At the beginning of 1980 Clive Sinclair started selling his first computer, the ZX80. The initial purpose was to take the technology of the day and make it affordable to everyone. By pushing that technology to it’s limits, the ZX80 exploded the limits of price/performance — a full powered computer that sold for less than…
article, orig pub: 01.04.26, updated: 01.04.26
This month marks the second anniversary of the Timex decision to exit the home computer market. Many of us thought that it would all end then, but, happily, we are still here and stronger than ever. When Timex was still around, there was very little third party development going on, but now it is these…
article, orig pub: 01.04.26, updated: 01.04.26
Well, here we are again at the end of another year and we still haven’t given up on our computers. In fact, more has happened in the Sinclair world this year than has happened in any single year since this column began. Therefore, before we say Hello to 1987 lets have a look back at…
article, orig pub: 01.04.26, updated: 01.04.26
At long last I have a new Sinclair QL (for Quantum Leap) in front of me. In fact, this column is being written on it using the bundled word processing software. Available for a little more than a year in the United Kingdom, QLs are just now becoming readily available here in the United States.…
article, orig pub: 01.04.26, updated: 01.04.26
The Timex Sinclair Amateur Radio Users Group is made up of computer users who are interested in putting their Timex or Sinclair computers to use in amateur radio operations. Most of the members are not computer experts, but they do have good technical backgrounds in electronics. So they learn quickly about their computers. Most members…
article, orig pub: 01.04.26, updated: 01.04.26
Time to crank up this old bucket of bytes for another fascinating month, as my fingers gingerly dance across the chicklet keys of my trusty 2068. You’ll be interested to know, upon reviewing your mail over the past six months, here are some interesting results. 99% of you had very kind words (thank you)! Half…
article, orig pub: 02.07.22, updated: 01.04.26
ZX-81/TS-1000 Add-Ons Timex-Sinclair computer users get a boost from Bob Howard WADLI of West Covina, California. He tells us that he was anxious to mention that in the September issue of 73’s RTTY Loop, the answer to VEGY’s question about the TS-1000 was right there, under the ZX-81 banner. “You see, Timex manufactured the ZX-81…
article, orig pub: 01.04.26, updated: 01.04.26
Last month I wrote a bit about a new toy here at WAJAJR, a TRS-80C Color Computer. Based on the most powerful eight-bit microprocessor around, the Motorola 6809, this is a fascinating computer which gives huge potential at a bargain price. Well, I have had a chance to take a quick look at one piece…
article, orig pub: 01.04.26, updated: 01.04.26
It’s alive and well and is now being sold by E-Z KEY and other distributors. This product allows the Timex computer to enter the new era of TELECOMMUNICATIONS. It is simple to install and use. Just unplug your phone jack from the phone outlet, plug this cable into the modem, and connect the modem phone…
article, orig pub: 01.03.26, updated: 01.03.26
The scene shows a small room filled with computer equipment. An. unattended computer is shown dialing all telephone numbers in a California exchange. Those numbers which are answered by a computer carrier signal are noted by the computer for review by its human user at a future time. A high school age young, man, trying…
article, orig pub: 01.03.26, updated: 01.03.26
Probably the most useful type of computer program is the data base since almost anyone can find a need for it and because it can be effectively 3 used without a printer. For Timex computers, Tom Woods has twice provided high quality programs in this field with ZX PRO/FILE for the TS 1000 and then…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 01.01.26
The Sinclair ZX80 costs only $200, yet it has the performance of units two or three times as expensive, the maker claims. A reduced number of parts and simplified construction help keep the price down, Sinclair says. One big cost cutter is a touch-sensitive keyboard. The standard alphanumeric layout provides single-stroke entry of 22 commands…
article, orig pub: 01.01.26, updated: 01.01.26
Don’t let the small size fool you. At just six by 6.5 by 1.5 inches, Sinclair’s ZX81 is a complete desk-top computer. Attached to your TV set, the unit can create graphics-computer pictures- or solve problems with programs you have written using its built-in BASIC language. In some ways, the ZX81 is a step down…
article, orig pub: 01.01.26, updated: 01.01.26
Low cost and wide distribution may make this system the cornerstone of the long-awaited computer revolution.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 01.01.26
The Rompak cartridge system is an excellent low cost accessory for any ZX/TS user. The cartridge is a plugin EPROM read board with an expansion port for your RAM pack or peripherals. It also sports a neat ZIF socket. The documentation is adequate although no schematic is supplied. The board is simple (about three parts)…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 01.01.26
In SYNC 3:1 James Cripps found Thomas B. Woods’ ZX Data Finder to be “the most economical program dedicated to the task of data handling” that he had seen. While ZX Data-Finder is admittedly an outstanding program, it is surpassed by the ZX Pro/File. This new program has all the outstanding features of the earlier…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 01.01.26
