QL CLUB INTERNATIONAL JANUARY 1998 MIKE KENNEALLY E-MAIL.MIKEKENNEALLY1@COMPUSERVE.COM HI EVERYONE, YES I AM BACK,THANK GOD SAY'S GRAHAM! I REALLY DO OWE GRAHAM A BIG THANK YOU FROM ME FOR ONCE AGAIN PULLING ME OUT OF THE S**T.THANKS GRAHAM. I HAVE NOT YET HAD TIME TO READ AND INWARDLY DIGEST QL106,DUE TO THE FACT THAT I HAVE ONLY BEEN TOGETHER WITH MY QXL FOR JUST OVER 2 DAYS.AGAIN I MUST THANK GRAHAM FOR COMING OVER AND RE-INSTALLING EVERYTHING SO IT WORKS PROPERLY.TO BE PERFECTLY HONEST,WITHOUT HIS HELP I WOULD HAVE BEEN TOTALLY FLUMMOXED! THIS IS WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU LOT,IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THE PROBLEM IS,THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE TO HELP. AS SOME OF YOU ARE NO DOUBT AWARE,OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS I HAVE GONE THROUGH 3 HARD-DRIVES AND AS YOU CAN IMAGINE I HAVE BEEN VERY WARY ABOUT RE-INSTALLING ALL MY SOFTWARE BOTH PC AND QL.THE PC STUFF IS ALL ON CD'S ANYWAY,BUT ALL MY QL STUFF IS LOVINGLY INSTALLED FROM DISC,AND AS MOST OF YOU KNOW I HAVE A FAIRLY EXTENSIVE COLLECTION(EVEN WHEN ITS ZIPPED UP)GOING BACK MANY YEARS,AND IT TAKES A WHILE TO LOAD IT BACK ONTO THE HARD-DRIVE.IF THIS ONE GOES DOWN ON ME AGAIN,SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE! IT APPEARS FROM SOME OF THE E-MAIL AND LETTERS I HAVE RECIEVED THAT THERE APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN A SLIGHT PROBLEM WITH THE NEWSLETTER LAST MONTH,YOU WILL HAVE TO BEAR WITH US ON THAT.IT WAS THE FIRST TIME GRAHAM HAD ACTUALLY E-MAILED IT OUT.HE DID A STIRLING JOB NONE THE LESS.IF ANY OF YOU HAD ANY PROBLEMS OR HAD ANY PART OF IT MISSING,LET ME KNOW AND I CAN RECTIFY IT. DENNIS HAS ASKED ABOUT PUTTING THE NEWSLETTER ON BULLETIN BOARDS,THIS IS NOT SOMETHING I HAVE HAD MUCH TO DO WITH.I HAVE LOGGED ONTO THE NENE VALLEY BOARD,BUT THEN I AM TOTALLY FLUMMOXED!WITH BBS BEING AROUND FOR SO LONG,THEY HAVE GOT THE DREADED QL SYNDROME,THEY ASSUME EVERYONE KNOWS HOW TO ACCESS THEM!CAN SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE DOWN INSTRUCTIONS IN PLAIN,ONE SYLLABLE INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO ACCESS THEM,WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU GET THERE.FOR THOSE OF US WHO DON'T KNOW.IT WILL THEN BE WRITTEN DOWN FOR POSTERITY. ONCE AGAIN,THANKS TO ANDREW'S MAGNIFICENT WORK ON THE NET,WE HAVE NEW FRIENDS JOINING US,I WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME THEM TO OUR MERRY BAND. SPEAKING OF THE NET,SINCE MY DRIVE WENT DOWN I LOST ALL MY E-MAIL ADDRESSES,SO MY APOLOGIES TO THOSE OF YOU WHO DID NOT RECEIVE THE NEWSLETTER AS I COULD ONLY PASS ON TO GRAHAM THOSE I HAD WRITTEN DOWN ON PAPER.I KNOW THERE ARE STILL ABOUT 2 MISSING AND WITH ANY LUCK THEY WILL CONTACT ME TO ASK WHERE THEIR NEWSLETTERS ARE. NOT ONLY THAT BUT,I HAVE NO IDEA WHO WANTS WHAT.SOME OF YOU WANT JUST THE NEWSLETTER AND SOME OF YOU WANT BOTH THE NEWSLETTER AND PROGS,SO THIS ISSUE I AM SENDING OUT BOTH(THATS IF THERE ARE ANY PROGS)THE NEWSLETTER AS A .TXT FILE WITH THE PROGS AS AN ATTACHMENT. DILWYN HAS ASKED IF HE CAN BECOME THE CLUBS LIBRARIAN,IF THERE ARE NO OBJECTIONS I INTEND TO LET HIM DO THIS,LET ME KNOW. I THINK THATS ABOUT IT FROM ME,BUT IF I THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE.........I'LL BE BACK! DUE TO THE FACT OF MY DRIVE GOING WEST,WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE FOR EVERYONE TO SEND ME THEIR FULL ADDRESS,PHONE NUMBERS,FAX NUMBERS,E-MAIL ADDRESSES ETC.SO I CAN UPDATE MY FILES,PLUS THEN EVERYONE WILL HAVE A COPY AND IF IT HAPPENS AGAIN,I KNOW WHO TO TURN TO. IN THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTH'S WE SEEM TO HAVE ATTRACTED ONE OR TWO NEW FRIENDS,PETER,PIERRE,BOB,DEREK TO NAME BUT A FEW,I AM SURE EVERYONE HERE WOULD WELCOME THEM WITH THE SAME WARMTH AS THE MANY OTHERS WHO HAVE JOINED US OVER THE YEARS. IT WOULD BE USEFUL TO US ALL,IF OUR NEW FRIENDS COULD GIVE US A RUNDOWN ON WHAT THEIR AREAS OF 'EXPERTISE'ARE,THEIR INTERESTS,WHAT THEY USE THE QL FOR ETC.BOB FROM THE SOUNDS OF IT IS ONE OF THE QL'LOST',AS HE SAYS"SELF TAUGHT ON A NEED TO KNOW BASIS".I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH AS I HAVE OVER THE YEARS,WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU GET THE BEST OUT OF YOUR QL,IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION THEN LET US KNOW.IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW TRIVIAL IT SEEMS,OR HOW STUPID IT MAKES YOU FEEL FOR ASKING IT.I KNOW HOW THAT FEELS,I HAVE ASKED SOME CORKERS OVER THE YEARS.MOST QL USERS WOULD LOOK DOWN THEIR COLLECTIVE NOSES AT YOU,BUT BELIEVE ME WE WON'T. WE ARE HERE TO HELP!!!!! AS YOU CAN SEE FROM OUR LAYOUT,AS A HEADER WE WRITE DOWN THE SET-UP WE USE,ALONG WITH ANY AND ALL QL EQUIPMENT WE HAVE.THAT WAY IF THERE IS A PROBLEM WE CAN HELP WITH,WE KNOW WHAT SET-UP YOU ARE USING. THOSE OF YOU WHO MAIL THE NEWSLETTER TO ME WILL KNOW ABOUT THE POSTAGE,ONE(1)FIRST CLASS STAMP USUALLY COVERS IT AND TO USE THE SAME JIFFY BAG UNTIL IT DIES,WHY BUY MORE THAN ONE?MARTIN BURKES JIFFIES MUST BE GETTING ON FOR 3 YEARS OLD NOW! DARREN,THERE MAY BE A SMALL PROBLEM WITH ONE OF THE FILES I THINK IT'S QLAYT082,THE DISC WAS VIBRATING LIKE HELL WHEN I TRIED TO COPY IT.ITS ON THE NEWSLETTER AND I HOPE ITS OK BUT YOU NEVER KNOW.I HAVE GOT THE PRINTOUTS YOU SENT ME,THANKS VERY MUCH.WHEN I GET TIME I SHALL PERUSE THEM AT LEISURE(HA,HA LEISURE WHATS THAT?)I AM THINKING OF WRITING TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,THEY ARE CHANGING EVERYTHING ELSE,MAYBE THEY CAN GIVE US AN EXTRA FEW HOURS A DAY! MIKE. *! Martin Wheatley martinw@ndirect.co.uk QL, SuperQboard, Twin Disc Drives, Green Screen Monitor Mersey Mouse, PC running Xchange Hi everyone, I wrote I think this is one instance where the QL has slipped. There is no 29th February 2000,no doubt everyone has written in this issue this is incorrect - there is a 29 th February 2000 Dennis S wrote Mike : Have you ever considered putting 2 zips on the Fidonet BBS. This is mostly an accident of history. It happens that not many people involved with ClubQL have also done much on the BBSs and most of us wouldn't have the first idea how to put a file up there. No doubt if someone volunteered to do it ......... ---------------------------------------------------------- Martin B wrote 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 don't think I agree with this. Firstly the naming of the drives is just practical. In a setup with more than one drive you have to specify the drive quite often. Having to write 31/2 Disc Drive rather than A: would get very irritating very quickly! And what happens if you have more than one of the same type? I also think the number of people who have more than 26 drives on their machine is probably fairly limited! I imagine that this is not in main chips but in the BIOS which could be changed if anyone wanted to but I doubt if anyone would since the present system seems to work perfectly well! WHY DIDNT THEY USE THE SAME SYSTEM WE USE,WE HAVE BEEN WRITING FLP1_ FOR YEARS OR FLP2 ETC.? The 8 + 3 limitation is similar to a lot of those in QL software - it's just that not enough bytes were allocated in the file header for anything else. Windows95 now allows much longer file names. It was done a long time ago when there was little memory and machines had little or no hard disc and no-one could conceive of the need to have the large number of files that people do