*********************
QL
CLUB
INTERNATIONAL
*********************
ISSUE 105
DECEMBER 1997
M.A.KENNEALLY
EMAIL.106114,710 COMPUSERVE.COM
MIKEKENNEALLY1@COMPUSERVE.COM
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista/4807/
ALL SOFTWARE SENT TO THE CLUB IS ASSUMED TO BE PD UNLESS
OTHERWISE STATED AND WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH.
QXL2 WITH A PACKARD BELL ATTACHMENT
2XQL'S,1X3.5 DISC DRIVES,TRUMPCARD,CANON BJ4100 COLOUR
PRINTER.
HI EVERYONE,
AS YOU CAN SEE WE NOW HAVE OUR OWN WEB PAGES,I DON'T YET
KNOW HOW FAR BACK THEY GO,AS I HAVE LEFT THAT IN OTHER
PEOPLES CAPABLE HANDS.IF YOU HAVE MISSED ANYTHING FROM THE
LAST FEW ISSUES THEN PAY IT A VISIT.
LET ME APOLOGISE FOR BEING LATE THIS MONTH,THE REASON
BEING I HAVE BEEN FLAT ON MY BACK AND FEELING DECIDEDLY UNDER
THE WEATHER.SORRY.
LET ME THANK THOSE OF YOU WHO OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS
HAVE SENT VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS FOR MY EFFORTS,ESPECIALLY
COLIN BASKETT.
IT'S BEEN A FUNNY OLD MONTH,I GOT A CALL FROM AN
'OLD'FRIEND EARLY IN THE MONTH ASKING FOR A GENTLE REMINDER
ON HOW TO USE HIS QL!YOU CAN IMAGINE MY SURPRISE AND
DELIGHT,WHEN IT TURNED OUT TO BE NONE OTHER THAN THE ORIGINAL
CLUBQL IDEA MAN,YES,BILL JOHNS!
IT SEEMED VERY STRANGE GIVING ADVICE TO THE VERY MAN WHO
USED TO GIVE ME ADVICE WHEN I FIRST GOT MY QL THOSE MANY
YEARS AGO!
HE WAS VERY SURPRISED ALSO TO HEAR WE WERE STILL GOING
STRONG,AND TO BE HONEST SO AM I AT TIMES.HANDS UP,THOSE OF
YOU WHO KNOW OF ANY CLUBS WHO ARE STILL WILLING AND ABLE TO
HELP OTHERS OF A LIKE MIND?(THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE THE LIKES
OF THE ROUND TABLE!)
CHRISTMAS IS UPON US ONCE MORE AND MY THOUGHTS TURN TO
THE FRIENDS I HAVE MADE OVER THE YEARS,THE HELP I HAVE BEEN
GIVEN,THE ABUSE(ONLY KIDDING),THE NUMBER OF TIMES I HAVE
TASTED LEATHER(FROM PUTTING MY FOOT IN MY MOUTH!).IF I
REMEMBER CORRECTLY IT ALL BEGAN 105 ISSUES AGO IN JANUARY,IN
THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF MICRODRIVES,128K,A BLACK AND WHITE
PORTABLE T.V.,NO TOOLKIT AND NO IDEA!MY GOD,HAVEN'T THINGS
CHANGED!
SO THIS YEAR,I WOULD LIKE TO SAY A VERY SPECIAL AND
HEARTILY FELT,MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR,BE IT
AS PROSPEROUS AND AS PEACEFUL AS YOU WOULD LIKE.(BUT DON'T
FORGET THE NEWSLETTER AT THE END OF DECEMBER!)
DILWYN HAS VERY KINDLY SENT IN A SMALL SELECTION OF
CHRISTMAS CLIPART,THE FULL COLLECTION AND THERE ARE LOTS OF
THEM ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE USUAL PUBLIC DOMAIN SOURCES,HE
HAS ALSO SENT IN HIS CIA FILES 1996 COLLECTION,IF ANYONE
WANTS THESE I HAVE THEM ON 4 HD DISCS.
AS USUAL THE LOADING SEQUENCE FOR VIEWING THESE SCREENS
IS:LBYTES FLP1_FILENAME,131072.ENJOY.
AS USUAL I SHALL BE BACK IF I REMEMBER ANYTHING ELSE.
MIKE.
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 both 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.
THE SAME PROBLEM USED TO ARISE WHEN TYPING IN PROGS FROM QL
WORLD,I REALLY THOUGHT WE HAD OVERCOME THAT.IS THERE NO WAY ROUND
THIS PROBLEM DILWYN.MAYBE GETTING THE WRITERS TO USE UPPER CASE
L's AND POINTING THIS OUT TO PEOPLE IN THEIR WRITE-UPS?
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.
NOT AS YET,BUT IT IS COMING.SO WE ARE LED TO BELIEVE.
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, Ron) or the Monitor,
to be faulty.
Regards, Ian
*!
Martin Wheatley martinw@ndirect.co.uk
QL, SuperQboard, Twin Disc Drives, Green Screen Monitor
Mersey Mouse, PC running Xchange (QL not quite working at the
moment)
Hi everyone,
Mike enquires
------------------------------------
I HAVE A QUESTION,THERE YOU GO FRANK A QUESTION!HOW DO YOU
ACTUALLY GET ON TO A BULLETIN BOARD?I HAVE ACCESSED THE NENE
VALLEY BOARD,SIGNED IN AND SET A PASSWORD,BUT WHERE DO I GO FROM
HERE?
------------------------------------
I've not been on this one but if it is like Tony Firshman's
there is a menu which tells you to type in a letter to go to the
section you want
I SHALL TRY THIS MARTIN AND AWAIT FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS.
Mike writes about spreading the QL word on the Internet
------------------------------------
ANOTHER WAY OF DOING IT AND NOT VERY POPULAR AT ALL,I AM
BOUND TO GET BLOWN OUT ON THIS,IS TO 'SPAM'THE NET.O.K. I CAN HEAR
EVERYBODY,JUST A SUGGESTION.BUT THERE MIGHT BE SOMEONE OUT THERE
WHO CAN DO IT.SEE NOTE IN MY LETTER.
---------------------------------------
Consider yourself blown out! Non-Internet people are going
to find the above incomprehensible and I'll leave it for someone
else to explain If you want to give the QL a bad name on the
Internet I can't think of a better way of doing it. This is
really not something to be trifled with
I KNEW YOU WOULD MARTIN,UNLIKE DENNIS,YOU KNOW ME TOO WELL!
One of the legitimate ways is to get our newsletter more
widely known. The ClubQL page is now linked to from a number of
other QL pages. We aren't yet registered at any search engines
unless Spike has done it but I think it may be possible in a
couple of months when I get the software. I suspect that at least
one of the pages linked to us is registered and therefore a
search for QL and similar on the Net will eventually get to us.
Some of the search engines may pick us up automatically since
Geocities (the host for the page) would be registered everywhere.
All of this is of course gibberish to most people reading
this so now we return to English!
This next bit is a bit unorthodox since it's replying to a
letter which I hope will be in this issue from Malcolm Roberts.
It's been printed in Quanta and I have asked Malcolm to send it on
to Mike. If it's not here some of this could look a bit odd!