Now that disk drives are available for the ZX/TS computers (see SYNC 3:6 for my review of the Aerco Disk System, software in disk format is sure to follow. Go-fer is the first we have seen. The tape version of Go-Fer can be directly transferred to disk. So you do not lose any data entry…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.31.25
The Challenge Donald D. Spencer concludes his Game Playing with Basic with a chapter of programming challenges. Among the old favorites he describes is Boule, the casino game popular in Europe and the Caribbean. This article is my response to his challenge. The Game The game centers on a wheel like roulette, but, unlike roulette,…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.31.25
Do any of the following software “dilemmas” seem familiar? Jerry wants to write games programs which perform faster than his Basic versions, but he cannot quite get the hang of calling and using extensive machine code subroutines. He has heard, however, that he can get a tape-loading compiler-based high-level programming language which runs extremely rapidly……
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.31.25
The Unused 1K-2K Space So, do those of you who have upgraded your ZX81/TS1000 to 16K ever feel sorry for that unused 1K-2K RAM, sitting unloved and unneeded inside your computer? Why not put it to work for you by wiring together this little circuit? It will convert your on-board RAM into a handy little…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.31.25
ROM/RAM Immaterial As a result of my article “Your Timex-Sinclair Can Become a Remote Terminal” (Sync 2:6) a number of readers raised questions concerning the peculiarities resulting from attempting to use memory-mapped I/O devices mapped to addresses not affected by the use of a RAM pack. I have seen many references to the strange effects…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.31.25
In SYNC (3:4) I reviewed the Votem—a device which converts continuously changing voltages from sensing transducers, such as a temperature probe or photocell, into digital information which the computer can understand. The limitation of the Votem which I noted then was that, though it could monitor an outside event very accurately, the Votem by itself…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.31.25
Of all the problems with machine code programming, there is one that really stands out: it is too simple! Oh, sometimes it can be pretty hard to figure out how to make your program do what you want. But that is because the Z80 microprocessor—the “brain” inside your ZX/TS computer—is really rather simple-minded. It can…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.31.25
Although the TS2068 users manual does an outstanding job in acquainting the user with the computer, obviously it cannot include everything. Articles in SYNC will help you increase your ability to use this new machine. Let’s begin by looking at a few tips and techniques to add to your repertoire. Variable Names When it comes…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.31.25
Among the extended capabilities of the TS2068 are its high resolution graphics and user defined graphics characters (UDG). Since the definition of each character requires 64 binary inputs, these entries can be made much more easily if we set up a little more elaborate input routine than the one given in the manual. We will…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.29.25
The weekly meeting of our Central PA Times/Sinclair Users Group was coming up quickly, and I had promised a demonstration of my new TS2068 computer. I needed a special program fast to show off some of its new features. As I slipped the TS2068 from the box, I wondered if it was free of defects…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.29.25
The Problem You are piloting a spaceship when suddenly appears an onslaught of meteorites which must be avoided at any cost. Your warp system is malfunctioning and can be used, but its duration varies. The situation seems hopeless! Sound challenging? How would you like to try to save the ship on the unexpanded ZX81? It…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.29.25
The Knight’s Tour Puzzle The “Knight’s Tour” is a familiar chess puzzle. The object is to move a knight according to chess rules around the board in such a way that each square is visited only once. The puzzle may be solved by using a trial and error process that systematically explores all of the…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.29.25
This is a somewhat roundabout story, but bear with us. Lotus, that outstanding manufacturer of winning race cars as well as the Lotus Elite and Elan, has been in serious financial difficulties lately. These troubles have been magnified by the death of Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, and by the DeLorean affair. The only…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.29.25
Crazybugs is a Pac-Man type game, but with enough differences to make to make another enjoyable game. You are in a subterranean maze and are being chased by beetles. As the beetles lay eggs, one at a time, you must go, fetch, and lock up the egg in a flashing box. After locking up four…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.29.25
An array is just another kind of variable, right? Well, yes and no: an array is another kind of variable, but it is not just another variable. There are arrays to store numbers, there are arrays to hold strings, and there are lots of things you can do with arrays that you cannot do with…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.28.25