nowadays. This is one of those things thats easy in hindsight but its probably a little hard to blame them for not seeing at the time. It was common practice on all sorts of computers to minimise the number of bytes used for things in those days - thats why the Year 2000 problem exists and why there are file size limitations in the Psion suite. Andy Halliwell wrote --------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------- This is not true. The latest runs in a DOS window under Windows rather than just DOS but it still uses the Microdrive emulation as its basis As I understand it from the documentation the writer has done it this way not because he can't base it on disc drives but because he chooses not to. He wanted to emulate the classic QL. Emulating other sorts of drives is something he has on the list of things to do at some future point. You can't criticise it though since it is freeware and he's doing for his own entertainment so he can do it how he likes Andy Halliwell wrote regarding Darren suggestion of using Syquest disc drives with the QL --------------------------------- 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? --------------------------------------- There has recently been a very interesting (and voluminous) discussion on the QLUSer list on the Internet on the future of QL hardware and its development involving many of the people involved in the work For those interested a summary of this discussion it is likely to appear in QL Today soon (sorry Colin - I couldn't get it for Quanta as several of the people involved had QL Today connections - I did suggest it) Device drivers are something that came up several times. The problem is they are difficult and boring to write and no-one wants to do it. Most of the people who can do them want to be paid for it and the small number of potential customers are likely to make it cost more than people are prepared to pay for something to the user looks trivial (so trivial that most people don't even remember they are neccesary!) The availablility of emulators has lead to one or two people from other computers to want to try it and delve back a little into computer history. This was always Stuarts plan with the QXL - that it would sell to a non QL audience - well it's taken the Internet for it to happen at all and it's only one or two. The first reaction you get is always the same - shock at QL prices when compared to Amiga and PC ones for things like emulators. This is not to say that Ql stuff is overpriced - it's as cheap as it can be for the size of the market but we do have to remember that we don't have the advantages of scale other machines do. There have been plenty of bright suggestions for new hardware on the QL Users list but almost always met with a straight question 'And how much are you prepared to pay for this?'. Mostly thats the end of the suggestion because what people expect to pay and the actual cost of preparation and production are rarely close to one another. People like Nasta and Ron run a terrible risk of losing money on projects like Goldfire. Stuart has just about run out of projects that are economically viable (in fact some suspect he may have done that a while ago!) If Nasta was being paid for the huge amount of work he is putting into Goldfire rather than doing it for fun there is no way the project could be viable. How many are they going to sell at the end of it? Not a lot! These are things that have to be faced up to Talking of the Internet we seem to be getting a steady trickle of people coming to ClubQL from all over the world due to the ClubQL Web page Well done Andy! Martin Wheatley FROM:INTERNET:DStew10301@aol.com, INTERNET:DStew10301@aol.com TO:(unknown), mikekenneally1 DATE:01/02/98 16:23 Hi Mike I have been looking at issue 104, downloaded from Thierry Godfrey in France... I am very interested in all things QL. I have a BBS on tel. 01773-741335, which runs on a Supergold card, Aurora, Qubide all boxed in a home built tower case. It runs on SMSQ/E with Pbox v1.19, rather like Phil Borman's at Nene Valley. But I have used ansi screens from my other BBS that I used to use on a PC. But now it is a QL BBS for QL people. I would be interested in receiving your newsletter and any back issues you have. Also if you do not mind, maybe they could be put up on the BBS for people to download. If you like I could designate a special area for people at QL Club International. I have download issues 99-106 from your web site. I THINK YOU MAY HAVE TO CONTACT DILWYN OVER THIS AS HE HAS VOLUNTEERED TO BE THE CLUB LIBRARIAN. I see my old friend Dennis Smith is mentioned in issue 104, who has designed a back cover plate called MC Panel, for tower cases with all the slots for connectors in. And Graham Underwood has made an interface called Molink for connecting two modems together so that comms can be practised or high datatransfer can be done. Also you can connect the modem via Molink to a Fax machine and fax things to yourself. Well really it scanning at 300 dpi which on the face of it is a way of using a scanner on the QL with Molink. DENNIS HAS BEEN WITH US FOR QUITE A WHILE NOW,AND A BETTER 'WIND-UP'MERCHANT HAS YET TO APPEAR! All this can be seen at the user group SeQueL which meets very 4th Saturday in Codnor Church, Mill Lane, Codnor, Derbyshire. The hours are 1pm-5pm and the cover charge is only 1.50 pounds, tea, coffee and nice things to eat are available. Plus lots of interesting QL specific topics. I AM HOPING TO ATTEND AT LEAST ONE OF THESE MEETINGS IN THE NEAR FUTURE,WORK ALLOWING! On 28/2/98, Tony Firshman is coming to the meeting to show his Romdisq and talk about comms in general. So if you have nothing to do, come along and have a nice QL time with us. In April the SeQueL group will be hosting the QUANTA AGM which will be a one day affair. With all major QL traders present. Also lectures, QL problems with a panel of experts from the QL traders/experts. Also planned is a buffet after the AGM, and the oppertunity to eat, drink, talk about QLs and even buy more QL things till midnight. More specific details will follow in due course. Derek 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 Gear:- Supergold card QL with various pointer thingies, Qubide 1.55 ROM,(or 1.56 if I Lrespr it) 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... It's that time again. The CLubQL homepage has now been slightly more optimised after a few comments saying it took an age to load the background. The picture is also darker, and the text much more visible. Thanks Mike and Martin W for the comments. (Even with the full sized graphic, it only took a short amount of time to load here, thanks to the fast transfer rate.) Other news. After a debate on device drivers and rescue utilities on QubIDE, Phil Borman has stated that when 1.57 comes out, one of the things that'll be re-instated is duplication of filenames in the actual disk blocks as well as the directory. This will make undeleting files much easier. Also, those nice people at Qbranch have said that they are working on (or are going to be working on) a program to do just that, probably something along the lines of Media Manager or ResQL. I've recently downloaded uQLx on this 'ere sunstation and tried to compile it. HeEelp! It keeps coming up with really irritating warnings like this.... instructions_pz.c: In function Rts': instructions_pz.c:170: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size There