ITS QUITE POSSIBLE MARTIN,I HAVE RECIEVED MALCOLM'S DISC BUT
AM UNABLE TO LOAD IT,MERGE IT OR ANYTHING IT!QPACII SAYS THERE ARE
NO FILES ON IT AND ITS NOT EVEN FORMATTED,IT JUST SAYS 'NO
MEDIUM'.
Malcolm was interested in an article on the PC Ql emulator
QLAY. He asks
Could I keep my data and dispose of the QL
Most QL data files from Xchange can be switched to a PC and
with maybe a little messing about can be used on a PC
Does QLAY contain the Psion progs preloaded
Let me describe how Qlay works. It is a PC software prog.
When you start it up you specify a number of parameters
(Although this is quite a complicated line to type in once you've
settled on the way you want it the best is to put it into a PC
batch file so you can just call it with a word) The parameters are
an image of the QL ROM (supplied with Qlay), the amount of memory
and microdrive images (you are supplied with a blank one which you
can copy endlessly under different names and this can be empty or
cointaining files. Each of these microdrive images is a PC
file the size of a microdrive cartridge which QLAY sees as a
microdrive. Also QLAY has what is called 'native file
emulation' meaning that you prepare a file listing other files in
the QLAY directory which QLAY will then recognise and which can
therefore be loaded. A third method is that QL .EXE files that
are saved on the QL as a disc image (don't ask me to expand on
this - other people will have to - I don't really understand it).
These can then be run by QLAY. XCHANGE is provided in the form
of one of these disc images.
QLAY has limitations. First it must be said in it's defence
that it is still in developement and not completed yet and also
that it is free so we can't complain!
I find it very odd that microdrives have been emulated and
not discs. Indeed I see no logical reason why the writer stuck to QL sized files in the first place since it is on a PC hard disc
and so I would have thought that one size is as good as another -
he could just have set a hard disc sized device onto which all
files could go which would have made it a lot simpler to use. Also
on my machine it is very slow - so slow as to be just something to
play with rather than to use seriously. It may be better on a
more modern machine
YES,THAT IS STRANGE MARTIN.I ALSO WONDER WHY WITH ALL THAT
MEMORY AVAILABLE HE USES MD SIZE SEGMENTS?
How are QDOS files loaded onto a PC
QLAY doesn't help in this but there are a number of ways
which since they have been mentioned here may times I won't go
into (I have written to Malcolm with details)
If you can afford it QPC or QXL would be a better option than
QLAY
IS THIS WHERE WE START THE QXL/QPC WARS?
Martin Wheatley
Terry Williams
GEAR: 2 JS QLs, 1JM QL,SGC,GC,TRUMPCARD,TWIN EHD DRIVES,TWIN
HD DRIVES,TWIN DD DRIVES,14", QMIMI MOUSE, GOLD STAR COLOUR
MONITOR , 9"SONY TRITRON MONITOR, 12" FERGUSON GREEN MONITOR,
SPECTRUM 48K WITH TELETEXT ADAPTOR
Hi Mike & Friends!
Mike: Thanks for the photostat of Sir Clives latest triumph!
It looks interesting. I have sent for one but I don't know if I
can find another hole to plug it into! as I already sport two ear
trumpets‘. May be in our next life we may be endowed with
quadratic ear-holes to take advantage of all the Hi Fi offerings
we have around us today!. I have a magnetic loop set up in the
roof space, which covers the whole house, and the mike by the door
bell as I found that when I was slaving about in the kitchen I
could never hear it! It also picks up the sound of the telephone
ringing and the radio I run in the "computer" room,which can be a
bit embarrassing some times if I am on the phone and the radio
comes blasting through!
YOU GOT ONE OF ME BY YOUR DOOR,THANK YOU.I HOPE I'M INSIDE
AND NOT OUT,AS IT'S BLOODY FREEZING OUT THERE!
I decided I wanted a bit more exercise and got hold of a
bicycle to ride to the local shop, but even though it is fairly
flat around here there are a few slight rises which you don't
notice in a car, which may be a problem in my state of health. BUT
SIR CLIVE TO THE RESCUE! TARA, TARA, he has come up with ZETA 11
(Zero Emission Transport Accessory). It is a small electric motor
whichh attaches to the front wheel and runs from a 7 ampere hour
battery which it is claimed will help in climbing hills for short
periods. I am in the process of fitting it up and have tried
around the garden and hope to do a road test any day now!. Watch
this space!! It is supplied by Vector Services as is Sir Clives
Ear-hole Radio.
AH!,BUT YOU DIDN'T TELL US YOUR CORNER SHOP IS JUST THAT,ON
THE CORNER!
Marcus: Welcome to the club but do not count on enough time
to do what you want when you retire! I have been retired nearly 12
years now but even though I decided not to lie in bed late every
morning (I get up between 6 &7 am) I still do not have enough!!.
TTFN?,I THOUGHT THAT WAS JIMMY YOUNG.
MARCUS?WHO HE?
TTFN (As Tommy Hanley used to say)
Terry
FRANK MERRISON,
GEAR includes 2 x JM QL's: Gold Card: DMP: Epson Stylus 800
printer:
2 x HD disc drives. 486 DX33 & Knee deep in paper & problems!
Mike & friends....
As this is probably the last time of writing before the
so-called festive season may I wish you all well, sober and not
broke as a follow on! With my wife unable to go out of the house
or move far without running out of breath it now falls to me to do
all the shopping, among many other functions. Never was a more
hateful job invented than shopping and Xmas makes it even worse.
We now live in an age when the majority of people own all they
really want or need and if such a need should arise they are most
likely to go and buy it. Hours are spent worrying what to buy for
presents and several changes of mind go by before a final decision
is made. I sometimes wonder how high a proportion of marriages
fail at this stressful time of the year. I originally intended to
make a start on this job today until we went through the list of
suggestions and crossed most out for one reason or another. That
is why I am typing this instead! At least you will get something
from me Mike and even on time maybe!
THANKS FRANK,WHAT'S IT TO BE THIS YEAR,I COULD DO WITH A NEW
SCALEXTRIC!
Not a lot to do with QL's you might add.
When I first moved into the QL scene it was for the purpose
of "findin out what it is all about". Over the years I managed to
slowly progress, beginning with the Psion suite, until I am now
able to use my machine for a series of jobs to do with my various
interests in several local volunteer groups. Membership on Archive
and accounts in Abacus. I moved on from Quill, for letter writing,
to PERFECTION which gave me lots of happy hours sorting out how
to use it until the time when I was talked into trying out the PC
world. With the purchase of an Ink Jet printer I now have this
connected to the PC and this combination is mainly used for
corespondence. The dot matrix being used with the QL for all
other jobs. Having mastered these combinations to enable me to do
what I want to do I often find myself at a loss for things that I
can get interested enough in to want to learn about now-a-days.
The newsletter seems to be full of others' interests that I
neither understand or see a personal use for. Many of the
writings, by others, are at a level that I do not understand now.
I try to follow what is written (not only in the newsletter) about
the "Net" but more and more terms crop up that mean nothing to me
so that it becomes more and more like a partly understood foreign
language. I am thankful for the explanations in last month's
letter about some of the new programs and hardware now being
offered. At least I have a grasp of what is being talked about.