When you must order and retrieve information, you can recall data in minimal time if the data has an orderly placement. In a program to store names and telephone numbers consider how you would locate someone if the data are in random order, e.g., Jones, Smith, Allen, Zimmerman, Travis. Location of a specific name could…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.28.25
Here are two programs that give a moving graphics representation of the holiday spirit. The first version is for the 1000 series of computers and the second is for the TS-2068. In the 2068 version, the graphics characters are entered in the following manner – press SHIFT “9” to get into the graphics mode (remember…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.26.25
First, a word or two concerning joysticks for the budget-minded. One of the following reviews is of a product which requires a joystick in the left port of the 2068. I obtained excellent results in reviewing that program by “borrowing” a joystick from a seldom-used ODYSSEY 2 video game which had been languishing in the…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.24.25
One of the fun things about using the TS2068 is the ability to PEEK and POKE in amongst the machine code and particularly when using TIMACHINE. This is the first in a series of articles I’ll write for TS2068 Up-Date on this subject. Bouquets or brick-bats are welcome! For starters, let’s look at a scenario…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.23.25
Last month we had a look at a few programs from Novelsoft of Toronto, Canada. As promised, this month we examine their remaining offerings for the T/S 2068 (and Spectrum) computer. One program which I have heard quite a bit about from many of you readers is Timachine, a BASIC compiler for the T/S 2068…
article, orig pub: 02.08.22, updated: 12.23.25
I have been working on using my Timex/Sinclair 2068 to control a 3-axis drilling/routing machine using stepper motors. To make the machine move in arcs and circles I needed to use the sine and cosine functions in the Timex/Sinclair 2068 ROM. After trying some BASIC and machine language — using the floating point interpreter –…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.23.25
From its animated title screen to its ability to locate compiled code anywhere in memory, TIMACHINE is just what every BASIC programmer who lacks extensive assembly language fluency has been dreaming of. You should see the wonderful things it does to graphics programs written in BASIC. Compiling any BASIC program is as easy as adding…
article, orig pub: 06.13.22, updated: 12.23.25
Let’s face it, fellow members, all T/S buffs are NOT equal. As the famous author, George Orwell wrote in “1984, ” some are more equal than others. To be specific, some are proficient in machine code and I am not. “Timachine” by Novelsoft is a compiler program. It takes your Basic program and converts it…
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 12.23.25
The purpose of this write-up is to explain what was done and why to enable large printer printing of the LIST report after compiling a program with TIMACHINE. The first obstacle was getting the large printer to print anything. PRINT after opening #3 to “Ip” only gave a dot and two dashes on the screen…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.23.25
One of the fun things about using the T52068 is the ability to PEEK and POKE about in amongst the machine code and particularly when using the BASIC compiler “Timachine“. Recently, I had compiled (for the nth time) the Indexer program which I use to keep track of all the programs on my disks. In…
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 12.20.25
Several years ago Cameron Hayne was a member of our club. Recently, I wrote to ask him what he was up to these days. Here is his reply. Cameron Hayne is the author of the well-known program, TIMACHINE, which many of us are familiar with. I thought there was sufficient interest in the letter to…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.20.25
Deja vu! That was my first thought upon opening the large envelope from editor Tim Woods. Let’s take a trip via H.G. Well’s time machine by setting the controls to travel back in time one year. Exactly one year ago, I was asked to review a BASIC compiler for the T/S 2068 called ZIP (Sept/Oct…
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.20.25
Over the years, to keep various e-mails and newsgroup postings, I’ve printed them out and kept them at home. I’ve thought about storing them as files on disk, but finding the information I need would not be too easy. I was looking for a utility that would search the files on disk, find files with…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
BetterBasic and CrossRef are two SuperBasic programming utilities written by Chas Dillon (of THE EDITOR fame). Chas has released these two programs into the Public Domain. He has released the source code but not any executables. I decided to take the two programs, see what changes they needed to be compiled with the new TURBO,…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