are a LOT of these (and other warnings), and of course, upon completion it doesn't work... It does this instead.... [sierra][15:40:56] Spike% qm ld.so.1: qm: fatal: libXext.so.0: can't open file: errno=2 Killed So... All you uQLx and unix genii out there (well.. I know there's one)... Any hints? BEFORE ANYONE CAN ANSWER THAT,WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE,TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS HE ON ABOUT?I THINK ALL THIS ARMY SPEAK HAS GONE TO HIS HEAD! Can't think of anything else at the moment, so on with the responses... Martin W said last time.... "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" Sorry to burst your bubble Martin, but the year 2000 *is* a leap year, which means the QL is right (as usual). There is a 29/2/2000. I think the video thing is because it isn't year based. It just assumes 28 days for February. DOES THIS MEAN IN THE YEAR 2000 THE ONLY COMPUTERS THAT DON'T DIE ARE QL'S? And now, an amendment to last months post by me. I cocked up on the function key reading thingy. I added the following to the ClubQL on the ClubQL page, but as the majority aren't internet active I'll post it here as well... 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!" For some reason, last months seems to have been rather shorter than usual, so, I'll sign off... I'll try to send Mike the QubIDE ROM mentioned last month, and I'll see if I can find any other curiosities to send as well. (Last month, the only files I received in the ZIP were QL106_txt and QL106_doc.) So.... This is Sig Halliwell... Signing off. -- FROM:Jones,Dilwyn, INTERNET:dilwyn.jones@bbc.co.uk TO:(unknown), INTERNET:graham.lutz@virgin.net MIKE KENNEALLY, MIKEKENNEALLY1 DATE:23/01/98 23:39 Should contributions for QL107 go to Mike or Graham, please? EITHER DILWYN,BUT AS YOU CAN SEE I AM BACK. Graham, I eventually found the Club QL pages on the Web and downloaded QL106 from there and the system allowed a file of that size, but please do still return the disk I belatedly sent you, so that I can have the other QL106 files on the disk if possible. Mike, did you think about the suggestion I made regarding acting as a back issues librarian for the club? As I have a ZIP drive, it would make it easy for me to store them without hundreds of floppies all over the place too! If you are interested, let me know and I'll work on the best way of handling this. Dilwyn Jones P. McPHERSON, Fraternal Greetings Everybody, Current equipment includes: 3xQLs (AH roms), one fitted with a Gold Card and twin Cumana 3.5" floppy drive, one with a Trump Card and a single 3.5" and the third is a bare 128K machine, an Amstrad DMP 3160 printer c/w a Miracle Serial Interface. Firstly, a big thank you to all those enquiring about my health which is, stable, if still painful for the time being and then to Darren Branagh for "Cosmos" after mine decided to throw a wobbley onme. GLAD TO HAVE YOU UP AND ABOUT AGAIN MATE,AND IN GOOD HEALTH OR REASONABLY SO. After a few hickups I have at last got up to date with QLCI discs that I can actually load which provided me with some very interesting information and contraversial comments especially from those who seem to think that we are all made of money, have no other commitments and should spend all our income on the latest QL harware and software - I wish, and I am sure many other QL users do too! One thing has struck me over the last couple of months that I have been out of action and that is just how many advances are being made in the world of QL hardware despite the fact that many so called experts regard the QL as a "dead" or obsolete machine. Why is it not the same with software, have all the writers moved on to the PC? FROM WHAT I CAN GATHER,THERE ARE STILL A LOT OF PEOPLE OUT THERE COMPILING SOFTWARE,BUT THE ACTUAL ACCENT SEEMS TO BE ON UPDATING 'OLDER'PROGRAMS TO MAKE THEM COMPATIBLE WITH THE 'NEWER'QL'S. And now for the question of the month: Could somebody please tell me (and other members) in simple terms, exactly what a "Goldfire" is, what it can do, who is marketing it and how much it costs. Is it the replacement for the Super Gold Card? GOOD QUESTION,YES WHAT IS IT EXACTLY? Best Wishes, Paul & Bob #! Colin Baskett 8 January 1998 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, etc.. Dear Mike, Red-face time !!! Having only just realised that the 27th of the month (last Month that is) has come and gone. This will, therefore, be brief. Relief all round. Mike, a propos a possible mailing to ex-members: "WHAT ABOUT SOMETHING ALONG THE LINES OF WHAT I SENT OUT TO YOU,IT GOT YOU INTERESTED AGAIN DIDN'T IT?I SHALL SEE IF I STILL HAVE IT ON FILE AND LET YOU HAVE A COPY,IT MAY NEED A LITTLE CHANGING BUT YOU CAN DO THAT. Yes, please ! I will try for the next issue to produce a summary of the QL pros (& cons). Sorry left it too late now. Most interested to see Darren's news about the new LS-120 floppy drives from Panasonic which format Panasonic's new LS-120 disks to 120Mb on a LS-120 drive unit. If these could be made to work with the QL ........... If anyone does have anything on this how about a brief note to QUANTA? Many thanks Darren for your review of Thesaurus PE. I really do appreciaye all the support you are giving me. It's what makes an editor's job worth doing. Stupid of me! I should have thought about the possibility of optical sensors. Incidentally, there will be a note on ED drives from Gary Norton in the February issue of QUANTA which raises some intriguing possibilities. Warnings from various people about the danger of little bits of plastic waste jiggering the drive let alone the disc (including non-ClubQLI sources - and I don't mean Bill Richardson !!). Please keep us posted about mishaps. Paul mentions the Olympus C4100L as a suitable digital camera for producing images for a PC or Mac. Is it possible to convert them to QL format ?, says he ignorantly. I DON'T SEE WHY NOT.IT MUST BE POSSIBLE TO SAVE THEM IN A FORMAT THAT IS TRANSFERABLE. QPAC2 Malcolm White mentions problems with QPAC2. I don't have Taskmaster and so I am still using QPAC2 and still learning (and forgetting what I have previously learnt). What is it about QPAC2 that makes it apparently so difficult to document clearly. Why, when I HOT_LOAD a program (e.g. Xchange) do I get a wake sign on the button which doesn't seem to work either when I initially load the programme or when I try to re-awake it? I have Xchange HOT_RES'ed as well on a button called and the wake symbol here works as expected but when I am working on the magazine I use HOT_LOAD (to save memory when not using it) on a button called to load Xchange with a command string that sets the directory required and gives Quill a task name which calls the appropriate printer driver. All this works well except that if I switch out of this version of Xchange I cannot get back into it via the button. I can, of course, get back via the 'pick' menu, and in other ways including 'doing' the wake sign on the button. Although in this last case I may have to cycle through several copies of Xchange (if these have been loaded) before getting back to the 'mag' version. The BUFFER STUFFER. Should I be able to use this to capture the odd piece of text and pass it to the keyboard buffer or is its use as limited as it seems to be. My copy of QPAC2 is older than I care to think. Should I be getting an update. XCHANGE Malcolm also talks of having a go with Xchange. It really is super, especially version 'L' (is there a later version?). But do get the documentation disc. I am still finding new (to me) facilities such as a program (view_dat) for viewing your 'printer_dat' files (called of course by different names in Xchange) or a facility for printing out alternate page numbers, odd first then even or vice versa (especially useful for printing out all those readme files). I can even write additional HELP pages. Now, why would I want to do that? To remind myself what all those fifty translates on my several printer drivers do. No I don't actually have fifty translates but I still forget what different printer drivers do. 