all. I am still therefore a software user rather than a computer operator & don't feel that I've achieved my original aim of computer literacy. However, the help I have had from ClubQL members has been immense & I am reluctant to lose touch with that. The problem is that I don't have enough space to have the QL & my PC set up together & the QL is currently boxed away so I'm hoping you can do something with this text file for me. Many ClubQLers are also PC owners so I want to keep a link. I am retired now so have a little more time on my hands (although it doesn't seem like it, the hours just seem to disappear). As I've been out of touch with ClubQL for a while I don't know if things have ever been formalised in relation to financial contributions. Can you let me know so that I can do something. Best wishes Malcolm Andrew Halliwell, e-mail:- u5a77@teach.cs.keele.ac.uk u5a77@elfs1.elec.keele.ac.uk u5a77@uga.keele.ac.uk spike1@cyberspace.org clubql@geocities.com >*phew*< Gear:- Supergold card QL with various pointer thingies, Qubide 1.55 ROM, TKII (of course), 40 Meg Hard Drive (Still not full), twin floppies (one currently disabled) Minerva 1.97, 24 Pin Dot Matrix Printer... And loads of little toys I download off the internet... Well... I'm back. Looks like it's time to say.... HALLIWELL, SIGNALMAN!, 24966924 reporting for duty, SIR! I successfully managed to survive the 2 week army camp at Blandford in Dorset at the end of november/2weeks of december. and am now no longer, in any way, shape or form, a recruit. Yippeeee.... On friday night I start my trade training, and from there, who knows? Anyway, back to the show. I've now beautified the ClubQL site slightly. If it's too slow, please tell me. I'm on a university server, not a modem, so it's hard to judge. H HMM. SLOW!!! I'VE STILL TO SEE THIS FANTASTIC IMAGE ANDREW. I GAVE UP AFTER 20 MINUTES (33.6K MODEM ON A PENTIUM 200MMX). At the moment, there's a nice little (actually rather large, which was why I'm asking about speed) background picture. It's of a crystal ball on a chessboard floor, and is one of the pictures I mentioned when I was talking about POV the other month. It's not in its original form though. I had to tweak the colour settings slightly to reduce the contrast and make the writing on the page more readable. I decided to opt for a nce sepia colour, and the letters are all in various shades of gold/orange/yellowy, because most of the cards for the QL are GOLD based. (SuperGold, UltraGold,Goldfire, etc). Anyway, those of you who're internet active and graphically up to date... Comments please? If the picture is too large, I'll reduce the size of it. Just say the word. Following the suggestion by Martin Wheatley, I have registered ClubQL with a few search engines. I tried it last night and didn't get any results though, so it looks like it's taking its time to filter through. (Some of them say it'll take a week or two to be added. Probably vetting procedures and so-on to prevent over registration and stuff) A little more news. While I was working on the page, looking for links to the various emulators for the QL (Now all linked to the ClubQL page), I popped into Phil Bormans site. The QubIDE 1.56 ROM is now available, and I'll include it with this letter, or slightly after I send it anyway. 1.55 and 1.56 no longer use the WIN_CSUM command. This has been replaced with WIN_CTRL. I've been wondering how this works for a while, and now I know. (It's in the file "manual_txt" in the QubIDE zip file. It looks like it might make things on screen look slightly tidyer. ANDREW, I HAD SOME BOTHER DECODING THE FILE. I HAVE A COPY OF UUD_EXE, BUT I CONSTANTLY GOT AN ERROR. COULD IT NOT BE SENT AS AN ATTACHMENT IN A ZIP FILE ?? On with the responses bit.... Martin. You mentioned QLAY and it's Microdrive images. I'm pretty sure the latest version has WIN_ emulation. I don't know, because I can't test it. I imagine the writer just did it with microdrive sized blocks because he wanted to emulate a basic QL. Call him a purist, or call him a prat, but he is Working on it, I think. It might even be because the only info he had was the basic QL ROM, or books on the same thing??? Disk interfaces aren't well documented for the general public if you think about it. I THINK THAT IS THE CORRECT REASON, I'M SURE I READ THAT SOMEWHERE. Frank Merrison asked whether the Aurora replacement motherboard could fit inside the original case. Mike partially confirmed this (But wasn't too sure). The Aurora card is about 1/3rd the size of the original motherboard. If you were to plug the aurora into the qubide into the supergold card, I don't think you'd have anything sticking out of the expansion slot side of the case. In other words, yes, it will, or at least SHOULD, fit. YES IT DOES FIT. I'VE SEEN ONE AT THE NEMQLUG SUBGROUP AND VERY NEAT IT WAS TOO. THE QL CASE HAD AURORA, SUPERGOLDCARD AND SUPERHERMES INSIDE. THE ONLY MISSING ITEM WAS A HARD DISK. Colin Baskett asked...."Any offers? QL pluses, I mean." Well.... Here are a few. 1> No viruses will work on the QL (Because no-one has written one/it's more diffictult to even if you tried.) 