To assist in the support of TURBO, I’ve created a TURBO Support Page on my web page. The page will list the various reported bugs to both TURBO and TURBO Toolkit. Each bug will list what it is, what platform the bug has been seen on (QDOS, SMSQ/E, etc), and the status of work on…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Another zip file contains a number of other TURBO utilites: LIBRARY MANAGER, DATASPACE and Utility_Task. The zip file does not come with documentation, and briefly explains the programs: LIBRARY MANAGER – pulls out procedures from large SuperBasic programs. DATASPACE – used to ajust the data space requirements in programs already compiled. Utility_task – Neat little…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Task Commander is a utility that will convert a TURBO compiled program into a resident extension or Toolkit, that can be RESPRed and seen as a new keyword in SuperBasic. Task Commander will produce a keyword that will produce the same effect as EXEC or EX. Task Commander is not designed for creating library extension…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
TURBO is not compatible with all SuperBasic extensions, esp. those with array paramaters or return values through parameters. QPTR is one such set of extensions. So, to create Pointer Environment programs using TURBO, George Gwilt has written TurboPTR, which is a freeware replacement to QPTR. TurboPTR is comprised of the following elements: TPTR – a…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
TURBO does not support standard Qjump Config Blocks. George Gwilt has created TURBO Config, a tool that allows Config blocks to be added to TURBO compiled programs. After creating some data statements that get merged with the source code, another tool takes the Config block information and adds it to the compiled program. T_CONFIG_DATA is…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
TURBO, the SuperBasic compiler, has been updated and released for almost a year. Simon Goodwin is the original author with a few others contributing to the final released product, by Digital Precision. George Gwilt has taken the source code and updated the program to work on the newer QDOS and SMSQ/E systems. TURBO comes in…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
For the second time in the life of the QHJ, I have allowed a whole year to go between issues. When I started the QHJ 10 years ago, I knew something like this might happen, therefore I made the QHJ a free publication. This has kept any off any outside pressure to get the next…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
MicroEmacs is becoming my favorite editor, esp. now that I have a Q40. As MicroEmacs becomes more powerful, it needs some more horsepower to run quickly. On the Q40, speed is not an issue at all. There are some new features to MicroEmacs that impact the programmer. They are: CSM is an easy way for…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
LibXmenu is a C68 library, written by Jerome Grimbert, to help write menu-based programs. When I first heard of it I was thinking that it was a library that converted X-windows routines to PE routines, but this is not what it does. Jerome described Xmenu as a collection of C routines that he wrote to…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Recently a number of commercial programming tools have been released as freeware. They are ProWesS, DJToolKit, MasterBasic, and the TurboToolkit. Of the four packages, ProWesS is the biggest and most surprising to be released as freeware. It is a major piece of work, fairly complicated, and gives a lot a capability to the user (and…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In the May/June 2000 issue of QL Today, George Gwilt mentions that he has updated Turbo to work under SMSQ/E. He also mentions creating TurboPE, a Pointer Environment interface for Turbo. He does not go into any details nor give any code examples, so I can’t say how easy TurboPE will be to use over…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I don’t know if I’m old enough to claim that old age is to blame for why I’m not able to get as many QHJ issues out in a year as I would like. Maybe I can blame my other distractions, such as family, house, work, and my other hobbies. I’ve also been a little…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
“a perl of great precise(sic)” , but limited accuracy. “Optimized for text” they say of perl, that wonderful Swiss-army chainsaw programming language. But I’ve had great fun with numbers, discovering the mathematical abilities of perl for the QL, version 4.036 as ported over by Jonathan Hudson. We get answers to math problems in double precision,…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I recently found a new language that has an implementation that will run on the QL – Befunge. Befunge is the first two-dimensional language. This means that the Program Counter, instead of just going down a line of code, can move up, down, left, and right. This is easily done by making each Befunge command…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
First off, thanks to Herb Schaaf for providing most of the text for this issue. When Herb gets a hold of a problem, he does not let go until he knows all there is to know. Secondly, I wanted to bring up something that has been discussed in the ql-users mailing list. I can’t remember…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
About 10 years ago I attended some vendor training on how to program and extend their particular office automation suite. One of the things that I took away from the training was how they designed their system to adapt to many languages. Recently the method came to mind. As I was thinking about the possibilities…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Thierry Godefroy has ported over the latest version of MicroEmacs 4.00 to the QL. He has added Pointer Environment support for MicroEmacs, including menu items for all the commands. This has made MicroEmacs much more appealing and much easier to use. Just before this port, I had been playing with a little with configuring MicroEmacs…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Another program that I have been working on is FileConfig. The short explanation is that FileConfig is an automated version of BasConfig, by O. Fink (and modified by Norman Dunbar and Dilwyn Jones). With BasConfig, you can’t edit an existing Config Block, only create a new one. With FileConfig, you store the definition of a…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