'Extract' to BUFFER, 'Append'. As others have pointed out this makes the ClubQL contribution a simple task. ITS OK COLIN,EVEN AFTER ALL THIS TIME I AM STILL FINDING THINGS IN IT I DIDN'T KNOW WERE THERE! MOTOROLA VERSUS INTEL If Mike will allow me a PLUG. Look out for an article by Simon Goodwin in the January Quanta. Amongst other things it includes a benchmark program by the author of QLAY. I tried it out with SMSQ/E and with QDOS. Now, at last, I know why I have SMSQ/E even if it doesn't work with all my software! Q-ROUTE Finally, Q-ROUTE. Great fun. I don't have Auto-Route (no PC) so I cannot make a comparison. But I have wasted more hours playing with Q-Route in the last fortnight than I care to remember. Try filling in extra detail on the map (or perhaps making a new map) but do save frequently !! Very frequently !!!! Colin B. #! Colin Baskett 01491 614293 28#9 January 1998 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, etc.. Dear Mike, I imagine my disk arrived too late for last month's issue. Apologies. If it arrived could you send it back with QL106 on it? I only hope this one is in time. Late again! I was going to do it two days ago but suddenly I was deluged with 'phone calls. YES IT DID MATE BUT NO PROBLEM,IF THERE IS A LETTER ON YOUR DISC I WILL INCLUDE IT THIS MONTH. Those of you who are members of Quanta will have read Mike Hammond's contribution in the January issue. Mike seems to have gone a long way towards wrapping up the "Future of the QL" debate. In a nut shell he sees a missing ingredient in what we have to offer and His breakdown of the QL community has helped to identify two potential markets where we might hope to attract new users - people who want to do their own thing, both amateurs and professionals, and people who for one reason or another are unhappy about the PC. But, there is a problem, he says, what we have to offer is confusion not clarity. We need a package with clear guidance about the available upgrade routes. We also need a touch of magic - "The Sinclair Factor". Not everyone will agree with all his arguments and fewer still with my presentation of these above. One fact, however, I feel is incontrovertible; there is confusion and we need to have available a clear description of what is available, what is in the pipeline and the distinguishing characteristics of each piece of hard- or soft-ware. Well not perhaps every piece but the key pieces. I have held back on the question of approaching old members for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is the feeling that we should have a much better spiel to set before such people later this year when Goldfire etc have materialised. And when, I hope we may have achieved some of Mike Hammond's "clarity". MORE POWER TO YOUR ELBOW COLIN,GO FOR IT ALL THE WAY.AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE ABOUT APPROACHING THE 'OLD' MEMBERS,MANY OF THEM WILL STILL HAVE THEIR OLD QL PROGS LYING ABOUT GATHERING DUST.SEND THEM A COPY OF THE PD DISC BASED EMULATOR,WITH EASY TO UNDERSTAND INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO LOAD AND USE IT.AS A MATTER OF FACT SEND A COPY TO GRAHAM LUTZ AND ASK HIM NICELY AND I AM SURE HE WILL ACCOMODATE YOU WITH EASY TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. Re-Darren's news about the new LS-120 floppy drives from Panasonic. Ron Dunnett has pointed out to me that he has already covered these in the September 1997 issue. They would need a new driver to be written as they are not true (E)IDE devices, whatever that means. Sorry Darren! THE USUAL PLEAS Everyone:- Please keep us all posted about your printers and about your favourite software. Or dodges that will help others use it better. Also, I am keen to put news about sub-groups in QUANTA. Where you meet, when and what you get up to !! JUST DON'T FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP AS YOUR PREDECESSORS AND IGNORE OTHER QL BASED MAGAZINES AND DISCZINES.I KNOW YOU WON'T BECAUSE WE HAVE KNOWN EACH OTHER FOR QUITE A WHILE NOW,BUT OTHERS DO. Also experiences with QLAY and articles on almost any QL related subject or Z88 of course. Quanta needs your contributions. That's all for now. Cheers! Colin B. !#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!# J.C.Marcus EUSKADI {not Spain} 14-1-98 GEAR: Aurora + SGC, Minerva 1.97/SMSQ/E, Hermes, Qubide/170M HDD, 2xHD, CUB 653, Epson LQ500; JS QL with GC & 2xDD J.C.,MY APOLOGIES,YOU ALSO MISSED THE DEADLINE BUT NO PROBLEM YOU WILL GET 2 THIS TIME.I AM AFRAID I HAVE TO PUT 'SPAIN'ON YOUR ADDRESS,OTHERWISE THE POSTMAN GETS CONFUSED. Hello All, Well, the X-mas silly season has now finally passed, & I hope this finds you all well {& not too broke!} FLAT,STONEY AND ANY OTHER WORDS THAT EXPRESS IT! Mike: thanks for all the back issues; a very interesting read, & helps in putting everything into some sort of perspective. I wonder if you've followed Geoff Wicks' bit, "Are you sitting comfortably?" in the last 2 issues of QL Today? Well, given the no. of hours I've just spent reading through the old CQLIs, & the amount of "forefinger tapping" it all involved, does this make CQLI a health risk?? I think we need to be told! :-))) ONLY IF YOU TRY TO DIGEST IT IN ONE SITTING! Talking of QLT, as you may have noticed above, I've finally succumbed & treated myself to an Aurora + SMSQ/E; well, I had a pretty good summer over here, work-wise, & Roy Woods' wonderful & somewhat emotionally-charged appeal in the last QLT {"Christmas Cajole"} just had me in tears; so I had to do it. Sorry. I'm now busy fitting everything into a {ubiquious} mini-tower case. I noticed some comments in previous issues, & other QL mags about problems with plates for connectors etc. so was careful over this. I managed to find one with plenty of pre-pressed slots for connectors; future-proofing, I suppose. You never know which way your computer-related interests will lead, & what wonderful new expansion our "hardware boys" are going to dream up next! Also, just to be different, I've decided to stick with the original QL keyboard - yes curious I know, but: (1) I'm used to the lay-out, & just "get lost" when using a PC 'board; (2) my QL is a (German) Samsung build, with a very much better 'board than the "original" original. Anyway, I'm just about ready to do the final change-overs, but thought I'd get this off first, just in case!! On the subject, was it Frank who asked about the Aurora? Well, yes it can be placed in the QL case, as it's much smaller than the original QL motherboard (see below), which you have to remove. The microdrives also go, as the Aurora does not support them - {no real loss??}. If you want to use the QL keyboard, {like me}, as opposed to a S-Hermes, Di-Ren, Falkenburg etc. interface + PC style 'board, you need a simple interface between the 2 {circuit diagram provided, but I imagine that Ron Dunnett COULD be persuaded to build it for you...