WHY NOT ASK FRANK,IT MIGHT BE THAT OTHERS ARE TO EMBARASSED
TO ASK AND WOULD ALSO LIKE AN EXPLANATION.
Two weeks ago Martin, Cyril and I went to the Annual London
Radio & Computer Rally at Edmonton where there was tons of hard
and soft ware on sale; very cheaply in some cases. I considerd the
purchase of a second monitor and another set of disc drives. One
stand even had a pair of ED drives on sale for `10.00 each. HD
drives at `7.50 each by a firm not far from here. PC keyboards at
`3.00 each or two for a fiver! I bought (among other things) 25 HD
discs, with labels, for `6.00. I have formatted some with no
trouble so far.
In the post I received an advertisement newspaper from
'Greenweld' at Southampton with keyboards to fit on top of Epson
computers (same size and similar fashion to the QL with 79 keys)
for less than `2.00 and switch mode 5 volt power supplies
(suitable for disc drives) for `5.00. They also had a number of
laptop Epson screens offered very cheaply. It occured to me that
this was the sort of thing that Richard was looking to use about
a year ago on a proposed portable QL.
I'M SURE IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED,YOU CAN GIVE FRANK A RING
FOR THE ADDRESS.
Last month Martin quoted the case of a new member at the
London sub-group who is still sucessfully using his QL in it's
original state and it reminded me that, although I am often
tempted to upgrade my machine to a tower case along with the newer
motherboard and a PC type keyboard I do not consider that the cost
and time taken can be justified in giving me an easier to use
machine that will do anything more than the present one. Can
anyone tell me the size of the Aurora motherboard? Does the Gold
Card plug into the end as in the original?
Does it actually fit into a QL casing or has a PC style to be
used?
I THINK FRANK THAT THE AURORA CAN FIT INSIDE THE ORIGINAL
CASING,BUT THERE AGAIN I HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO BE WRONG ON OTHER
OCCASIONS.
Well, well! Another page + that "I don't know what to write
about....."
Best wishes to all Frank Merrison.
#
Michael Kite
11th November 1997
Equipment: Gold Card; QL Minerva 1.97 mk.1; Hermes; Two 3.5"
Disc drives; One 5.25 Disc Drive; Philips colour Monitor;
SERMouse; Seikosha SP-1000AS 9 pin printer with serial port. Epson
RX 80F/T+ 9 pin printer with parallel port (added serial port
board removed) 486 PC with 540 meg hard drive: The PC is only used
for things which are compatible with the computers at work.
Mike Thank you for sending last months mag to me. PLEASE NOTE
THE NUMBER 3 HAS NOW BEEN ADDED TO THE BEGINING OF MY PHONE
NUMBER. Please send me the QL105 mag.
NO PROBLEM MIKE,IT IS DULY NOTED.
Well its only 40 odd days to christmas so hers wishing every
body a happy christmas and a prosperous new year.
Reference the printer problem artical I sent for the QL100
mag. It seems that some people could not understand what the
problem I had was, so I will repeat it:
I have a Epson 80F/T+ Dot matrix printer which has a parallel
port and a serial port that has been added some time before I
brought it. The serial port is a board which plugs directly into a
socket on the parallel port board. I have used this printer with
my QL plugged into the serial port and it has always printed
without any problems.
I then had a Amtrad 386 PC which I plugged into the parallel
port of this printer and it also printed with out any problems.
Next the PC was changed to a 486 using parts obtained from a
colleague at work and some new parts.
When I went to use the printer with the new 486 PC it would
not print anything. I checked all the printer settings in the PC
which were all correct. Also the PC showed that it had sent the
information to the printer. I then took the PC to work and it was
checked on a inkjet print which worked alright.
All connections in the printer to PC lead were checked as
well as the connections on the parallel port board. these were all
correct.
After a lot of thought I decided to unplug the serial board
from the printer and try it with only the parallel board, the
printer then printed without any problems.
So it would seem that the newer PC,s are not so tolerant as
the older ones.
Well thats all for this time
Mike Kite.
#
#!
Colin Baskett
28 November 1997
EQUIPMENT: QL FITTED WITH SUPERGOLD CARD; MkI MINERVA -
version 1.82;
SUPERHERMES; 170 MB HARD DISK; SINGLE 3.5" HD DISC DRIVE; ED
DRIVES; PHILIPS COLOUR MONITOR; SERIAL MOUSE; PRINTER BJ10sx;
XCHANGE 3.90L, etc..
Dear Mike,
I have at long last produced a cock-shy for Bill Newell re-
"the "old" QUANTA mailing lists". The initial idea is to try it
out on a small number of lapsed members to take the temperature of
the water before attempting something on a larger scale. It will
be important at that stage to get the message right. Any
suggestions?
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.
Just had a longish telephone conversation with a QUANTA
member who now mostly uses a PC. For his purposes he finds PC
software much faster and slicker (i.e. it carries out operations
at a key stroke which require a great deal of fiddling with QL
software). This is in addition to your point about Windoze being
fancier (than QPAC2) and looking good.
I HOPE YOU POINTED OUT TO HIM THAT SOME QL SOFTWARE DOES
EXACTLY THAT!BESIDES LOOK HOW MUCH IT COST BILL GATES TO DEVELOP
AS AGAINST THE QL AND HE NICKED SOME IDEAS FROM SIR CLIVE!
You said: "I SAID IT LOOKS GOOD, NOT THAT IT'S BETTER. THERE
ARE FAR TOO MANY MENUS TO GET YOU TO WHERE YOU EVENTUALLY WANT TO
GO.THEREFORE MAKING LIFE THAT LITTLE BIT HARDER. ESPECIALLY IF YOU
ACCIDENTLY HIT THE MOUSE BUTTON TOO EARLY AND YOU LOAD THE WRONG
BIT OF THE PROG!" Windows may get it right eventually. I am told
it is now better than Windows 3.0! We MUST identify the QL's plus
points, satisfying though it may be to knock the competition!
I USED WINDOZE 3.11 BEFORE '95 AND TO BE HONEST I PREFERRED
IT AS IT WAS EASIER TO USE.EVEN NOW I SOMETIMES WISH I STILL HAD
IT INSTALLED!
Any offers? QL pluses, I mean.
Is it true that our software (or some of it) lends itself to
programming by the user more easily. What do other users have to
say. You said "THIS IS TRUE,WITH QL SOFTWARE,IF SOMETHING GOES
WRONG IT TELLS YOU WHERE AND WHAT PART OF THE LINE THE PROBLEM
IS,THEREBY AT LEAST GIVING YOU A CHANCE TO 'HAVE A GO'.THE ONLY
PROBLEM IS WHEN IT IS CODED IN ANY FORMAT.THEN I'M KNACKERED!"
We have your earlier points about making the emulators
INEXPENSIVE AND SOME OF THE "OLDER"SOFTWARE FREELY AVAILABLE TO
THEM,SO THEY CAN SEE HOW GOOD IT IS AND MAYBE PERSUADE THEM TO BUY
THE "MODERN"PROGS. You also said "HOW ABOUT SENDING THEM ONE OF
THE FREE ISSUE EMULATORS(PD)WITH INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO LOAD AND
USE IT,WHEN YOU GET IN TOUCH WITH PAST MEMBERS! WHAT WILL IT COST?