One project keeping me away from working on the QHJ was updating Structured SuperBasic. I’ve made a few minor changes to it that allows it to much more usefull. I’ve also added a new utility that makes it SSB production easier. The two changes are: 1 – Added a second command line argument of Starting…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
This issue is far later that I would like. Planning for the West Coast Sinclair Show (for which this issue is being prepared) took a fair amount of time. I’ve also been fiddling around the house getting it ready for guests coming to the show. I’ve also been distracted by some projects from work. I’m…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
While on the subject of Unix languages, Adrian Ives has continued the work of P. J. Taylor with The Shell, a command line shell for QDOS. Given my Unix background, I would say that The Shell is similar in functionality to Unix shells (C, Bourne, T, Korn). The Shell considers commands to be programs to…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Perl is a language that I started playing with back around 1989. When I started using Perl for a project, a few people wondered if this was a good idea, given that Perl was a relatively obcure language and they worried about people knowing Perl after I left. Well, Perl has now become THE language…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
AWK has been ported to the QL by Peter Tillier and is a Unix language that is used for all sorts of list processing tasks. The name comes from the three writers of the language; Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan. AWK works very similar to grep. For each line of input, it searches for a given…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In this issue I want to take a look at a couple of Unix languages that have recently been ported to the QL. In the ql-users mailing list, I’ve seen some comments that basically say “Why use these other languages on the QL? All development should be done in SuperBasic or C68 and use the…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In QHJ#24 and #25 there were articles on parameter passing techniques (By Tim Swenson and by Peter Tillier, respectively). I won’t (too much) re-hash what’s already been said (this article was prepared before I was aware of the other two), but look at the matter in a practical way, that may suit some readers. I’m…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
The QL is unique in how QDOS and SuperBasic are sort of rolled into one. Just as we can only have one copy of QDOS running, we can only have one copy of SuperBasic running (OK, I know this is not true for Minerva). In a traditional operating system model, there is the OS and…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I’d like to thank Per Witte for providing pretty much the core part of this issue. I saw the Filename Parser program posted to the ql-users mailing list and thought it would be good material for an article. I contacted Per and he was willing to write something up. The length of the article was…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
One of the things that has always amazed me about the QL was the ability to load a binary file and have a bunch of new keyboards available in SuperBasic. In most computers that had Basic built in, the language was static and had no way to extend itself. Other languages (like C, Fortran, or…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
When I recently was working on SSB 2.6, I was using a SuperBasic implementation of a CASE structure for the core of the program. The deeper the structure got, the harder it was to read and understand. I starting thinking of using another way of implementing a CASE structure. For those that don’t know what…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
As we all know, QDOS did not come with the concept of directories and subdirectories. A number of extensions to QDOS are available to help create the working concepts of directories. When using ED drives, I found the Path (PTH) extensions useful because they would search a list of subdirectories looking for a particular executable.…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
The concept of Environment Variables comes from the Unix world. They are used slightly in MS-DOS, but not at all to the same extent as UNIX. For the QDOS world, the file ENV_BIN provides a number of extensions that allow the use of Environment Variables. Essentially an environment variable is a variable that can be…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Whether it’s source code or system configuration files, it’s nice to be able to keep track of changes made to files over time. The Revision Control System is a collection of programs that keep track of different versions (revisions) of text files. A special file is created by RCS that contains information about the changes…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Structured SuperBasic is a utility that has been printed a couple of times in this newsletter. I have recently dusted the program off and completed a new version. SSB 2.6 has all of the functionality of SSB 2.5, but I have added a lot of error checking, fixed a few bugs, added Config Block support,…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I have not received much feedback on the Qliberator Source Book idea I mentioned in the last issue, and I have received basically no “helpful hints”. So, my plan is to write what I can, put it out on the Net, and see what feedback comes from it. If I make any mistakes, I’m sure…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