}. You also need to think about the power supply to the board, but this is all very well covered in the Aurora manual. OK, enough "plugging" for today. Oh yeh, the size, the Aurora measures 100mm x 165mm {I trust that our QLub is now fully metresized...:-)} I see I missed a quiet "discussion" about musical tastes. Pity. Well, all I have to say {& start it all off again ;-))} is: Never mind all that bollocks, give me the Sex Pistols anytime: now there was a group..... JOHNNY ROTTEN RULES OK,EH? OK, other points {before I get lynched}: Could I add my thanks to all the others for Colin B., for stepping into the breach, taking over the editorship of Quanta, & doing a real good job at it too! That whole period, with all the bickering going on was a real low-point for ALL QL users, as Quanta is an important part of the QL world. Let's also hope that the "niggle" that there seems to be/has been between it & CQLI also disappears now. {My niggle is that I bought one of the "disputed" SGCs, only to see the price suddenly drop by `100+ overnight. Talk about being miffed!!!} HOPEFULLY,WITH COLIN AT THE WHEEL THIS IS NOW A THING OF THE PAST. My idea for gaining {some} new members: try targeting the "siblings" of past members who may have "moved on" {down} & left their QLs for the kids to play with. There could be a whole {de}generation out there waiting to be recruited. The PD emulators, especially for the Amiga & Ataris {is there one for the Atari, by the way} should also be "flogged about" as much as possible, to atract those who have A or A's as "game" machines, but would like to do something more with them. Some positive points for the QL/QDOS et. al.: Entry level still is very cheap, & upgrades can be made in small, managable steps {if you so wish}. The PE will happily run on a Trumpcard system. Try running Windozze on a 1985/6 PC.... You get 2 powerfull programming languages with the system {don't forget Archive!!}, as well as the other Psion stuff, which may not be Office, Lotus etc., but is simple to learn, & works. There is also, of course, a huge PD source out there as well. OK, if you're STILL not convinced, forget it. YOU'VE CONVINCED ME!WHERE DO I SIGN UP? In CQLI102 Graham B. mentions that often problems appear in Quanta, but the solutions never get into print. This is true, but obviously relies on one or both parties sending in the solution. Maybe a question of laziness? I know that I've been guilty of this in the past! Maybe the solution is to direct all queries to the Helpline, where the "experts" can then have a go. I suppose that the real problem is with the silly little hassles we often have, that may be seen as "below" the level of these experts to answer {NO insult intended, please!}; the answer then, must be these "pages"! From what I've seen, there always seems to be someone ready with an answer {even a silly one}. WHAT PUT ME OFF WRITING TO ANY MAGAZINES WAS AFTER THE FIRST TIME I DID IT,WITH A PROBLEM,WHICH AT THE TIME SEEMED TO ME TO BE INSURMOUNTABLE,AND I WAS TOLD BY AN'EXPERT'THAT IF I COULDN'T UNDERSTAND IT,I SHOULDN'T BE USING A COMPUTER!THIS IS WHY I AM HERE AND SHALL REMAIN HERE FOR AS LONG AS WE ARE NEEDED.I APOLOGISE AND GET DOWN OFF MY SOAPBOX NOW,BUT THIS POMPOUS PRAT STILL ANNOYS ME EVEN AFTER ALL THIS TIME. So, on the subject: Darren B.: yes, great photo of you; are you trying to hide your chewed-off fingernails, or what? Also, please don't buy anymore computer gear, as there soon won't be any room left for the letters each month!! How many systems do you actually have up & running? And just how big is your house to fit it all??? WELL,HE DOES LIVE IN A FALCONRY,MAYBE HE HAS KICKED THE BIRDS OUT! You ask about EXecuting Basic progs - very simple, install FileInfoII on your system. A bit of a hassle to configure at first, but easy to experiment with, {& it's FREE, as you'd say!}. OR of course, you could get yourself some SMSQ/E....{;-))} Someone also asked about help/instructions with ACP - like FileInfoII above, ACP has Help facilities accessible from the program - the "?" icon, or check out the relevent "_help" file that comes with the program/s. THIS IS A PROGRAM AFTER MY OWN HEART,EASY TO USE.ON SCREEN IT IS EASY TO FOLLOW,BUT USE VERSION 3 AND ABOVE,BUT DON'T FORGET YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO ACCESS ZIP/UNZIP AS ACP USES THESE PROGS.FILEINFO IS ANOTHER STORY,I HAVE SEEN IT WORKING AND I WISH I COULD USE IT.I SUPPOSE IT IS LIKE ANYTHING ELSE,EASY WHEN YOU KNOW HOW! Dilwyn asks about a volume control for his Aurora tower system. Well, as a sound engineer, the solution is simple. Run the wires from the speaker in the tower to a jack socket you stick on the back, & from there to a spare input on your stereo, stick the volume up, AND ENJOY. SLFN {So Long For Now} JC !#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!# #! Martin Burke, Bucks, 25th January, 1998. 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. Welcome to Peter Graf and Pierre Thonne: another few thousand years at this rate of recruitment, we might even outnumber PC users. And pigs may fly: but I doubt if MS-DOS/WINDOWS pc's will. I still have no joy with my SGC problems. The mains supply checks out, I've tried the "Briggs" PSU but it is exactly the same: "twill" screen down about 1/6th then it freezes. One "electronics" person suggested a "dirty earth". Another pointed out that there was no earth lead to the psu/system. Darren: I don't think I've noticed before: why 3 laser printers: do you run thim in serial or in parallel? MAYBE NOW WE HAVE TONY ON BOARD,PERHAPS HE CAN HELP? Yours, Martin Burke. #! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Darren Branagh, 25th, January, 1998. 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 (25Mhz version), 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 Gang, Short and sweet (hopefully) from me this month, as I only received QL106 on Friday evening, and only got around to reading it a few minutes ago.................... First, a plea for some help - particularly anyone out there that knows about monitors. I just bought a second hand PHILIPS CM8833 Colour Monitor for use with my Trump Card Backup QL (with a view to networking it with my QXL, so I have access to the hard drive from both machines). However, despite the fact that I managed to get the thing working perfectly as a T.V. via the AUDIO and VIDEO IN sockets connected to my VCR, (you can actually watch stuff in green screen mode via the video, or full colour!!) I haven't been able to find the correct pin-outs to the TTL/RGB connector for use with the QL. The RGB connector is an 8 pin Din socket, exactly the same as the one on the back of a QL, I noticed a few of the members of QLCI have a Philips CM 8833 Monitor with their QL - can anyone provide the much needed wiring info for a lead?? Or, better still, provide me with a lead which I can buy?? HELP!! CAN ANYONE HELP HIM? Second, a reply to Spike : - sorry Mate, about the misinformation about the new Panasonic LS-120 drives, but I assumed you would have read Ron Dunnett's contribution in the Sept 1997 issue of Quanta - which said he will WRITE a driver for the LS-120 drives if there is enough demand!! I was well aware that they wouldn't just work as ordinary drives. I new that jumper settings would be only part of the problem. Anyone interested is asked to leave your name with