2> Hard disk failure may wipe out important data/programs, but it doesn't lock you out of the machine. You can still boot up from ROM (unless you've got a keyboard in need of a driver, in which case you need the floppy). With the PeeCee, EVERYTHING is on Hard Disk. Lose the Hard Disk, lose your computer until you can get a new one/reload a basic system to reformat the old one, or in the case of WINDOZE 95, it is entirely possible that it won't let you do ANYTHING until it's been successfully re-installed, or the hard disk it was on is replaced. (This happened to a friend recently). As for the idea of "SPAMMING" the net. No. It is most certainly NOT OK. SPAMMERS are the most hated individuals on the internet. But they never learn. I get quite a lot of SPAM in my personal mailbox, and I've lost count of how many complaints I've made about SPAM. (I know it was said last time, but I just wanted to emphasise the fact.) He then later said "Sorry, I haven't tried this yet but I don't think it will work in my case. What I want to do is to read the initial key-stroke on start-up. Surely, if I put this in my boot programme the QL will be looking for a subsequent key-stroke?" You're right, that IS how it would've worked. I'll have a PEEK (pun intended) at the system variables and get back to you.... *pant* *pant* *pant* Right.... Now, my original suggestion was to check the system variable related to screen mode, and as you have minerva, the location of the system variables themselves. This can be done by useing VER$(-2), which returns the base address of the system variables. (In order to fit in the second screen [F3 and F4 activate 2nd screen mode], the system variables move up in memory by 32K.) I tested this theory, and it works... Try this little program [Saved on floppy as BOOT, and inserted into flp1_] 100 IF NOT (PEEK (VER$(-2)+50) AND VER$(-2)=163840 THEN PRINT "F1 Pressed!" 100 IF (PEEK (VER$(-2)+50) AND VER$(-2)=163840 THEN PRINT "F2 Pressed!" 100 IF NOT (PEEK (VER$(-2)+50) AND VER$(-2)=163840 THEN PRINT "F3 Pressed!" 100 IF (PEEK (VER$(-2)+50) AND VER$(-2)=163840 THEN PRINT "F4 Pressed!" >>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> NOTE: This is added by me after the fact, and will also be sent to the next ClubQL... I cocked up. That'll teach me to cut'n'paste without remembering to change things (could've sworn I had...) Anyway. The correct version SHOULD go..... 100 IF NOT (PEEK (VER$(-2)+50) AND VER$(-2)=163840 THEN PRINT "F1 Pressed!" 110 IF (PEEK (VER$(-2)+50) AND VER$(-2)=163840 THEN PRINT "F2 Pressed!" 120 IF NOT (PEEK (VER$(-2)+50) AND VER$(-2)=196608 THEN PRINT "F3 Pressed!" 130 IF (PEEK (VER$(-2)+50) AND VER$(-2)=196608 THEN PRINT "F4 Pressed!" <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< <<<< This works. I tested it myself before I returned to continue this. All you'd have to do then is replace the "PRINT" statements with whatever you wanted the program to do in your boot program... Darren Brannagh... You mentioned the new wonder drives, saying... "Seriously!! they are smaller than EZ disks or ZIP disks, and they hold much more!! Access times are quicker too, and they are still compatible with all your other DD, HD or ED drives - Not bad Eh? (as a matter of fact, they will read DD/HD/ED disks over 3 times faster than a normal drive will too!!) They come pre-configured as the A: drive for PC's, so I don't yet know if they can be "jumpered" to work as FLP1_ on a QL, if they could, I think hard drives would virtually become defunct - if you fill 120Mb, you just buy another 120Mb disk!! The drive units cost around while the disks are -ish, so would be a load cheaper than EZ, ZIP or QubIDE setups." The quick answer is no. It won't work. Think about it this way. HD and ED drives can handle DD disks, but you need a SuperGold card to be able to handle ED drives, or a Gold Card to handle HD drives. The problem is that you can't just automatically plug in a new type of disk drive and expect it to work. You probably need new hardware to handle it, and you'd DEFINATELY need new device drivers to handle it. Jumper switches are the least of your worries. So, if you have a word with the nice poeple at Qubsoft about the GOLDFIRE, and ask them nicely to make it compatible with these new drives, it might be possible. Otherwise, are you any good at machine code? :) You also said... "SPIKE: Opps. Problems with MULTI-DOS and IBMDISK. My fault I suppose. If you couldn't get IBMDISK to do a directory on a PC disk then you must have been using a HD or ED disk, unfortunately the version I had (v.2.00) only