BasConfig is a utility, written by Oliver Fink, that creates config blocks for Qliberator compiled programs. For those that don’t know, config blocks are extras chucks of data added to programs that are changeable by the user, using the program “config”. In other words, if you have a program and you want the user to…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I’ve been meaning to tinker around with MicroEmacs macros for some time, but never got around to it. Recently I decided to take the time to really give it a try. Of all of the text editors available for the QL, I think MicroEmacs is the most powerful. It’s macro language is the most robust…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
A lot of the programs that I like to write are filters. They take a text file as input, do something to the file, and output the results to a second file. Doing this involves reading a file one line at a time. A way of doing this would be something like this: REPeat loop…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In all the years that I’ve been dealing with Unix, one of the things that I have not taken the time to really learn is Regular Expressions. Regular expressions are based on a mini-language used for pattern matching in a number of Unix search utilities. The most well known of these programs is grep and…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
The QHJ is back. After a year of taking a break, I’m back in the programming spirit again. Of course, I have not been inactive during that time, as any reader of QL Today can attest. I just have not felt like writing any programs for a while. I guess I did get burnt out…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
A spell checker is usually comprised of two parts: 1) word lookup (to see if a word is spelled correctly) and 2) word suggestion (to suggest the correct spelling of the word). Past issues of the QHJ have looked at different algorithms to tell how close two words are, a key part of word suggestion.…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I’ve always been interested in encryption. Keeping my files safe from prying eyes has been more of a want than a need. Plus encryption is a neat programming problem to solve. Many years ago I wrote a program called QL Crypt that was my first look at encryption. In QHJ #XX there was Complex Ascii…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
It’s hard to believe that the last QHJ came out last May. What have I been doing? Well, let me tell you. Since May I have had a number of life changes that have kept me busy. The first is a change in jobs. I decided to leave the Air Force and seek employment else…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
For most database programming, the QL programmer has been pretty much stuck with Archive. Archive is a fine language and is fairly similar to dBase III in programming feel. It has many advantages: editing of records built in, easy screen creation, a well structured language. But it also has a few weak points: limited functions,…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
For years I’ve reading articles on Software Reuse and how it can increase the productivity of programming shops. Since I program alone, as most QLers programmers do, I have never given it much thought for my programming. For some reason, a recent article on software reuse sparked a new thought about software reuse and the…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In QHJ #24 Tim talks about a colleague’s style of writing Perl and contrasts it with his own. I have spent several years as a programming and system development lecturer within my company’s internal training department and nothing seems to cause more grief/criticism/etc., etc., as differences of programming style. I tend to use procedure calls…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
There are many parameter passing mechanisms that are used to pass data into, out of or both into and out of procedures or functions being accessed. What is said here applies to procedures and functions in the Pascal sense and to functions in the C sense; so I’ll omit ‘or function’ for the rest of…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Productivity tools for the QL are far and few between. On the PC, there is a dearth of these tools; Meeting Maker, Lotus Organizer, Maximizer, etc. One feature of most productivity tools is the ability to remind you of special days, such as birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, and so on. Without doing much development work, a…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I don’t have much to say for an introduction to this issue. I do want to thank Peter Tillier for contributing two articles. He really filled a few pages for me. The more articles I get the easier it is on me and the more often I can publish. I hate it when I have…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