PENNIES ONLY,AS DD DISCS CAN BE PICKED UP FOR SONG AND IT ONLY
COSTS A 2nd CLASS STAMP TO SEND THEM! ANOTHER WAY OF DOING IT AND
NOT VERY POPULAR AT ALL, I AM BOUND TO GET BLOWN OUT ON THIS,IS TO
'SPAM'THE NET.O.K. I CAN HEAR EVERYBODY,JUST A SUGGESTION. BUT
THERE MIGHT BE SOMEONE OUT THERE WHO CAN DO IT."
You said re- the cumulative cost of all the bits and pieces
you need to put together to get a state of the art 'QL'. "THE
CUMULATIVE COST IS DECLINING SOMEWHAT OF LATE,BUT IT IS STILL
EXPENSIVE.WHEN YOU THINK NOW YOU CAN BUY A PC FOR LESS THAN `500
NEW AND SECOND HAND EVEN CHEAPER,STICK QPC,QXL OR QLAY IN IT AND
STILL SAVE MONEY. WHAT'S THE ANSWER?"
Sorry if that seems repetitive. I am trying to keep all the
points together otherwise they will get forgotten.
NOT A PROBLEM MATE,JUST CONFUSING!
Dilwyn wrote: "we have to present the QL in a positive light.
It's something I've tried to do with QL Today, .... Those QL users
who are on the Internet can help here, but extolling the virtues of
the machine and its operating system especially. The rumoured new
windowing system from Tony Tebby will give us a new edge, and once
Web browsing facilities arrive there'll be little we can't do for
ourselves. As it is, we may have to use the PC to actually access
the Web at the moment, but there are HTML and Lynx readers courtesy
of PROGS and Jonathan Hudson, while someone else is working on the
libraries needed to implement full browsers. The likes of Dave
Walker are working on library managers, so the whole thing is coming
together, albeit gradually.
THIS WILL BE A GREATLY NEEDED ADDITION TO THE QL AND WELCOMED
BY A GREAT NUMBER OF USERS,WHO MAYBE THINK THEY ARE BEING LEFT
BEHIND ON THE INTERNET HIGHWAY!
.... the sheer fact that QDOS/SMSQ is now available for so many
platforms is a positive selling point for trying to attract back the
many users lost to other computers - ... We're probably being
over-optimistic in hoping to attract new users, apart from a few
tinkerers who relish the challenge of implementing a new operating
system on their PCs or whatever, but it ought to be possible to
attract back former QL users if we do it in a positive and
co-ordinated way.
You wrote: "IN THIS DILWYN,I AM IN TOTAL AGREEMENT.ALTHOUGH WE
MAY ATTRACT A LOT OF EX QL USERS BACK IF ONLY WE COULD LET THEM KNOW
WHAT THEY CAN DO WITH QLAY,QPC AND QXL IN THEIR PC'S.EVEN THOUGH
THEY MAY HAVE GONE ON TO A PC,THEY WILL MORE THAN LIKELY STILL HAVE
THEIR QL SOFTWARE AND LONG TO USE IT AGAIN."
Back to Dilwyn: "In terms of what makes SuperBASIC a good
programming language, QL users are quite used to being able to write
their own applications in a short time, rather than have a team of
programmers take weeks to produce something on a PC (albeit, the PC
one will probably look prettier and be finished to a higher
standard, until it goes wrong anyway). We shouldn't be competing
with that kind of computer software, the type which takes several
people months to prepare, but look at the QL scene where good
software is produced by one-man operations (witness SMSQ/E by Tony
Tebby, a complete operating system produced mostly by an
individual).
You wrote : "THE PC PROGS ARE AIMED AT THE MASS MARKET AND
THEREFORE ARE UNLIKELY TO DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU WISH THEM TO DO,
WHEREAS IF YOU CAN PROGRAM IN SUPERBASIC YOU CAN GET EXACTLY WHAT
YOU WANT. OR IF LIKE ME YOU CANNOT PROGRAM AT ALL AND YOU WANT
SOMETHING SPECIFIC, YOU COME TO A GREAT CLUB AND MEMBERS LIKE THIS
LOT."
Am I being over optimistic or are we beginning to draw
together a list of selling points for the "QL" ??
NO YOUR NOT,THERE ARE A GREAT MANY GOOD POINTS ABOUT THE
QL,MAYBE AN IDEA WOULD BE TO GO TO A FEW OF THE PC SHOWS WITH A QL
BANNER AND QXL/QPC UP AND RUNNING ON PC'S SO THAT ANY FORMER USERS
WHO GO TO THESE CAN SEE FRO THEMSELVES,ALSO TO SHOW THE PC CROWD
WHAT REAL MULTI-TASKING IS!
More QL pluses or pithyer ways of putting it please, PLEASE!
Dilwyn, thanks for the Canon Help-Line number. Although I
wasted a long time trying to get help on colour printing from Canon
for my daughter's BJC-210, it is probably worth while asking them
about changing emulation on the 4200. After all that is the machine
they recommended to me, through John Lewis plc, when they decided
they weren't prepared to release the colour printing codes to me.
The bit in the manual on printing in colour doesn't work and was,
say Canon, carried over by mistake from the manual for another
unspecified machine. Sorry to go on about this but I still feel
sore.
Frank points out, correctly, that my daughter is presumably
using the Epson mode and will have no need to change. Our only
worry was the possibility that she might accidentall switch it to
BJ mode and not be able to get back Presumably there is some
combination of code which, if sent to the printer, will cause it
to change mode - and it might get sent accidentally, - possibly in
a crash ?
I THINK IF YOU LOOK IN YOUR PRINTER MANUAL IT WILL NEED A
MULTIPLE KEY PRESS TO GET IT TO CHANGE MODES.YOUR PRINTER DRIVER
IS STILL THERE EVEN AFTER A CRASH.
Thanks for the offer about the manuals. My daughter has the
Programmers manual as well as the ones supplied with the machine.
If she had a PC there would presumably be no problem. Printers are
getting trickier for QL users.
Darren:-
Have you tried DDtoED? There would be no HD hole to fill in
and it seems unlikely that the manufacturers would deliberately
produce DD disks to a lower quality since they are presumably now
only a minor part of the market. Worth a try??
Andrew Halliwell (Spike ?) wrote: " The "reading the function
keys" problem. Well... They way I'd do it is to simply do
something like...
10 a$=INKEY$(0)
20 IF a$=CHR$(code for F1)
30 THEN whatever
40 ELSE IF... etc etc etc... (Remembering the END IFs )"
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? I know it
looks a simple thing to try but with SuperHermes and a separate
key-board if I jigger up my boot progam I am left with no means of
communicating with the QL. No keyboard ! And then I have to look
for my emergency boot floppy.
QUANTA is about to publish two articles on C68 (in successive
issues). Any chance that you might have anything to say on this.
Snags, improvements in doing things or whatever. Grateful, if you
could.
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 !!
Also experiences with QLAY.
