Overview The TS2000 series of computers claims an extensive group of features of hardware and software. The machines feature 24K ROM. The TS2048 has 16K RAM at its disposal while the TS2068 wields a well-utilized 48K RAM. CPU and Operating System The TS2000 uses a Z80A microprocessor running at 3.5MHz. It contains a few buffers,…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.30.25
In the time that I’ve been doing the QHJ I have received responses like “good job”, “nice work”, but very little actual comments (good or bad) on the overall content of the QHJ. In thinking of what to put into this issue, the idea of a reader survey popped in to my head. I am…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
Back in QHJ #13 I have a cursory review of the Prolog interpreter written by Hans Lub. I said that when I found the book that the interpreter was based upon, I could look into it further. Well, I found the book; The Art of Prolog by Sterling and Shapiro. Even though Hans described the…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
I have recently found a QL FTP site that allows the storage of binary files. The site name is: maya.dei.unipd.it I am guessing that it is being run by one of the Zannetti brothers in Italy. The key advantage of this FTP site is the fast distribution of QL software. As an example, version 4…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
I’m still distracted by my other hobby, wargaming. In tying the two together, I thought about dice, percentages, and To-Hit rolls. In gaming a To-Hit roll is a die roll, where your try to roll a certain value or less. For example, for a To-Hit roll of 10 with 2 six-sided die (2d6), you would…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
One of the major defects of QUILL is the lack of an “EXPORT” function. Only after release 2.35, PSION added the export command. But also in this case, if we want ascii text from a doc, we have to : 1) load QUILL2) load the document3) select the export option4) export the document5) quit QUILL6)…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
Again another issue has taken longer than I wanted to come out. Since the last issue one important thing has happened to further complicate my life. Her name is Ashlyn Nicole; 7 Lbs 2 oz, born 23 November at 5:17 PM. Recently I attended a local book sale, that had a good selection of computer…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
This demo program, SID (Stochastic Indexing Demo), see listing 1 below, simulates clouds as seen by a satellite looking straight down. As a pictorial rendering of clouds, it is rather poor since it only uses circles to indicate where clouds are. But with a little imagination, one can see structures that resemble some types of…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
Here is an interesting response to a posting on editing files larger than memory. The algorithm listed below has a few good points, but also a few bad ones. I guess the key problem is finding the last line of a file quickly without scanning through the entire file each time. – ED arisz@csri.toronto.edu (Aris…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
In past issues of the QHJ I’ve covered this contest. I’ve included Round 5 for completeness – ED PAPER FOLDING You are given a sheet of paper that contains all asterisks (‘*’) on top, and all pound signs (‘#’) on the bottom. A three by five sheet of this paper would look like this: *****…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
Here are a couple of related postings that I found on USENET. Each one gives a slightly different view of a number of computer languages. Programming Languages As A Car THE PROGRAMMER’S QUICK GUIDE TO THE LANGUAGES The proliferation of modern programming languages (all of which seem to have stolen countless features from one another)…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
In some postings in on Usenet, there have been some conversations about converting from different bases. I found this task interesting and thought I’d give it a try. I did fairly well in writing a routine that would convert from Base X to Base 10. Converting from base 10 to base X was more difficult.…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
Recently I’ve been distracted by one of my other hobby, wargaming. There has been a discussion on USENET about freeware space combat games. Having designed one a few years back, I quickly did an ASCII version and posted it. This then lead to further distractions in that hobby. Feeling guilty about “abandoning” the QL, I…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
It has taken a while to get this issue out. I would like to thank Al Boehm for submitting an article and making this issue that much bigger. I’m always ready to receive an article for submission. I’d like to see what programming other are doing out there. The last weekend of August is the…
article, orig pub: 11.30.25, updated: 11.30.25
In QHJ #12 there was an article on Cellular Automata that discussed how CA could be used to quickly and easily solve mazes. On Usenet I’ve seen some postings that deal with other ways to solve mazes (the more “classical” approaches). I thought they would be of interest. – ED Can anyone gave me suggestions…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
Mark Schnitzius (schnitzi@eustis.cs.ucf.edu) has started and runs the Internet Conciseness Contest. The contest is designed to provide an outlet for recreational programming. The contest accepts programs only in Ansi C. Scores are based on the number of tokens in a program. The lower the score the better. Mark is up to Round number 4. Below…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
This was a document that I found on the Internet that I thought would be an interest to the C programmers out there – ED
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
Reading through Tim’s article on text editors in QHJ #13, I found that his list of editors available on the QL was far from being complete. That is why I would like to add the following to his overview. SEDIT by Ralf Redoendt of Dilwyn Jones Computing A small and fast editor written in compiled…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
It’s been a few months since the last QHJ, but I’ve been busy working on a few projects and doing some traveling. In early June I traveled to Newport, Rhode Island to attend the “Miracle in Newport 93” QL show. There I was able to meet some QL’ers that I have not met before, plus…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