Ron, and when enough names exist to make the venture viable he will look into doing a driver. I am definitely going to the Hove show in Sussex on the 22nd Feb - so I hope to see you all there !! I have arranged the date with my Boss, and after the fiasco over the Bristol show in November, I'll be furious if he lets me down again........... Which reminds me, I may need a lift to the show - I'm unsure as to how I'll travel (probably fly over) so if anyone can give me a free lift to the show from any of the major airports, I'd be delighted. Any volunteers? ANYONE GOING TO THE HOVE SHOW AND CAN GIVE DARREN A LIFT? Right. On with the rest, ahh, yeah - nice to hear from Mr.Graf of Q40 Fame - I'm looking forward to maybe seeing the prototype at the Hove show, if Peter is there of course. Nice to see new members - though perhaps Pierre Thonne could provide some more info next time round, sounds like an interesting chap. Nice also to hear from Ian Pizer too - a Gentleman if ever there was one, and as for his wife - a truly charming lady, with remarkably good english and now also a good friend of my Fathers too - as they both share a love of Birds. I'm glad you enjoyed you're stay here Ian - we are currently closed for the winter, but will re-open again in mid March. I trust this year will be Busy too, as the Tour De France bicycle race is taking place here in Ireland for the first time ever - It passes straight by my house on July 12th, and preparations are already underway - road re-surfacing, etc. All the Hotels and Guesthouses are filling up fast, so If anyone is a sports fan and wants a birds-eye view, call me for details, as I still have a few rooms left. The 12th should be an eventful day, as the world cup final is also on in the evening too !! Did you know the Tour uses 5 fixed wing aircraft, 13 helicopters, it takes all the bikes almost 90 minutes to pass by, and if you lined up all the vehicles used to track the tour, they would stretch for over 3.2 miles?? Quite astounding - no wonder it has the biggest TV audience of all sports events, over 1 Billion people. (amazes me the useless info you can pick up on a tourist flyer!) LOVED spike's description of Windoze 95 at the end of his letter; excellent. As for Bill Gates having to re-install windows all the time in his new house, I also heard he had to call in the exterminators too - apparently a problem with BUGS.......... Q. WHY IS A CROOKED PSYCHIC LIKE A DUD MICRODRIVE CARTRIDGE ? A. THEY ARE BOTH "BAD OR CHANGED MEDIUMS"...... Which reminds me, my QL JOKE BOOK should be available from the PD Libraries by the time you read this. I sent Dilwyn a copy and I think he said he was sending it into Steve Johnson et al. Also, I am (as Hilary mentioned last month) working on a Demo copy of a new Z88 Magazine - a copy will be available at the Hove show, and hopefully Bi-monthly from then on. The first one will "test the water" so to speak, to see if its viable or not... Further details are available from Bill Richardson, who has also updated his Z88 transfer disk with some new programs and a Sourcebook that will be useful to all Z88 and QL owners. I have reviewed this for Colin Baskett, and you'll also find it on the this months disk, called Z88_Doc. Also, as QLAY and QPC has been the source of many letters over the past couple of months, I'm including the latest version of QLAY for Windows 95 platforms, (QLAYW084.ZIP) and the QLAYT program for converting files to QLAY format (QLAYT082.ZIP), at least I think they're the latest. Also, version 1.11 of the demo version of QPC, which definitely isn't the latest, as its now on version 1.40. As usual, these need to be transferred to a PC Ms-Dos disk first, using SMSQ/E or XOVER or whatever. Also included are rom images of the JS and JM roms - (ROM.ZIP) you need these for QLAY too. Actually, If anyone has a demo copy of 1.40 (or a greater one than 1.11) could you send it in please, as I believe the speed increases are unbelieveable in later versions.) Roy Wood of Q-Branch has also set me an alpha release of a new program he has written with John Wakefield, which is a pointer-driven screen Calculator. It allows you to convert window sizes from the normal 512x256 screens to the larger screen sizes of Aurora, QXL, QPC, etc. for use to convert your own programs. I have yet to try it, so more next month on that............ So there ya go... so much for the brief letter !! Hope to see you all (or at least most of you) at the Hove show... Now all I need is a lift !! Regards, Darren VERY INFORMATIVE DARREN,ITS A PITY I CANNOT MAKE IT TO HOVE,BUT HAVING JUST STARTED A NEW BUSINESS VENTURE IT CANNOT BE LEFT JUST YET.HOPEFULLY SOMEONE WILL COME TO YOUR AID. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **************************************************************** Hilary O'Kelly, 24/01/1998 Dear Gang, Somewhat of a world record for me - two consecutive letters in two months !! AND THERE WAS ME,GONE AND MISSED IT! I have managed to get rid of my "job" as secretary of the Community Alert Group at our January Meeting last week, so I should have some free time now to play with my QL and all the new gear I bought. I am busy contemplating going to the UK for the Hove show, as Darren has a deal with a couple of very cheap tickets, if he wants them, maybe I'll go over and meet some of you. I enjoyed the piece MArtin wrote about the speed comparisions of QPC et al, I an "inheriting" a 386 PC with 8 Meg RAM next month, as a close friend is upgrading, so I plan to ask Darren to show me the ins and outs of QLAY soon. Anyhow, short and sweet, see you all next month............ HILARY. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Terry Williams 22/1/98 GEAR: 2 JS QLs, 1JM QL,SGC,GC,TRUMPCARD,TWIN E D 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 & Friends! Sorry I missed last month but it was school holls so we had our grandson to look after, and before I knew it the deadline was way passed! YOU'RE FORGIVEN MATE,DON'T MAKE IT A HABIT!(JOKE) HD to ED convertion . I too, was a bit worried about bits from drilling getting inside so I made the hole in my first trial by the use of a plier type of multi hole leather punch, carefully rotating the disk and more or less wearing the hole out and thereby preventing any bits from entering. It seems to have worked but then I thought there may be a better way if the Disk housing was thermoplastic. I then attacked another one with a piece of hot rod judiciously heated up on the gas ring and found it was!! The hole was made with no little bits of dust and raised lumps can be shaved off with a sharp blade. Another advantage of the hot rod approach is that the hole can be made square (with a square rod of course!)and then it may be better for the mechanical interlock type drives. My Sinclair radio arrived some two weeks after ordering and works quite well but the volume could be greater for my use, it really requires to be magnetically coupled to my ear trumpet, set to 'T', for comfortable listening. I must try a bit of blue tack or some sort of clip !(Q rides again!)