That's all for now. Cheers!
Colin B.
#!
Mike Dodd
25 November 1997.
Gear Now Working;
QL + TRUMP 896K
Minerva 1.98 or JS 3.5" and 5.25" Drives
Plus a Sinclair QL Printer.
Dear Mike + Members,
Where has the year gone ?
Could someone tell me if the year 2000 is a true leap
year. 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 had seen somewhere that if the year is divisible by
400, (which 2000 IS), then it is not counted as a leap year.
I would like to wish all members a very merry Christmas
and a Happy new year.
All the Best ,
Mike D.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Darren Branagh,
Rep. Of Ireland. 21st November, 1997.
QL & COMPUTER GEAR INCLUDES: One Gateway 2000 Pentium PC running
QPC (demo), 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_), 150+ 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.
Dear Mike & The Gang,
By the time you all read this, it will be rapidly heading towards
Xmas, so firstt things first - may I wish all of you a peaceful
and happy one - Beannachtai na Nollag, agus na hAthbhliana, as we
say here in Ireland.
OK, where to start - all of the QL today subcribers out there will
no doubt be having a good 'ol giggle at the photo of me in the
latest issue, taken at the Irish show. Actually, the photos came
out quite clear and all where easily recogniseable, (Well done
Dilwyn, much better than some of the previous photo attempts.)
Enjoyed Jonathan's Qascade piece too, although I haven't had time
yet to try Qascade myself.
Glad you liked the Sir Clive miniature Radio Mike, It certainly
captured my interest, and I sent off for one as an early pressie
for myself - hasn't arrived yet, but I'll keep you posted.
I've seen an advert in PCW (yeah, I know, a PC mag!!) about the
new LS-120 floppy drives from Panasonic. these seem to be
wonderful little devices because they are exactly the same
dimensions, size, fitting, and connectors as a normal 3.5" floppy
(DD or HD, or ED) and they will also accept any of these three
disk types. The real difference is that they also accept
Panasonic's new LS-120 disks - which are exactly the same size and
weight as a DD or HD or ED floppy (actually, you have to look
closely to notice any difference) but with one crucial difference
- these will format to 120Mb on a LS-120 drive unit!!!!
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 `85,
while the disks are `10+-ish, so would be a load cheaper than EZ,
ZIP or QubIDE setups.
I know - the first thing I though was how reliable are they? Well,
I have just heard that COMPAQ, the big PC manufacturer are going
to be fitting them as their A: drive on all their machines AS
STANDARD from early next year - so they must be good. Now, begs
the Question - could they work with a QL?? remains to be seen, if
they have jumper switches, they I suppose its possible....
Ok, now to a few points raised last month....
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.) I'm sure the wonderful J.Hudson esq.
has fixed this in a later version, but I don't have it - This
version suited my needs as I had a Trumpcard QL when I did the
review of it for Ql today a few issue's back, so I couldn't have
tested Hd anyway - as I only had DD drives!! Sorry!! Now that I
have a QXL II, I use the Dos reader faciliy of SMSQ, like Dennis.
Dennis was also back to his 'ol ideas that everyone has SMSQ or
SMSQ/E, so why don't they use that - dead easy. As I said before
SMSQ/E costs around `100, and not everyone is at that level (If
SMSQ hadn't come Built-in to the QXL I got, I doubt I'd have
bought It - I'd still be using IBMDISK or MULTI-DOS, or my
preference - XOVER, which is commertial of course.
Oh, nearly forgot - Private Haliwell (TEN-SHUN!!) also had a
problem with MULTI-DOS. Well, I didn't realise that Outln_rext was
needed for this to work, sorry. I can't give you a copy of this as
it is not PD, but part of Jochen Merz QMENU package. I think it
has something to do with controlling and configuring the outlines
of windows or something like that, but don't quote me.
Mike - I think you got the wrong idea regard the news I gave last
month about Steve J's hard drive Virus problems. You see Steve
uses a QXL just like me, with a QXL.WIN on it. The QXL.WIN file is
a DOS file NOT a QL one!! It contains lots of other QDOS files
when read by QXL, but as far as MS-DOS is concerned it is a big
file just like any other, and therefore just as easy to infect
with a virus. You were quite correct what you said about QL
viruses, there aren't any yet ie. an Aurora system or a native
"real" QL system couldn't pick up a virus, but any of the
emulators that use the PC as a host (QPC, QXL or QLAY) could!!
Especially when connected to the internet, as Steve's was at the
time!!
Talking of viruses, I wiped one out only last week on a friends
machine, using the Dr.Solomons software that I got free when I
bought my Pentium a couple of months ago. It was identified as
"Cascade 1701" by the software - hopefully this is no relation to
Qascade, by Jonathan Hudson!!
Oh, the effects of cascade 1701 - it made letters in Word
processors or text files fall off the screen!! seriously!!
COLIN BASKETT: Colin, by the time you read this you should have
got a letter from me "pledging" my support to QUANTA. I already do
a lot of reviews for QL Today (Just ask Dilwyn) so if you want me
to review a few things for you, no problem - Just ask. (Dilwyn has
no problem doing this!!! ;-))
Also, colin, you said as regards to my HDtoED bodge article that
you only had good results when you used Polyfilla and not
Cellotape to fill the hole on the HD disk. To answer your quiry,
YES THE CELLOTAPE IS AT FAULT!! It would seem to me that your ED
drive is one of the newer ones, with what is called an "optical
light sensor" - basically means that you ED drive shines a small
beam of light at the point where the ED hole should be (or HD, to
sense which is which). If the light shines all the way though, and
is picked up on the other side, logic dictates that the hole must
be open, or the light wouldn't have got through!! By using
Cellotape, which is clear, the light went through anyway, (the
cellotape just acted as a window) and the disk was taken to be
Write-protected, to a degree, which is why the polyfilla worked
much better; this was thick and dark - blocking the light
completely, so the disk formatted OK!!
Even the other ED drive types are a bugger is this regard; as they
have a little "feeler arm" that pops into the hole if its open, or
is held back if the hole is covered - the cellotape can sometimes
get 'indented' by the arm, thus having no effect!! Polyfilla or
araldite or some industrial filler such as silicone sealant are
the best to use.
Anyway, totally un-formatted brand-new disks are the best to use,
I haven't had any problems yet with these. (I'm speaking via
Hilary's ED drive or course - I don't actually have one myself!!)
I use thick, black insulating Tape, as on black HD disks it is
barely visible - if cut neatly to fit with a pair of scissors or a
stanley Knife.
Right... thats QL104 looked after, now some queries of my own.
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.
Oh, and how do I have all my program available on Buttons so I can
just click them to start 'em?? I can minimize them to a button
after booting and loading them(thanks to a quick line from Dilwyn
- Thanks Pal!), but I want them all loaded and on a button on
Booting the machine, if you know what I mean.
HOT_whatever commands are a real obstacle to me, (although a
booklet Dilwyn sent me helped a great deal) as is the button
frame. anyone care to do a tutorial on this??
Anyway, must go. I hope to make it over to the Bristol Workshop on
Nov. 30th, so I might just get to meet some of you all there -
depends on work and this new job........
MERRY XMAS!!!