Those who have not yet heard of the super time that was had by a group of North American QL users … prepare thyself! On the 5th of June was held the first ever all-QL show in North America, at the Salvation Army Headquarters in Newport, Rhode Island. Paul Holmgren, my wife Carol, and I…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.27.25
Even in Newport, Herb and I carpooled and thus had a chance to talk about what to think about, look for, or wonder about. Herb, as one might expect, had about twenty items on a written list and I, as usual, had a few vague ideas on my mind. So, we were well prepared for…
article, orig pub: 10.15.22, updated: 11.27.25
Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Miracle Systems Demonstration of their new QL products, originally slated to be held in NY, will NOW be held at the Salvation Army Headquarters located on Memorial Blvd., in Newport, Rhode Island. Bob Dyl of IQLR (QL international publication) will be sponsoring this event. The showing will be…
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 11.27.25
I have been programming with FORTH for a number of years now and have used it on the 1802, PDP-11, 6502, 8080, Z-80, 68000, 8086, V-20, 80286, and the 68HC11 CPU’s. The different CPUs have many different assembly languages and when writing programs that you want to run on all the machines you can have…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
In the last QHJ, I mentioned that I could not get single byte input to work in SuperBasic for my QL to Z88 program. Peter Sulzer kindly wrote back and proved that I was wrong. Below is a short routine Peter sent that shows how standard SuperBasic can do byte input. – ED 100 OPEN_IN…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
MausNet has brought news of a few recent ports to the QL. Below are the details: CRON – Elik Slagter has written a version of Cron, the Unix Execute-at-a-certain-time program. Cron is a process that runs in the background and will execute a particular program at a described time. The crontab file tells Cron what…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
David Nash (dnash@chaos.demon.co.uk) responds to a past article on books that most programmer’s should have. – ED I fully agree with your bookshelf – I have recommended almost all the books in your general and language lists (I have read ‘Elements’ but have not seen it in a bookshop. I don’t have the Knuth books…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
While on the subject of languages, I thought I would finally take a look at a program that I had received a while back. Salvador Merina of Spain has ported eFORTH to the QL. eFORTH is a portable implementation of a FORTH interpreter. The main version of eFORTH is the MS-DOS implementation. Not being a…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
While looking through the IFE database I found reference to a Proglog Interpreter. Once I got the disk, I found QL Prolog version 1.00 (20 March 1990) by Hans Lub. Before I could review the package, I had to learn a little Proglog. I found a Prolog book at my local used computer bookstore and…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
With some recent ports of AWK and LISP to the QL, I wondered exactly how many languages are available for the QL. I then look thought some older QL World’s, an older copy of the QUANTA library, and the IFE library to see what I could find. Below is a list of the languages I…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
This is a short review of the text editors available for the QL. Editors come in two basic types: moded and mode-less. A moded editor is one that has a command mode and an edit mode. The Unix editor VI is a classic example of a moded editor. All commands are typed in with out…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
Here is the first issue produced from the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio. We are now moved and mostly settled in. Next, I would like to apologize to the e-mail readers of the QHJ. When sending out the last issue, my mailer went south on me. Most people reported getting up to 60-70 copies of the…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
I’ve been playing with Cellular Automata (CA) since College. (See QHJ #4 for a more in depth discussion of CA) I’ve seem some articles that talk about how CA can be used in Physics and Chemistry to simulate various chemical reactions and particle simulations. I have not seen any fairly practical applications that can be…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
This issue is a smaller than I’d like. As the new owner of a Z88 I’ve been spending time playing with it. Not being good a soldering, I took me a while to make some cables for it. Plus, having a bad soldering pencil did not help matters. This will be the last issue before…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
As the new owner of a Cambridge Z88 laptop, I needed a way to transfer files to and from the QL. I did not have enough memory to use Z88COM and I wanted to use the built in Import/Export utility. Transferring files from the Z88 to the QL was easy. Enter COPY SER2 TO RAM1_FILE_EXT,…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
Don Walterman has sent a program that reads a MacPaint file and prints to an HP Deskjet printer. Don claims that this is his first C program. If so, it’s very ambitious. Don did not send an article describing his program, so I’ll present it as is. For formatting reasons, comments are below the lines…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
Through work I have come to know one Alex Bocast. When I first met Alex, he mentioned working on a Pattern Matching Algorithm, which he calls Token Reconstruction and that he was pursuing a patent on it. About a few months ago I saw Alex again and queried him on how his patent was going.…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
In the June and Oct 1992 issues of Dr. Dobb’s Journal, there were two articles on LZW compression. The second article is an improvement to the first program. The original source code was formatted for 80 columns. Since the QHJ is 60 columns, I’ve had to do some reformatting of the code. Some comments follow…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
In QHJ #9, Herb Schaaf wrote a program that created Random Dot Stereograms based on a Mathmatica program published in a Mathmatica magazine. A number of RDS’s have been posted to alt.3d in postscript form. Herb and I have ruined our eyes looking at these things. All of the posted RDS’s have a high dot…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