works on DD disks (Actually Dennis pointed this out last month.) Nope. At the moment, I only have DD disk drives. I Think the main problem with IBMDISK was that it refused to acknoledge the existence of WIN1_, which is pretty useless for copying files. I can't remember the other problems I had with it. It's a couple of months ago since I tried, and I probably deleted them. I use XOVER, it's easy enough. I still miss the ATR1_ device from the enhanced toolkit II I have on my trump card... *sigh* Also, you said this.... "Oh, nearly forgot - Private Haliwell (TEN-SHUN!!) also had a problem with MULTI-DOS. Well, I didn't realise that Outln_rext was" Please! I'm not just a common or garden soldier. I'm a SIGNALMAN, not a PRIVATE.... >*sulk*< The lack of Outln_rext was an irritation, and I might have it hidden away somewhere on one of my disks. I just wouldn't know where to look. I don't have QMENU. Never mind. As I said before, XOVER's good enough. Then, you went on to ask a few questions about QPAC2. "Does anyone know if it is possible to start a BASIC program from the FILES menu of QPAC2? I mean EXECing a file is dead easy - click on it, select "execute" from the pop-up commands menu, window setting, and there you are...... Is something similar available for BASIC progs? Like an "LRUN" selection or something, going back to the basic command line seems pointless to me." Using your basic, unextended, run of the mill QPAC2, there is no way to launch a BASIC program. However, if you use FILEINFO 2 (The latest versionwas included with ClubQL a few months ago I think), then as long as the filename has the extension that you set fileinfo II to pick up, such as _BAS, it will ask if you wish to launch, view or edit that file. Simple and effective. You also asked about starting applications as buttons. Now it's a while since I looked at my boot program, but if memory serves, it goes something like this.... 600 BT_HOTKEY "Perfection","p" 610 ERT HOT_LOAD "win1_perfection",0,0,1 Or something like that. Anyone who's better at this... HEeEeEelp!... P. McPhereson... You asked... "Which neatly leads me to the questions of the month: Is it possible to run Pascal on a QL, are there any Pascal programmes for the QL and where can I get hold of them?" The answer to this is a most definate yes. The problem is finding one. I know for a fact (I remember the adverts) that Metacomco produced a variety of languages for the QL in the early days, including 'Pascal', 'C', 'BCPL', 'LISP' and an Assembler. It's possible that Computer One also produced one, although I'm not too sure about that.... Dennis Smith. Nope. I don't have Pointer Toolkit, so that's probably why I'm still not familiar with the names of all the multitude of extensions you can load. Remember, I am living on somewhat limited funds (I'm suddenly suffering from a sense of Deja Vu), and can't afford much in the line of commercial software. I'm also in the same boat with Hardware. So, if I did ever manage to get the money together, I'd buy GoldFire BEFORE Aurora. Remember, you might not like the idea, but it's much better to buy things in dribs and drabs than all at once. Also remember that even though my original QL is 15 years old (yes, it is still the same one I started with all those moons ago), it is VERY reliable, discounting the few times the ribbon cable's needed a seeing to. Remember, before the SuperGold card graced me with its presence, I was using a 968K Trump Card. One wild and wacky fortnight, I left it on, running POV to generate a ray traced picture, and it ran to completion with no crashes or hitches whatsoever. That was 15 days, non-stop. It might be putting a bit of a "lead wieght" around our heads, but not everyone can afford these luxuries. Maybe now that I've got a means of keeping my overdraft under control, I might spend some of this years bounty on the GoldFire or Aurora, or something. Y'never know... (I'll probably wait for the Colour drivers to come out before I consider the Aurora though. Remember, you've also got to buy SMSQ in order to gain much benefit from Aurora. That is even MORE expense). Well... That SEEMS to be about it for this month. Mike asked me to e-mail this to Graham Lutz this month. Just hope I'm in time.... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |u5a77@teach.cs.keele.ac.uk| Windows95 (noun): 32 bit extensions and a | | | graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit | |Andrew Halliwell | operating system originally coded for a 4 bit | |Principal Subjects in:- |microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that| |Comp Sci & Electronics | can't stand 1 bit of competition. | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |GCv3.1 GCS/EL>$ d---(dpu) s+/- a- C++ U N++ o+ K- w-- M+/++ PS+++ PE- Y t+ | |5++ X+/++ R+ tv+ b+ D G e>PhD h/h+ !r! !y-|I can't say F**K either now! :( |