Darren D. Branagh
_________________
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Email : dilwyn.jones@bbc.co.uk
GEAR: JM/Minerva QL+Gold Card+ED drives; Aurora, Super Gold
Card v2.49, Qubide 1.37, 420MB Conner Hard disk, ED and DD drives,
HP Deskjet 320; Amstrad ALT286+QXL+Zoom modem+Canon BJ10sx; P90
Black PC and QPC;Toshiba T2100 486DX2/66 with QPC.
Dear Mike,
First of all, members will probably be glad to hear my
anti-PC wingeing is all but over, and at last I'm on fairly good
terms with my PCs, thanks to actually finding someone local who
actually uderstood them properly. I got my old Black PC out of the
garage, dusted it off and made a determined effort to bring it
back to life, as it's never really worked reliably.
I nearly gave Jochen Merz a heart attack when I told him this
by email, something like: "I've had my black PC fixed, and for the
first time have fallen in love with a PC." The next day came an
email saying something like, "This is a bad joke, who is that sat
at Dilwyn's keyboard pretending to be Dilwyn Jones?"
What caused this sudden change of heart was meeting the
helpful guys at a company called PSU Ltd in Bangor. This was the
third company to try to fix the never ending problems with this
PC, and after a two day struggle (to quote, their engineer said,
"boy did we have 'fun' with this PC!") The problem all along was
that there was a timing problem between the RAM cards and the
graphics card, and the graphics card was operating at borderline
tolerances. So they threw it away, put another card in, upgraded
the memory to 16MB, reformatted my hard drive and put Win95 back
on. What a difference, having struggled so long with a pathetic
machine, it's now in a completely different league.
This means I now have another PC for sale. This is an Amstrad
Integravision PC-TV, P75 processor (upgradeable), 8MB RAM
(upgradeable), 14.4K fax modem, various bundled software, all
manuals, 850MB hard disk, hard disk download CD-ROM and bootup
floppy, built in TV tuner card and teletext, microphone, built in
speakers, sound card, CD-ROM, remote control for the TV functions,
and it runs QPC happily. Never tried a QXL in it.
The asking price is only `400.00 The snag is it's a big heavy
machine, so personal callers only please, though I'd be prepared
to lug it to a workshop to meet someone, for example.
Don't anyone think I'm starting to prefer PCs over QLs,
though. It'll be quite some time before things get that bad!
There was some mention of wildcards (in connection with the
UNZIP program) in the last issue. What wasn't very well explained
was how to use the wildcards themselves. The asterisk and query (*
and ?) characters are used to represent two types of symbol which
can mean any sequence of characters or a single character
respectively. The ? wildcard is easiest to understand, because the
question mark can stand for just about any single character.
Suppose you wanted to specify all 4 character filenames which
start with P. This could be represented by P??? and the system
would match any filenames such as P100 or Pete, for example.
Alternatively, you can use an * to specify a vague sequence
of characters of any length to match that part of the filename.
For example, to match just Quill _DOC files you could specify
*_DOC, so any filenames which begin with anything and end with
_DOC can be matched.
Imagine that like me you give filenames for letters to people
which consist of their initials and a reference number or date,
e.g. a letter to Mike might be MK251097_DOC. Using this knowledge,
I could select all letters to Mike by using MK*_DOC.
Unfortunately, the operating system has no support for all
this, it is provided purely by the application. C68 programs can
access parameters in this way, like the UNZIP program. Solvit Plus
from Geoff Wicks also uses a similar technique for word searching
to solve word puzzles.
I've now sent the 1996 CIA World Factbook to the PD
libraries, and also sent Mike a copy. It's on 6 DD disks, so too
big to distribute with the newsletter.
And speaking of disks, now that we have various members
drilling the hell out of floppy disks to double their capacity,
one thing worries me. It may work in that disks become 6400
sectors (or whatever Colin's QL says), but how do they get rid of
the dust and particles drilling causes - surely if these get on
the surface of the disk, that's bye bye to your disk and probably
your heads as well, or am I missing something?
My offer to act as back issues librarian still stands if we
want to do this. I'm sure there'd be enough demand for back issues
to warrant a complete collection being held, or perhaps a PD
service like Steve Johnson might keep a complete set in a separate
collection within their libraries.
Darren suggested I put some of the Christmas clipart with the
next newsletter. Fine, but there's so much of it. I've sent Mike a
photocopy of the printouts and he can choose a few to put in the
December issue. Don't forget, it's freely available from the usual
source of freeware/PD if you want the complete collection. I've
also got some Christmas clipart for Line Design if anyone wants
it.
In addition to the problems mentioned last month, Steve
Johnson got himself a completely different problem - he had some
unexpected visitors while he was away, who "kindly" removed all
his QL gear for him without his permission. As you can imagine
this caused all sorts of problems. He has backups of his software
library thank goodness, but it's going to take him time to get
re-equipped and to reinstall all his software on his hard disk. I
suspect that the virus probably infected his PC hard disk, Mike,
not a QL hard disk, I've yet to meet a real QL virus even though I
looked into how such a virus might be programmed some time ago.
Basically, it's much harder to write a QL virus than a PC one,
thank goodness!
Darren, I'm not the best person to ask about SMSQ/E. Just ask
Jochen Merz how often I ask him things when I get it wrong or run
into a problem!
QLay now has one useful extra little feature, there is a
version which can multitask under Windows 95, meaning that unlike
QPC you don't have to quit from it to use another Windows
application.
Bristol Portishead workshop coming up on 30th November, hope
I'll have seen a number of you there!
Dilwyn Jones
#! Martin Burke,
24th November, 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.
So it's Merry Christmas to all our readers already? And
wishing you all a Happy and preposterous ... I mean prosperous New
Year. 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.
Thanks to Spike(less) for the zip info: like much else I
won't fully absorb it until I use it: most month's it is as much
as i can do to read QLCI. Darren Branagh's comments about SMSQ/E
made it seem more desirable - certainly if I start doing more work
on the the QL.
As for my SGC and QL: I took both to the London QUANTA
meeting and they worked fine. This seems to suggest some problem
with my power supply - either the black box or the mains supply
itself.
Yours,
Martin Burke.
#!
17th November 1997
Hello
SYSTEM: QL+SGC, MINERVA 1.97, HERMES, 2XHD, {QUBIDE+170M
DRIVE} ETC. ETC.
OK- here goes again. Firstly, I gather from newsletter #104
that you can handle HD format - great - that should save both of
us some bother! I've enclosed several discs with this, so you can
fill me in on the other issues I've missed since #100. I know you
sent #102 all neatly zipped up, but I'm afraid it won't unravel
itself, so could you please repeat. The QLAY.zip "unzipped" O.K. -
so it's not my "unzipper" at fault. I've actually suffered quite a
bit from corrupted files in the post, so it doesn't suprise me
that #102 "went west". Then again, it might just be me old
disks...
On the subject of zippers etc., Dilwyn seems to have had some
problems, as answered by Martin Weatley. Yes, a file with a ".T.*"
suffix indicates a TAR archive. QUBBEsoft "specials disk 48"
contains an "un-TAR" routine. This may be of some help, if Dilwyn
hasn't sorted it already.