All of the C programs that I get from non-QL sources get to the QL via an MS-DOS disk. As most know, MS-DOS uses LF/CR for newline and the QL uses just LF. I’ve written a simple SuperBasic program that will strip off the last character from each line of a file, thereby getting rid…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
In one of my program idea brainstorming sessions, I came up with the idea of writing a program to completely erase a floppy disk. The idea comes from government regulations. When deleting classified information from a disk, the disk must be written with all 1’s, then all 0’s, and then random 1’s and 0’s. After…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
I have received version 3.03 of C68. Just before this I picked up a copy of 3.01 and had problems with it. I expected to get version 3.02 (a serious bug fix of 3.01) but got 3.03 instead. Version 3.04 has been released by Dave Walker. He seems to put out a new release about…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
One problem I have noticed with writing this section of the the QHJ is that I that I don’t have the words to introduce the issue. I try to get each QHJ done at the end of the month before publication. This coincides with the publication schedule of the CATS newsletter (the other newsletter that…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
Editor’s Note – There is a Freeware Unix package called PBMPLUS that converts to/from a number of graphics formats. It does this by using three intermediate formats, PBM, PGM, and PPM. Herb Schaaf has written a C program that will convert a PGM and PBM file to the QL. Since the conversion is going from…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
In the European part of Usenet, there is a newsgroup called Maus.sys.ql. This newsgroup is for the discussion of all things QL. Due to the low numbers of American QLers that read Usenet, a Usenet feed has not been established. I have established an e-mail feed from the newsgroup. This means that all articles posted…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
Over the years I have picked up a number of computer books. Some I have purchased for classes, others I have bought out of my own interest. I have also scoured various libraries to see what sort of selection of computer books they have. Through all of this I have come across books that I…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
This issue is the second issue to take 3 months to come out. I had not planned on a quarterly schedule, but it has come out that way. There are two primary reasons for this delay: 1) My daughter is now crawling and requires more supervision and this means I have to do my share.…
article, orig pub: 11.27.25, updated: 11.27.25
The May issue of “Dr Dobb’s Journal” focused on data communications and included articles on checksums. One article covered Fletcher’s Checksum, an algorithm faster than CRC and just as reliable as CRC, except it handles smaller blocks than CRC. CRC checksum will catch a 2 bit error in a 65,535 bit message, where as Fetcher…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
In the March 1992 issue of “The C Users Journal”, Rex Jaeschke has a column called “Doctor C’s Pointers”. He has been running a series of articles on data structures in C. In one of the column on stacks, he presents a infix notation to postfix notation translator/convertor. Infix notation is what is used in…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
Random Dot Stereograms (RDS) can give the illusion of depth if you have binocular vision. Instead of the usual pair of stereoscopic pictures, a single ‘picture’ is made with several swaths side by side, interleaved so as to provide the brain with depth clues when you gaze at the dots in a certain way. It…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
Through subscriptions at work and home, I read a number of computer magazines, including Dr. Dobb’s Journal (DDJ), C Users Journal, Unix Review, Sun World, and Info-World. These magazines discuss programming, programming trends, and programming utilities/software. Two of the leading topics of discussions have been Object Oriented Programming (OOP) and Software Engineering, which includes Computer…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
In the past few months I have recieved some disks containing public domain and Freeware software for the QL. The disks came from Howard Clase of Canada, and Franz Herrmann of Germany. For the record, Freeware software is software that is copyright by the author, but everyone is free to copy and distribute the software.…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
For those readers that have Internet access, Timo Salmi of Findland has started an Anon-FTP QL Server, garbo.uwasa.fi (128.214.81.1). Garbo is already an MS-DOS server but Timo has set aside a section for the QL. To start things off, he has uploaded a number of his programs. I have uploaded back issues of the QHJ…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
Guiseppe Zanetti mailed me a copy of an Ansi C to K&R C convert program that came from the GNU project. I have played with it and it seems to work. It is limited in dealing with just the function definitions, translating these to the old K&R syntax. It does not convert any special ANSI…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
I’ve been scanning throught some old issues of Dr Dobb’s Journal trying to set the spark to a new programming idea. I was reading one article on architecture ( and / or gates, etc) and the word parity leaped from the page. I had a sudden flash back to my college days where I was…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
A few months ago I picked up a inexpensive pen-based MS-DOS laptop. It came with a Word Processor that handles handwritten input from the screen. I’ve found it usefull for taking notes at meetings and writing short letters while watching TV. The word processor stores it’s files in its own format and not ascii. I’ve…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
In writing strip_c and converting the file to an ascii file, I needed to know what ascii characters were in the file that I would need to strip out. A number of ascii characters are not used in text files, ones like End of Transmission, Acknowlegement, and so on. On a Unix system, there is…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