(:-)) ITS A PITY HIS GENIUS WASN'T BETTER RECOGNISED. TERRY,THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR DONATION,IT WILL GO TOWARDS A BACK-UP SYSTEM TO STORE MY QL STUFF ON,THAT WAY I WON'T LOSE IT AGAIN. TTFN Terry Email : dilwyn.jones@bbc.co.uk 27.1.98 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; P90 Black PC and QPC;Toshiba T2100 486DX2/66 with QPC. Dear Mike, It was interesting to read of the possible QXL/QPC wars in QL106. As someone who has used both for some time, I thought I'd offer my views. The main argument of all is that at the time of writing QBranch had only 10 QXLs left and were unlikely to ever have any more for sale, as one of the chips is no longer available. THAT'S A PITY DILWYN,IT IS IN MY OPINION,ONE OF THE BEST THINGS EVER MADE FOR THE QL.BUT WHAT THE HELL DO I DO IF MINE BREAKS? The QXL, being a hardware emulator, is faster than QPC, but since QPC is software, it is more easily upgradeable (you need to buy SMSQ/E to upgrade the QXL, SMSQ/E is part of QPC). You need to have a free ISA slot for a QXL, so that rules it out for laptops and many modern PCs which do not have these slots. You can leave the QXL back to DOS and re-ente rit later; you can't do that with QPC - to go back to DOS or Windows you have to close down QPC and it takes a long time to start compared with the QXL. HOW DO YOU UPGRADE TO SMSQ/E WITH THE QXL?DOES IT COME ON DISC OR A CHIP OR WHAT? I said that the QXL is faster than QPC. In fact, I find both quite adequate for my needs. I have QPC running on two PCs, one a 486 DX2/66 laptop, the other a Pentium 90 machine, and I don't find either too sluggish for my needs. QPC costs a lot less than a QXL (especially if you plan to install SMSQ/E on the QXL). The QXL is only supplied with SMSQ, which does not pointer environment and some other features of more recent versions of SMSQ/E built in. With QPC, you get a CD Player program to play Audio CDs from your CD-ROM drive/Sound Card, which you don't get with a QXL. NO BUT YOU CAN STILL PLAY YOUR CD'S. The third option of course is to obtain a copy of the freeware QL emulator, QLay. It's available in several flavours, including one for Windows 95 able to switch back and forth between Windows 95 and QLay with ALT TAB, which is not (yet!) possible with QPC. Regarding the 29th February 2000 problem posed by Martin Wheatley, I'd like to quote from 'Computer Programs That Work' by J D Lee, G Beech and T D Lee (Sigma, 1980): "The calendar which we now use was devised by Pope Gregory, and was calculated from the date of the first Nicene council in 385 A.D. It was established on 15th October 1582, but was adotped for use in Great Britain, America and the British Colonies in 1752. "On its introduction, the inhabitants of Shepshed, Leicestershire, rioted because they believed that the pope had shortened their lives by 17 days. "The calendar is based on 365 days a year, with a leap year every year which is exactly divisible by 4, excluding centuries except when they are divisible by 400. The calendar thus repeats itself every 400 years, and contains 97 leap years. Thus 400 years will have 146,097 days. An astronomical year, which is the time for one revolution of the earth round the sun is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45.974 seconds. "Thus 400 years will be 146,096 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes and 29.6 seconds. The Gregorian calendar is remarkably accurate, and the error will accumulate to one day in 3320 years, and since the calendar started in 1582, this will not occur until the year 4902." Gulp, so now we know. From my interpretation of the above, it actually looks like 2000 will be a leap year after all, so if the above theory and my interpretation of it is correct, it looks like every 400 years, we forget about the rule which says centuries are not leap years? TYPICAL,JUST THINK WE COULD HAVE HAD A SHORTER WORKING YEAR! As to ZIP drives, I don't really mind which of these super-floppies we in the QL scene go for, as long as we all go for a compatible one. The choice currently seems to be ZIP drives or one of the EZ-Drives as sold by Qubbesoft (they have discontinued the 135MB drive, but the double capacity EZ-Flyer is now available and compatible with the earlier 135MB media). If the LS120 could just be plugged into the place of a traditional floppy drive on either a QL or a PC and we could all carry on as we were. As it is, I'll need more to convince me that it is time for us all to go for LS120s. As for the price of ZIP disks, the current Software Warehouse catalogue offers 10 coloured zip disks for `89+VAT or 6 standard disks for `44+VAT, so these are gradually coming down in price. Darren, next time I meet you, I'll tell you to your face what I think of being compared to Barbara Cartland. As for my attitudes towards PCs, I'm happy to concede that PCs have their place (mine wedges the door open!), but having taken the time and trouble to master both computers I'm quite happy with either now. I use a PC and QPC as my main machine now, though the others get plenty of use for the jobs they're best at. Having gone through the mill as regards new technology at work recently, one of the rules I've made up is that the secret is not always to rigidly use the same type of technology for everything - the secret is to find the best medium for the job in hand, and as I work in the audio industry, if the best medium for a given job is old fashioned reel to reel tape, I'll use it. Equally, we have PCs and Apple Macs for recording, editing and playout, and I'll even use Apple Macs if I have to (even though I know nothing at all about them!). The same with QLs and PCs, there are some things I can't do with a QL, so I'm able to use the PC. Equally, I can't program a PC very well, so any application I need knocked up quickly for my own use will be done on a QL. There isn't yet a single good reason for disposing of either computer and plenty of good reasons for using both. The one thing which still bothers me about PCs is that when they go wrong, they go wrong in style and cost lots of time, effort and money to put right, as I've found out to my cost. AND ME DILWYN AND ME,I SWEAR NEXT TIME IT GOES THROUGH THE WINDOW,PREFERABLY ONTO THE ENGINEERS HEAD! Good luck Darren with your Z88 International magazine. Send us a copy at QL Today when it's ready! Martin Burke, if you thought hitting 3 vehicles in one hour was good, let me tell you my little story. Being a bit late for work one morning recently, I reversed out of my drive, forgot the wheely bin was there, and knocked it over. As there is a slight downward gradient on my drive it slid out onto the road, luckily not hitting anyone or anything. Thinking (in my panic) I'd hit someone, I put the car in gear and shot forward, nearly hitting my garage door down. So you're not the only accident prone one! I think the 8.3 DOS filename restriction was historically to do with the cost of memory when 64k was seen as absurdly expensive and more than anyone would need - to have long filenames in those days must have seemed an absurd waste of memory. Like the Bill gates joke, by the way. QBranch were at one stage looking at marketing a utility to allow the passing of files between a DOS environment and a QXL.WIN file. I don't know what became of that software, which was to be called Q-Cruiser. HAVEN'T YOU ASKED HIM DILWYN,THAT WOULD BE A USEFUL ADDITION. Dilwyn Jones #! 