With reference to Frank's letter, yes, I agree that some sort
of explanation of what a program is supposed to do is essencial -
especially when it starts crashing around you ears. Also, a lot of
demo versions of commercial software seem to be sent out with
little or no explanation. This really can't help the sales
figures.
With reference to his comments on compression routines, it
would be worth his while persevering and learning how to use them,
especially zip/unzip, which is also an archiver, i.e. it can stick
a load of associated files together into one (much smaller) file.
Excuse me if you've heard this all before, but worth repeating. In
the good ol' days, when mdv cartridges cost 3-4 quid, and floppy
systems needed a bank loan, compression saved space, and therefore
money. Today, with floppies at ha'penny each, this may not seem
relevent, but I think that there still are good reasons for using
these routines. As programs grow and get more complex, it can be
difficult to stick all the necessary files (progs, data,
docs/txts) onto a single disk, especially DD's. Also, how many of
us, after countless years of keyboard- slogging, now find
ourselves drowned in disks from long-ago, full of back- ups,
letters to tax-men, bank-managers etc. etc.... All important
stuff, maybe, one-day, who knows .... so why not collect up all
those letters or whatever, and zip 'em all up onto one disk,
instead of 2-3. Using archivers for backup copies saves a HUGE
amount of space. Also, and finally, with telephone lines becoming
more important everyday, compression is a must for
up/down-loading....
Oh yeh Mike, you asked what it's like down here - well, I
wouldn't stay if I didn't like it, now would I??? {;-))} Also,
you got it right 1st time - just JC....
Keep well, and cheers for now,
JC - Plaza Santa Agueda,9 - Aizoain - 31195 - Nafarroa -
EUSKADI (not spain)
P. McPHERSON,
20th November 1997.
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.
I suppose you all thought that you had got rid of me, well
the proverbial bad penny returns after four more stints in
hospital since my last contribution to QLCI. I was due for a
transplant but it was cancelled because my diabetes and asthma are
too unstable, meantime my doctors have found a 3cm tumour in my
gallbladder (which is normally only 9cm long). The usual procedure
is to whip the whole lot out but the surgeons are not prepared to
operate because they don't think I would survive the anasthetic -
so now you know as much as I do.
Unfortunately, I am a couple of issues behind the rest of you
because I couldn't get issues 102 and 103 to load via Xchange,
Quill or Perfection, I am suffering the consequent withdrawal
symptoms and I am writing this "blind" as they say.
I owe Darren a grovelling apology for not getting in touch
after he kindly sent me some PD Giff and Tiff programmes (see
above for excuses Darren - I will be in touch). They worked well
with Line drawings such as cartoons and clip art but I am still
extremely dissapointed in the resolution they are capable of. Will
the day ever come when we can get genuine "photo quality" images
on the QL? As an aside, can any of the flatbed scanners on the
market be used with a QL?
For those interested in producing photographic images on
their computers (on a PC or Mac) there is, at long last, a decent
consumer digital camera on the market which produces good quality
images. Having just tried one, it's the only consumer digital
camera that I would be prepared to recommend to anyone at the
moment. It's the Olympus C4100L which features a 35-110 zoom lens,
a shutter speed range of 1/4 to 1/10,000th second, a sophisticated
flash system and a 1.4 million pixel CCD which, when paired with
an Olympus P300E printer yields a finished print quality of 300 dots per inch which is fairly close to 35mm photo quality when
enlarged to 10x8". It comes bundled with PC or Mac cables, Kais
Photo Shop software package valued at `300, Teo 4Mb smart media
card and a rechargeable battery pack. The down side is that the
camera costs `1300! but I have beene reliably informed by a trade
insider that this price is to be reduced in price by as much as
40% by the summer of next year.
I don't know how many of you are aware of the situation, but
Steve Johnson of SJPD fame was burgled recently and had all his QL
gear, most of the harware mentioned in his "For Sale" section of
his catalogue disk, `760 worth of power tools and `2700 worth of
fishing gear nicked. Fortunately enough he was insured and had
backup copys of his PD software (a lesson for all of us there I
suspect). Nevertheless it represents not just a major blow to
Steve but to anyone who uses a QL or a QL compatible like myself
that got much of my PD collection from him. I suspect that Steve
could do with a bit of morale support right now to encourage him
to continue supplying QL users with software and hardware,
especially since there are so few suppliers left these days.
Having passed his 10 GCSEs with good grades, our Bob has
settled into college doing "A" level Maths, Physics, Computer
Studies and Electronics so I havn't a clue what he's talking about
half the time. His latest project is to construct a prototype
railgun and devise practical, non-violent uses for it. Apparently
a railgun fires a projectile using electrical current as opposed
to using a chemical such as gunpowder which makes it more economic
and yet the projectile travels at such a velocity that it is
capable of sinking a warship. Bobs idea is to scale the whole
thing down so that it can be used in engineering, building
demolition and as a pile driver for the construction industry, as
opposed to a weapon.
Nobody at his college, including his tutors, have ever heard
about the QL which I found a bit disconcerting. They all seem to
be so PC oriented, that even the Mac doesn't get a look in. Thats
a whole generation of would be computer experts that have never
heard of the QL, makes you think doesn't it? Incidentally he has
invited you all to leave him a QL related message or information
on his college web site, his address is:
robert@smsuk.solis.co.uk
As you might expect Bob has had to learn to programme on his
"A" level computer course, using Pascal which came as a bit of a
suprise. I would have thought they would have used something like
MSDOS, ROOT CPM, one of the versions of BASIC or "C". Having seen
Bob write an accounts package in a couple of hours and looking at
the listings, I was able to see why they chose Pascal. It really
is a suprisingly easy computer language to get to grips with, even
for a dunderhead like me.
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?
Just in case the next issue of QLCI is not produced before
Christmas, can I take this opportunity to thank Mike for his
stirling service and wish him and all the other members a very
happy Christmas and hoe that Santa brings you that piece of
software or hardware that you always wanted!
Yours Fraternally,
Paul & Bob
Malcolm White
Another go at putting fingers to the keys. It is now
November 8th and I have just got round to reading QL/100 from
start to finish (disgusting, I know). As I get older I seem
to be getting busier than ever - Oh to be back at work for a
rest!!!.
I must admit that QL/100 left me feeling depressed - I
realised how much I had lost touch, and most of the technical
reports went way over my head. I just plod on using the four
QL basic programmes, with Taskmaster, and must admit they do
all I seem to require. Mike, I did try using QpacII, got
into a mess - and guess what - went back to Taskmaster.
Will have a go at using Xchange and see if I get any better
results. Having said that I do use DTP and LineDesign which I
find very good. I have got further involved with our
Community Centre, having taken over the day to day running of
it, and a lot of my work is on their computer - using mainly
WordPerfect, although we are hoping to have Windows95 up and
running shortly.
Having missed a few months again, can I please have copies of
QL/101 onwards as I have not seen any answers to my queries
in QL/100 yet.
I have just been trying out some of the other items on the
disc with QL100 - did not get a single thing!!!!! In case
you do not remember what was on the disc, I am enclosing a
list from Superdisc Labeler.