With this issue, the QHJ is now also being distributed via electronic mail. With the recent advent of a QL Internet mailing list, the QHJ can be distributed to QL users all around the world in a matter of minutes. Even QL users on CompuServe can recieve the QHJ via e-mail. The QHJ will still…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
[Giuseppe has sent this response via e-mail from Italy. His English is far better than my Italian, but I did make a few touch-ups where needed. – ED] Your idea on the last page of Novembers issue of the QHJ was great (“Why not make a QL-Clone…”). My idea is: CPU is a 68XXX mounted…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
Through various means I have gotten in contact with Franz Herrmann of the German QL User Group “Sinclair QL User Club e. V.” After some communications, he sent me a disk with some interesting files. Firstly, there is the IFE (Inter-group Freeware Exchange) database that constains listings to over 53 MB of QL programs. The…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
One of the problems I’ve encountered in publishing souce code in the QHJ, is the dilemma of publishing a newer version of a program (or bug fixes). I could publish the whole program but this would waste bandwidth if only a small portion of the code has been changed. Another way is to publish the…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
A while back I took a week off from work to spend time at home finishing some programming projects (hey, I had plenty of leave stored up). One of the projects that I finished was in implementation of Core Wars for the QL. Below is the documentation that I wrote for the program. It details…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
With this issue the QHJ is now 1 year old. It’s been fun publishing the QHJ. It’s given me a chance to write the kind of articles that I want to write; those aimed at QL programmers. It’s also kind of neat to have complete editorial control. Over the last year I have “meet” a…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
In QHJ #3, I reported on some benchmarks that I ran on Lattice C and Small-C. Now that I had C68, I decided to run the benchmarks against it to see how it compares with the other two compilers. Here is how all three compilers compare: Prime Numbers Small-C Lattice C C68 29000-32767 5 Sec…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
A new item I learned this month is that the QDOS rights to North America is held by Mechanical Affinity. I wrote Frank Davis trying to learn more about this. I specifically asked him if the rights to QDOS include creating a new QL. He responded by saying that he was not too sure. The…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
The Levenstein Distance is a measure of how close two strings are to each other. The Levenstein Algoritm is used to calculate the Levenstein Distance. The Levenstein Algorithm takes two strings and determines what it would take to transform one string into the other, using deletions, additions, and changing characters. The more that must be…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
The December 1988 issue of “Computer Language” had an article on substring searching in C, based on an APL algorithm. One interesting feature of the substring search function is that it returned a array that pointed to all occurances of the substring in the string. Some algorithms only return the first occurance of the substring.…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) is mathmatical convention for handling expressions. RPN is most commonly found in Hewlett-Packard calculators. RPN, like Forth and Postscript, is stack oriented. Operators only handle data stored on the stack. The infix (or normal) expression 3 + 5 would be expressed as 3 5 +. Note the operator goes at the…
article, orig pub: 11.26.25, updated: 11.26.25
Last issue Mark Martin reported on a Dutch BBS that was being run on a QL. I forgot to mention that the same person that wrote the QL BBS also wrote a number of other programs, that Mark has sent me. The three major programs on the disk are: UNZIP96, QVIEW, and QBOX. UNZIP96 is…
article, orig pub: 11.23.25, updated: 11.23.25
While looking at the archives for the comp.sources.misc newsgroup on Usenet I noticed that there had been a posting on tools for the QL. I was able to download the posting and get the tools. The programs came from Giuseppe “Beppe” Zanetti of Italy. Giuseppe has written a number of programs, including the ones posted…
article, orig pub: 11.21.25, updated: 11.21.25
This issue of the QHJ is a little late. It’s been three months since the last issue. I try to get an issue out every two months. The reason for the delay is the arrival of my daughter, Caitlan Anne. The Tech Specs are: born 27 Sept, 5 lbs 2 oz, blonde hair and blue…
article, orig pub: 11.21.25, updated: 11.21.25
In a recent article in The C Users Journal, Don Lang discusses how to implement 2D arrays on C. His article covers code that when added to the original Small-C source, allows Small-C to support 2D arrays. Since the source code for the QL’s Small-C compiler is not available, we could not use the code…
article, orig pub: 11.21.25, updated: 11.21.25
I know of a few QL users that have postscript printers at work and transfer QL documents to another word processor to format and print out on the postscript printer. For some this is time consuming. I have written a NROFF-like text to postscript text formater. It basically allows the user to input a text…
article, orig pub: 11.21.25, updated: 11.21.25
The last four issues of the QHJ have beed done using Quill. Quill is a decent word processor but it has problems with large files. It is sooo slow when dealing with documents over 15 pages long. I have decided to move onto another text editor. I have ED, The Editor, and MicroEmacs. Ed is…
article, orig pub: 11.21.25, updated: 11.21.25
Most QLers probably don’t realize what exists overseas for the QL. I also don’t think that they realize what exists out there for the QL and a modem. I feel that I can say this because of a few experiences I have had. The first is with GEnie. I subscribed to GEnie for a few…
article, orig pub: 11.20.25, updated: 11.20.25
In the last month I have recieved quite a bit of QL related news. Most of it is important to the QL programmer. QL International Bob Dyl of Rhode Island has started a new QL newsletter call QL International. It is designed to be a news source of QL related news gathered from around the…