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 QLCI, Nice to hear from Peter Graf (Q40). I have been watching this project develope for some time and find it very interesting. I am not a great fan of emulating one computer on another, there are always losses and inefficient operation somewhere. Emulators and problems are made for each other. I like to run dedicated Hardware and software when possible. By dedicated software I mean not ported over. So, is this our future hardware, will we be using Q40 (or Q60?) at the end of the year? I hope so. Peter, when you compare your specification to Nasta's are there any ideas you may consider using that you do not have already? List of questions time. Is the 32meg. a definite upper limit or are there plans for expansion if we start to write crazy ram consuming code? You have spoken to Tony Tebby, are there any comments from him you could pass on to us? One last comment from me, I have always wanted to run a QL system (now SMSQ/E) on dedicated 68060 hardware. I am sure Simon Goodwin will take great interest in this, he loves his 68060. Sir Clive's radio, X1. Martin Burke has no X1 radio? This is down to the mailing company, nothing to do with Sinclair at all. They take orders, they take money and when they get time they also post some of the products that they offer. If you sent a cheque you could be in the '28 days for delivery' cycle. Meaning not 28 days from when you post it, not 28 days from when they receive it, not 28 days from when they cash it but 28 days from when they think it should start! I phoned my order through on the credit card, received the X1 in 3 or 4 days put in my ear and switched on, it works fine, what more can I say. Darren Brannagh and Spike: The 'A' team, sorry I mean the 'A' drive. 120mb floppy. Spike's right it needs a device driver, it won't just plug in and go, maybe later? Bye for now, Dennis. FROM:Peter Graf, INTERNET:pgrafq@t-online.de TO:MICHAEL KENNEALLY, MIKEKENNEALLY1 DATE:08/02/98 06:23 Dear QLers at QL Club International, the first redesign of the Q40 has been completed and I am now testing the new hardware. Things are looking good. So far the new prototype runs absolutely stable at 40 MHz Bus Clock (80 MHz CPU clock). I hope that the adaption of SMSQ/E can start soon. For those who did not already read about the Q40, let me give a preliminary description: The Q40 hardware replaces the Sinclair QL by a modern system delivering much more speed, graphics, storage and peripheral capabilities. It uses a new mainboard, designed to run QDOS or SMSQ/E on a 68040. Q40 Mainboard Like the original QL mainboard the Q40 is a complete solution including graphics, peripherals and sound. It fits directly into an industry standard case. No parts from an existing QL, no CPU card, no backplane, no keyboard interface are needed. The Q40 mainboard is equipped with a Motorola M68040 CPU, running at 33 or 40 MHz depending on the version of the board. Here is a list of features: RAM 4 MB up to 32 MB of DRAM. EDO or FPM memory modules can be used. Fast page mode burst access. Two 72 pin PS2-SIMM sockets simplify upgrading. No jumpering required. ROM 256 KB, data bus 32 bit wide by using two 16 bit devices. The sockets support up to 1 MB. Graphics High speed graphics chipset and 32 bit dual-ported video RAM. 64 Hz vertical refresh rate, non-interlaced in all modes, dual scan capability for the low resolutions. Output for multisync monitors with at least 34 kHz horizontal frequency. 9 pin SubD connector (PS/2) or 15 pin HD connector with adapter. Video modes * QL mode 8 256x256 pixel, 8 colours * QL mode 4 512x256 pixel, 4 colours * High color mode 512x256 pixel, 64K colours * High color mode 1024x512 pixel, 64K colours Keyboard Interface Port for MF-102 or XT keyboards, depending on the board version. 5 pin DIN connector. Sound Stereo digital-analog converters, 10kHz or 20kHz sample rate selectable. Line and headphone outputs. Clock and Nonvolatile RAM * Battery buffered real time clock * 2 KB nonvolatile static RAM Disk Interface * Enhanced IDE Controller for 2 (4) Harddisks (16 bit wide data transfer) * Floppy Controller for 2 HD floppies Ports * 2 serial ports with 115200 Baud * 1 parallel port * 1 joystick port Disk interface and ports are on a small IDE / Multi IO card that belongs to the mainboard. Extension Slot The mainboard has two extension slots, one of them is occupied by the IDE / Multi IO card. There are 16 data lines and 20 address lines, all signals are buffered and have a well defined timing. Signals and pinout also allow some ISA cards to be used in the slot. Power Supply An industry standard power supply can be directly plugged into the Q40. Q40 System A complete Q40 system is a Q40 Mainboard in combination with IDE Harddisk and HD Floppy mounted in an industry standard case with power supply, and a MF-102 keyboard. QL Compatibility QL screen modes 4 and 8 are directly hardware compatible, ignoring mode 8 flashing. The 50/60 Hz frame interrupt is available. Memory map and interrupt handling are similar, but ports have changed. Microdrives and the slow QL network are not supported. Development Progress The first hardware redesign has been completed and testing has started. A 68060 version of the board is under construction. SMSQ/E has not been adapted yet. For more information please contact: Dipl.-Ing. Peter Graf Lahnstrasse 32 D 35239 Steffenberg Germany Email: pgrafq@t-online.de ALL I CAN SAY TO THAT LOT IS BLOODY HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANY IDEA ON THE EVENTUAL COST PETER OR HASN'T THE LOGISTICS BEEN WORKED OUT YET?WHY COULDN'T SOMEONE HAVE DONE THIS A FEW YEARS AGO,WE COULD HAVE GIVEN BILL GATES A RUN FOR HIS MONEY! FROM:Bill Waugh, INTERNET:bill@waughql.demon.co.uk TO:(unknown), MikeKenneally1 DATE:08/02/98 11:05 Hi Mike, I am a bit new to all this E Mail stuff so bear with me please. I came across CQLI wilst browsing that nice Mr Godefroy's Web site. I would like to be put on your Email list, I have downloaded QL106 and some of the previous ones and enjoyed reading through them. Many of your correspondents start with a description of there system so here is mine. I am one of the few who paid 400 pounds for a long wait and a QL; after various transformations I have ended up with a QXL2 running on a 120mhz 406 PC and an Aurora,SuperGold card,Qbide,820Mb H/drive system as backup. I THINK MOST OF US HAVE GOT THE T-SHIRT FOR THAT ONE BILL.AND A HEARTY WELCOME FROM US ALL. The interesting thing at the moment is the fact that I think the roles of these two machines will be reversed with the release of Goldfire and Romdisc, although there is no doubt that at the present time the QXL2 is about three times faster then the Aurora system (processing power) the percepction when using them is that the Aurora is faster, this is because the screen update and disc usage is so much better than the QXL's also printing (linedesign in particular) from Aurora is about three time faster than from the QXL. Now a question about Qxl's for anyone who can shed some light, why is it that you can switch between Windows (the PC front end type) and the Qxl if Smsq is configured for Ql,EGA or Vga resolutions but not if it is in Svga resolutions; other users have found the same thing also Ron dunnet can use Zip drives with his Qxl and change discs by switching out of QXl into Windows - change the disc - switch back to QXL (in Vga mode), I using Svga cannot do this, if I want to change a zip disc I have to close the QXL down change disc and restart the QXL. I KNOW THIS MAY SOUND SIMPLISTIC BILL,BUT WHY NOT RUN IN VGA,I DO WITH NO ADVERSE EFFECTS.IF YOU THINK THE GOLDFIRE IS GOOD,READ PETER'S LETTER ABOVE IT'LL BLOW YOUR MIND! I look forward to reading any replies to this. Yours sincerely Bill Waugh Email Bill@Waughql.demon.co.uk -- Bill Waugh