Short report I am afraid, but I must get on with some Club
accounts that require updating. Until next time,
Cheers..........Malcolm
#! Dennis Smith.
NET1(downstairs) = (installed in a mini tower) Aurora, Super
Gold card, SuperHermes, Qubide, 420Mb hard disk, EZ135 removable
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 all,
As you can see above I have just stuck a second hard disk in
the main computer, it is a SyQuest EZ 135Mb. If you didn't know
these have a removable cartridge and works like a floppy disk
except the storage area is very much larger.
Spike: In QLCI 104 you mentioned the Qubide checksum command
WIN_CSUM 1,1 and WIN_CSUM 2,1
Well done. I had forgot to do it on the new hard drive and
only remembered about it whilst reading through QLCI (again). I've
just set it now, good timing!
You also mention outln_rext - what is it? It's part of QPTR
and sometimes thrown in with software that you buy to get that
software working. LRESPR 'qptr' and all the pointer toolkit
commands are there, you don't have Qpointer toolkit do you? I
can't give it to you as you know it's commercial. Is this a
wind-up Spike? You know what OUTLN is don't you. I thought you of
all people would know!!!
The Goldfire thing and simms. To simms or not to simms. Lets
say the maximum ram this time will be 128 Meg. Will you buy 128
Meg., I don't think anyone will. The Goldfire will probably come
with 16 Meg. already on it. If you want zero Meg. or greater than
16 meg. this will be an option. So if I have 16M and you have 128M
in the initial years this will make no difference at all, the
machines will work the same, with the same programs running,
imagine 16M giving an out of memory report!! Remember this, there
will be a lot of extra bits and pieces on the Goldfire that will
make it very desirable. The ability to scan documents, anyone
interested in that? etc. etc. I still say its the colours that are
in Aurora that will make the big difference. People will see high
resolution with plenty of colours, it will make a world of
difference when comparing the QL to the Aurora/Goldfire. As I have
said before the Goldfire card will (at the moment) plug into a QL
motherboard. The penalty of backward compatibility is that we will
lose a few percent of speed. Using this method (QL motherboard and
Goldfire) you are building an unreliable computer, don't do it.
The QL motherboard really is old now, the ones I use give no
problems at all that is because I 'fiddle' with them from time to
time (you didn't know I was musical did you?). I think people
should now be looking at owning a low power consumption computer
that may be left switched on continuously and be as near to 100%
reliable as possible, day after day, week after week, month after
month. This means new circuit boards and the latest components on
these circuit boards. This is new thinking, new ideas put into
practise. The QL motherboard is beginning to be a bit of a lead
weight around users necks now. When is it going to 'pack in'
again? I have not mentioned multi-processors, I don't need to, do
I? Comments on that lot everyone?
Before I leave Spike there is one last comment. I thought
your 'definitions of QL thingies' was very good, informative and
good reading.
Martin Wheatley: Sub-group expense.
Quote Frank and Mike:-
or even the arranging sub- group, might well assist with the
costs in some way.
I AGREE FRANK,LOCAL SUB GROUPS COULD WELL SUPPORT THE LOCAL
MEETING AS THEY BENEFIT FROM THEM AS WELL
---------------------------------------------
Quote Martin:-
I'm curious about this. In what way does the local group
gain?
---------------------------------------------
Yes exactly, we (three of us) run the local sub-group. A
Quanta workshop might cost 200 pounds or more. If I give some
money to pay for some of this how do we get it back? Or we don't
get it back and just accept this. Should we give 50 pounds each
for allowing us to organise the workshop? Organising a workshop is
all about spending your own money anyway. I used my phone, my fuel
and my time, there is no return. I have already spent my money for
the benefit of others, do you want me to spend more? How much
would you like me to spend for your benefit? This is what it comes
down to. Spend your money on being a Quanta member and make the
effort to go to Workshops. Meetings like this bring together great
minds which sparks invention, which leads on to products that you
can purchase to improve YOUR computing, it's a circle, don't break
it.
Darren Branagh: Make HD disks into ED disks. Yes this does
work but I have heard that you cannot format them down to HD
again. Someone must want to do it one day! Last year I purchased a
load of new IBM branded ED disks and was selling them for a pound
each at Quanta workshops. Up North they sold like hot cakes, down
South hardly anyone took any notice of them. What a strange bunch.
Top quality disks at give away prices. Perhaps they thought they
would 'wait and see', well they are still waiting because I'm not
going to do it again. I'm sure there are people that if someone
was to offer to save their life they would still have to think
about it.
The File info 2 question. Get the latest version v3.02(?).
LRESPR 'FileInfo2_bin'. EX 'FI2config_obj ', this version is
v2.01. You will need to patch Qpac2 to get the full benefit of
FileInfo 2, the patch is provided. Execute something in Qpac2 that
cannot be executed like a text file for example. Lets say the file
'win1_mytext_txt'. This generates an error which is picked up by
FileInfo2 and the 3 or 4 character suffix of the file name is
examined. In this case it would be txt. What you have configured
in the FileInfo2 configurator to happen when _txt is encountered
will then happen, like start QD (a pointer text editor) and load
in that text file for you to read immediately. Recap, Qpac2
execute _txt file, QD starts with 'win1_mytext_txt' already
loaded. Less than half a second for a small text file and your
reading it, quick and no messing. It is completely excellent.
Imagine instant view screen pictures, start GIFs, etc. Another
example, Qpac2 execute QL105_doc, Xchange is started, Quill is
started and QL105_doc is loaded, all on one click of the mouse,
job done.
Colin Baskett: Polyfilla verses cellotape. The check on your
drive may be optical, as you can see through cellotape...
Mike: Would the QL be able to access the external modem on
your PC, yes, pull the modem cable out of the PC and plug it into
the QL (25 pin D usually). OR do you mean QXL access the modem.
Yes it can.
Do you have your QL/Aurora in a mini tower case or are you
thinking of building one? If so have I got good news for you.
SeQueL (our sub-group) have cured that very annoying problem of
having to chop various holes in the rear of the case to
accommodate various connectors like 9 pin and 25 pin "D" serial
connectors, VGA, SVGA, network jacks and DIN sockets. We can now
supply a plate with these cut-outs already done. The plate screws
or bolts to the rear of the mini tower. It will accommodate 16
various connectors. Interested?, phone me if you want one (some).
Miracle have announced that the Ultra Gold card will now not
be manufactured. Take notice, that's the loss of a major project.
See you next time. Dennis.
Graham D Lutz
e-mail:Graham.Lutz@virgin.net
Gear includes:- Minerva 1.93 AURORA QL with Super Gold Card,
ED and HD disk drives, 40Mb IDE HD, SyQuest 128 HD, Goldstar
EGA monitor, Canon BJC-4100.Various other QLs.
New addiition:- 200Mhz MMX PC.
Dear Mike and fellow Quantum Leapers,
As you can see, I've succumbed to buying a new PC. This is
mainly for 2 reasons, one being the Internet but mainly for
the kids.
I'm now saving for a copy of QPC, but until then my trusty
machine is not far away.
I cannot contribute much this month, as my schedule at work
gives me less time than ever, but I should be back to normal
for the new year.
Until then, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year.
Have fun !!
Graham
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