article, orig pub: 11.20.25, updated: 11.20.25
This month has been a busy month for QL news. See the following article to find out what has been going on. This month print formatters are the rage. I did not mean it that way, it’s just that two good ideas hit me at about the same time. I hope that others can find…
article, orig pub: 11.20.25, updated: 11.20.25
IFS is what Michael Barnsley calls his Iterated Function Systems, and IFS is another part of fractals (remember those Mandelbrot all-nighters ?). Barnsley did IFS a few years ago and has gone on to bigger and better stuff now. He explains how IFS can be done by anyone with a personal computer using a “collage”…
article, orig pub: 11.20.25, updated: 11.20.25
Back in college, I was short 1/2 a unit from graduating. To make up the unit, I enrolled in a 1 unit Independent Study course. With hours left before the enrollment deadline, I picked what I thought was a weak but interesting subject, Cellular Automata (CA). Well, the more I researched the topic, the more…
article, orig pub: 11.20.25, updated: 11.20.25
In translating one of my pet programs from SuperBasic (first it started in Pascal), I needed a number of random numbers. Not finding a random number generator in Small-C, I decided to write the program in Lattice C. But, Lattice C does not really have any QL graphic functions. So back I go to Small-C…
article, orig pub: 11.20.25, updated: 11.20.25
This issue is another one that took some time to come together. I have spent part of the last two months beating my head against a single program. I have been working on a C version of my Cellular Automata program. After I finally found a decent random number generator, I made some changes to…
article, orig pub: 11.20.25, updated: 11.20.25
A while back I was thinking about the two C compilers available for the QL. The Small C compiler is easy to use, quick to compile, but limited in it’s scope of the C language. The Lattice C compiler is not so easy to use, slow to compiler, but supports the full C language. The…
article, orig pub: 11.19.25, updated: 11.19.25
The QUANTA library has a number of routines that will allow real non-destructive windows in SuperBasic. Since I started working with C, I wanted the same feature written to used with both C compilers. Before going straight into C, I decided to test my algorithm in SuperBasic. SuperBasic is far easier to do developmental testing…
article, orig pub: 11.19.25, updated: 11.19.25
Fcomp_c is another C program from the C User’s Journal disk #236 (Highly Portable Utilites). I only had to make a few minor changes to port it to the QL. The biggest change being uncommenting the #define NO_STRING_H. I have tried the program out with two short test files. Below is the two files and…
article, orig pub: 11.19.25, updated: 11.19.25
Editor’s Note – Herb Schaaf has sent me a couple of Small C programs via e-mail. He did not include an article about the two programs, so I am just presenting them as is. One is an update of my previous find_c. Be aware that Herb adds a number of bells and whistles in his…
article, orig pub: 11.19.25, updated: 11.19.25
After putting out two issues rather quickly, your all probably wondering what happened to this issue. There is one simple explanation: bad keyboard. My QL feel ill by the most common ailment of older QL systems, a bad connection between the keyboard matrix and the motherboard. My QL went bad in early February, just after…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
The C User’s Group has disk full of C programs that have been written for portability. One of these programs is a C beautifier (cb_c). This is a program that takes any C code and outputs a file with the C code in “proper” formating. It does things like indenting, putting single statements on a…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
This program started out as an attempt to examine a disk with corrupted files. The problem may have been with my disk drive. Just a suggestion to others; try reading the disk in another drive before you give up on it. At any rate don’t write anything to the disk! Before I knew it I…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
I have written a C program that will search for a particular string in a file. My first version of the program worked only on text file. The second version was designed to work on Quill files, or any binary file. The reason for these two programs, is that I was trying to help a…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
I’m a bit surprized to have this issue out so soon after the last issue. But, the source code from Herb Schaaf’s article and the C Beautifier made for quite a few pages. Since it was enough to fill an issue, here it is. Some of you may have noticed that last month’s issue had…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
For those that don’t know what Minix is; Minix is a small Unix like operating system written by Andrew Tannenbaum to be used as an instructional aide in Operating System classes. Felix Croes started working on porting Minix to the QL from the Atari ST version. Erwin Dondorp (dondorp@fwi.uva.nl) has taken over the task. He…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
Mark Wahl, at student at UC Berkeley, has been looking into a public domain C compiler that can be ported to the QL. As some of you may already know, the only public domain C compiler for the QL is the Small C compiler available from the Quanta Library. Small C only supports a subset…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
This excerpt is from “The Quebec Link” column in the Sinc-Link Newsletter from the Toronto T/S Users Group. Default device on the QL Say you are writting a program and it is important to know from which device the user is running it. What can you do? If the user’s QL is equipped with TOOLKIT…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
In the July 1988 Issue of “Dr. Dobb’s Journal”, there is an article on Ratcliff/Obershelp pattern matching. This algorithm is designed to compare two strings and return a percentage of how close they are to each other. A result of 67 means that the two strings are 67% alike. This algorithm can be used to…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
Welcome to the first issue of the QL Hacker’s Journal. This publication is meant to fill the gap in publications already available. There are a number of good magazines that cover programming, but, due to popularity, do not cover the QL. There are also some good User Group Newletters that cover the QL, but are…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 11.18.25
INTRODUCTION Structured SuperBasic (SSB) is another way of writing SuperBasic programs. It allows programmers to write SuperBasic programs without line numbers and with white space between blocks. SSB is essentially a filter. It takes in a program file that is written in SSB and outputs a program file that is in SuperBasic. SSB programs are…
article, orig pub: 11.18.25, updated: 11.18.25
Tiny Sharonville, OH, a suburb clinging to the northern fringe of bustling Cincinnati, was—for the first weekend in May—the site of an incredible national gathering of Sinclair home computing enthusiasts. It was the first to be staged since Boston’s legendary ZX/TS Celebration in late October, 1983. For this two-day MIDWEST COMPUTERFEST, attendance (including family groups,…
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 11.14.25
Here is a code for the 2068 that will produce snowflake-like patterns. Each run will produce a different pattern. The dendrites are produced on lines 80 to 160. The pattern is then developed from line 170 on, with the subroutine starting at line 300 making the copies of the different angles. The code will keep…
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 11.13.25
While for many years the upper echelon of the aviation community has enjoyed the benefits of high-tech devices, general aviation has been slow to adopt the now ubiquitous computer into their cockpits. With the advent of the personal computer, cockpit implementation of the small computer is now both economically feasible and practical. This article examines…
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 11.13.25
Hell hath no fury like a Timex-Sinclair owner whose computer has been scorned. The scurrilous comment in this column was that the little wedge-shaped Timex-Sinclair had finally found its true calling, as a doorstop. At least, that is what the folks at Commodore say, and Commodore is an honorable company. Steven H. Kaye, who teaches…
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 11.13.25
The last meeting was well attended and Fred Lewis gave a demonstration. Fred is working on a program which shows the relationship between elements in a cluster. The demonstration shows the changing orbital relationship during motion of different velocities of various elements in the cluster. Fred also had some reproductions of pictures produced by a…
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 11.12.25
The meeting convened jointly ın ROOM 3052 of the INFOMART at 1950 Stemmons Freeway in downtown Dallas. The next meeting is scheduled for November, 14, 1987 in, MEETING ROOM ‘A’. The meetings are on the second Saturday ọf every month from 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. The meetings are open to all who wish to…
article, orig pub: 07.05.24, updated: 11.12.25
The last two meetings of the CATUG have stabilized with approximately a dozen members in attendance at each one. The February meeting was at the Downers Grove Library where a 747 Flight Simulator was demonstrated on a Spectrum emulated 2068. The Library wasn’t available for the March meeting and Steve Cooper generously provided his home…
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 11.12.25
Peninsula Timex/Sinclair User Group (PUG) Meeting, attendance: 11 The videotape of the Tech-Draw program from Zebra Systems was shown. EBZUG Meeting, attendance: 10 The video tape of the Tech-Draw program was shown. Wayne Seibel reports Pacific Bell’s Call America service is great for you heavy modem users. If you do most of your calling between…
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 11.12.25
Last month’s meeting started at 2 PM as scheduled. The monthly newsletters received were read and reviewed. A great package from William Pedersen of The WIDJUP Co. was shown that will turn your printer into a high resolution plotter. The sample Mandelbrot printouts are impressive, and a disc also is included with a demo. I…
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 11.12.25
There was some qood discussion on our classes and what classes will be held. There will not be a basic Basic class unless more of you are interested. There will be Advanced Basic and Intro to Machine Code. Special class will be the Modem Class. The first two classes will be taught by Lloyd Dreger…
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 11.12.25
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 11.12.25
article, orig pub: 01.02.24, updated: 11.11.25
Timex planned to manufacture and sell a 3068 computer with 1 meg. of memory, 256 colors, and virtual memory for a target price of $199.95. This was just one of the bits of information that was revealed by Mr. Billy Skyrme, the President of Psion America, formerly of the Timex Computer Corp., during the Feb.…
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 11.11.25
One of the buzz-words in the programming field these days is “structured programming”. In general, this refers to programming in blocks of code, each a fairly independent unit unto itself. One of the principal languages supporting and encouraging structured code is Pascal. Pascal was invented by Nicholas Wirth in 1970 and quickly gained acceptance in…
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 11.10.25
For a programmer who cut his teeth on FORTRAN, learned BASIC so he could program microcomputers, and gets a kick out of FORTH, LOGO is the proverbial horse-of-a-different-color. LOGO was developed primarily as graphics and learning language. Although LOGO is a structured language and is capable of utilizing advanced mathematical functions, I don’t know of…
article, orig pub: 10.09.21, updated: 11.10.25
PASCAL was inverted by Nicklaus Winth in the 1960s to be used as a programming teaching lanquage. PASCAL (named for the fasous French mathenatician Blaise Pascal) was intended to eliminate the serious faults of BASIC while retaining the ease of use for which Basic is famous. Semper Software, the purveyors of Partial Pascal, are quick…
article, orig pub: 10.09.21, updated: 11.10.25
Everyone should try FORTH. I am unaware of the exact ratio, but a certain percentage of those who try it will like it, and the rest will hate it. There seems to be no middle ground. I recently read (I don’t remember where a statement of the number of active FORTH programmers which indicated that…
article, orig pub: 11.05.25, updated: 11.10.25
Description/introduction to Forth and short review of ZX Forth.
article, orig pub: 10.09.21, updated: 11.10.25
FORTH is a high-level computer language developed by Charles H. Moore in the last sixties. It was interpretive in the beginning but compiler versions are currently available among which is listed the one we are reviewing now. The basic unit in FORTH is the word, the language is usually provided with a certain number of…
article, orig pub: 07.23.22, updated: 11.10.25
The retailing network for Sinclair-Timex products in Boston is in a shambles. For months now users have been asking the user group about where to buy Timex products and what Timex is doing about the situation. I’ve known for a while about the problem, but didn’t realized how bad it was until I looked into…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Sales of the Timex 1000 (ne Sinclair ZX81), once the most popular home computer, have plunged. Orders for its new 1500 and 2000 models are far less than projected. Timex, which pioneered the super-cheap home computer and led in the pricing battles, sold 550,000 units in its first five months. Sinclair had sold 500,000 ZX81s…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Three decades ago, the Timex Corporation made its name by turning wristwatches into commodities, selling inexpensive, reliable timepieces in thousands of drugstores and discount outlets across the country. Yesterday, industry analysts said the same strategy effectively killed the company’s chances in the home computer market. And the company’s traditional secretiveness, they added, greatly slowed the…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Delivery of the long- awaited T/S2000 series is being moved up by Timex. Demand by dealers and the public for the new series of machines has created pressures to which Timex is trying to respond. Originally scheduled as two machines, the T/S2048 and the T/S2072, Timex has changed this to a single machine, the T/S2068,…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
ITEM: The December issue of DISCOVER, and presumably other magazines, has an 8-page booklet from TIMEX with the comic strip character B.C. introducing the TS2068 and the following peripherals: TS 2040 32-column thermal printer ($99.95, nothing new), TS 2050 Modem ($119.95, no mention whether it is TS1000-compatible), TS 2020 Program Recorder ($49.95, cassette recorder), TS…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Today she was in New York City, talking to vendors, lecturers and media representatives at a computer convention, recruiting people to participate and attend a computer show(the Timex Sinclair Celebration) she is organizing this Saturday at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. Tomorrow, somewhere around seven o’clock, the pace will start again – the phone calls,…
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 11.09.25
It looks a little like the situation in the U.S., where the price war at the cheap end of the market has meant that both Texas Instruments and Atari computer operations are said to be running at a loss and sales of Times Sinclair machines have been sliding. The T/S problems led Sir Clive Sinclair…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Both the Apple and low end computers will benefit if we run articles on ways for businesses (and even homes or schools) to hook some midget computers such as the Timex or VTCs together into a network using an Apple host. As you may be aware, the sale of Timex computers has dropped disastrously in…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
“I’m sure [Coleco] will sell a lot of Adams, but I think the majority of the buying public is still taking a component approach to the purchase of a computer system,” notes Bill Sobieski, vice-president of consumer marketing and sales for Alphacom, a manufacturer of inexpensive printers. Alphacom recently closed a deal with Timex, estimated…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Are you an educator using the Timex/Sinclair line of personal computers? The Timex-Sinclair Educators User Group at Texas Wesleyan College, in cooperation with Timex, is going to publish a quarterly newsletter (The TEC News) dedicated to uses of low- cost computers in educational settings. Each edition will contain features and a section where teachers describe…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Where, 0, Where are the TS2068 technical manuals? I’ve spoken with many people who ordered the new tech manual from Little Rock in April or May and still have not received them, while several other persons have. Why should this be? It turns out that Timex originally produced 200 copies of the approximately 300-page manual…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Timex has reached a $50m agreement with an unnamed Polish industrial firm — via its European agent Takis Patrikarakos of Micro Interface — to supply 800,000 Timex 2068 machines and 200,000 FDD 3000 twin 3inch floppy disc drives to the Polish government. The credibility of Amstrad’s deal with Sinclair has been further eroded with news…
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 11.09.25
As the Wall Street Journal put it in a February 23 headline, “Timex, Anticipating Market Upheavals, Discontinues Sale of Home Computers”. While market trends may have been an important factor in Timex’s decision, the report missed some other considerations that may have been more immediate reasons for Timex’s withdrawal. The Journal report calls Timex “a…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Hi! from Beantown. Yours truly along with Linda Moran and Mattie Durholz attended the GALA BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION of the Sinclair Users’ Group of the Boston Computer Society last week. I really wish you all could have been there to pick up the contagious excitement of Timex/Sinclair Machines, peripherals, software, Historical exhibits and Home-Brewed additions to…
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 11.09.25
The Timex Computer Corporation will enter the personal computer market with the Timex Sinclair 1000. Sales will begin in July through the more than 100,000 Timex retail outlets, including computer stores, department stores and chains, consumer electronics, jewelry, and drug stores. This step is the result of an agreement between Timex and Sinclair Research Ltd.…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
K-Mart announced that 1100 stores will handle the Commodore VIC-20, up from 550 stores two months ago. In addition, a spokesman confirmed that the chain has committed an equal dollar amount (around $10 million) of TI 99/4A home computers. The chain also expects to handle the lower-priced ($100) Timex/Sinclair unit.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Drawing considerable retail traffic during the [1982 Summer Consumer Electronics Show] was Timex, which starts national deliveries late this month on its under-$100 TS 1000. Dan Ross, vice president, computer products, told Mart the unit will be on allocation at the beginning. “Having it on allocation allows us to bring some needed order and integrity…
article, orig pub: 08.15.21, updated: 11.09.25
The Timex Corporation, after watching sales of its inexpensive home computers dwindle to virtually nothing over the last year, officially abandoned its efforts yesterday, saying it had determined it could not make a ”reasonable profit” on the machines. Because the Middlebury, Conn., company is privately held, it could not be determined how much the company…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
My roommate Mark collects “Top 40” singles. He owns over 3,500 45 rpm records. Some were hits as long ago as the 1930s, but most are from the last 20 years. In addition to maintaining this collection for his own enjoyment he uses it to earn money as a dance deejay. He, his sound system,…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
OVER THE YEARS, Timex came to be viewed as a company that knew how to develop and market modern technology at affordable prices. We saw a smooth-running, dependable, always-come-up-ticking operation. It came as a surprise — no, a shock — for us to realize that Timex too is fallible. It is run by people and…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Spurred by a big national advertising campaign, sales of the Time Sinclair 1000 personal computer have taken off. Although Timex will not say just how many of the little $99.95 machines it has sold so far, a spokesman revealed that Timex manufacturing plants are now producing one computer every ten seconds, and production has still…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Greater Cleveland Timex Sinclair Users’ Group wishes to swap public domain programs with other user groups.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Larken Electronics redesigned disk controller for 2068.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Soundesign 2068, available from RMG Enterprises, is menu-driven and only three keys are needed to design a sound effect, which can then be used in a BASIC program.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Three user groups in San Francisco gathering ZX81/1000s and donating them to Nevada prisons. The Guide to T/S Telecommunications, a pamplet by Steve Ishii and Peter Fischer, mentioned.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Timex/Sinclair Disk Drives. Aerco Drive Interface for 2068 (FD-68). RPM (CP/M) upgrade available. FD-ZX (for 1000/1500) also available.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Timex Tabloids: SyncWare News, Time Designs Magazine mentioned.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Timachine, a BASIC compiler, from Novelsoft.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Hardware and software for 1000/1500 from Zebra, RMG and Markel Enterprises. Spectrum ROM from Knighted, Sprites 2068 from Zebra, ROMSWITCH from Russell Electronics.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
TS 2068 technical manual from Time Designs.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
A directory of memory, video, and print enhancements to give your old machine more get-up-and-go. Vendors of Timex/Sinclair software/hardware listed.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Celestial BASIC (programs from Eric Burgess’ Celestial BASIC book) and Halley’s Comet, both from S&T Software, mentioned in the Software For Stargazers table on p 38.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Toni Martinazzi wants to know where to get memory and color packs for his 1000. 2068 is recommended.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Mention of The Fantastic Music Machine and Light Show by Simulsion.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Letter from Robert Chesser looking for business software for his 2068.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
ZCOMM 16/64K, Byte-Back Modem, Spectra Term mentioned.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Where/how to get service.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Puzzle game.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Short bio about the author as intro to his game, Scales. Game presents user with 25 random weights that must be balanced across four scales. If the difference between individual scales is too much, they topple.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Corrections to Ski Trek (February 1984) and Decision Maker (January 1984).
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Mystery Manor puzzle/game for multiple platforms, including 2068.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Timex Sinclair User’s Encyclopedia announcement. Pub by Arrays, Inc. of Los Angeles.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Review of program from Red Balloon Software, similar to Spinnaker’s FaceMaker.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Timex will honor warrantees, dropping everything else.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
I used to use my Timex Sinclairs mostly for business purposes. I don’t consider myself much of a games player, and most game programs obtained from books require long and laborious typing, a process for which I don’t have (or won’t take) the time. Then along came “30 Games.” All of the games in “30…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Puzzle game.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Program displays flowers. Listings for 1000 with 16k, 1500.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Program plays the musical part. Listings for multiple computers, including 2068.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Yard Improvement Planner, by Timex Computer Corp. for the 2068, is one of the programs mentioned.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Computers for Kids, A Kid’s Manual for Programming the Sinclair/Timex Computers and Computer Battlegames and Computer Space Games mentioned.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
When the relatives arrive at your house on Thanksgiving Day to the sweet aroma of cooking turkey, keep them out of your way in the kitchen. Set up your computer with totally different kind of turkey for them to feast their eyes on.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
Poet uses Timex Sinclair 1000 and random numbers to write poems.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25
As the snow falls outside, your family can gather round the computer with glasses of eggnog and fall under the spell of our Christmas Tree program. Watch your computer trim a tree on the screen and surround its base with beautifully wrapped presents, while the tree lights flicker to the familiar tune of an old…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 11.09.25