The REXX language was derived from a batch language on the IBM System/370 called EXEC 2. It has since become a standard language for OS/2 with implementations on other platforms, including the Amiga. A version of REXX has been ported to the QL. REXX is a procedural language like BASIC, C, Pascal, etc. and its…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I was recently doing some CGI-BIN programming in Perl. Since I was new to CGI-BIN programming, I did what every other programmer does when he is new to something, he borrows somebody else’s code to see how it is done. I borrowed come Perl CGI-BIN code from our local CGI-BIN expert at work. When writing…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
CLIPS is an expert system developed by NASA in 1986. It has been ported to the QL by Emiliano Barbaini of Italy. CLIPS is an interpretive language like BASIC or Lisp. Like Lisp or Prolog, CLIPS is designed for use in artificial intelligence. CLIPS has three ways to represent knowledge: Rules, Generic Functions, and Object…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
When I was learning Pascal, one of the hurdles I had to get over was the concept of parameter passing. Parameters are used when passing data to procedures and functions. Parameters some in two type; “call by value” and “call by reference.” When you pass operation to a procedure, you are “calling” that procedure. When…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
This came to me as a letter and not an article – ED I am heavy into really relational databases now. The place I work uses Oracle. They have tables in their database with 50 million records or rows are they like to call them. I finally get to compare ARCHIVE (a quasi relational database)…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
As time goes by I’m finding myself doing less and less programming. My recent foray into distributing QL and Z88 freeware has kept me busy collecting QL freeware. Now I will have the pleasure of trying some of this software out, which always takes some time. I’m still working on getting QFAX going (after having…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
With the popularity of the World Wide Web, more and more information is being formatted in HTML, the “language” of the Web. Since HTML is pure ASCII this is not a problem for people that don’t’ have Web Browsers. But, HTML commands can make text look very convoluted. The following C program will read a…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Once I got my DeskJet printer, I wanted to be able to produce nice looking text output. Quill and other word processors support only monospace fonts. The word processors that do support proportional spaced fonts are not real cheap. Being one to write my own print filters, I set myself out to write a print…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I read an interesting article that introduced the idea of using bitmaps in implementing a database. I don’t know if this concept will be of use to any QL programmers, but I found it interesting just to know. Conventional databases use B-trees and hashing to implement indexes. B-trees are just that, trees. An index is…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
While surfing on the Net (as the media likes to hype) I ran into a site that had some essays on programming. One, “Notes on Programming in C” by Robert Pike had some interesting points. Procedure Names Procedures names should reflect what they do; function names should reflect what they return. Functions are used in…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I have always thought that Archive has always been one of the underrated programming languages for the QL. When I first looked at Archive, it reminded me a lot of dBase III. What has limited me from really programming in Archive has been not having a big need to write a database application and not…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
While playing around with the function on paper there appears to be a slight error. I am sure that I will not be the first to see this but I will attempt to explain anyway. The year part of the function Y + Y/4 – Y/100 + Y/400 is correct taking into account leap years,…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Through work I get a number of computer related magazines, either directly to me or ones that are received by the office. This gives me a chance to scan articles on a variety of subjects, of which some I find applicable to my computing. I like to try to apply different programming concepts I glean…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Have you ever sat in front of the word processor, looking at a blank screen, and not really know what to type. This is how I am as I try to write this article. I always write this article last and use it to cover any loose thoughts that I might have from the other…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
First, let me introduce myself. I’m 25 years old, live in France (as I’m French) and have had a QL since 1986/87. My main use of the QL is games and game programming, so I’m very glad to have C68. My prefered type of game is one of reflexion and not dexterity (may be because…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
QMENU is a Pointer Environment (PE) programming tool put out by Jochem Merz. QMENU is a number of SuperBasic extensions that provide PE compatibility. The extensions are fairly simple to understand and to program with. It really does not take too much time to get programming in the PE. As easy as QMENU is to…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Philosophy is defined as a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs. The Philosophy of Structured SuperBasic (SSB) is the principles behind the creation of SSB. This philosophy guides the development of SSB. Knowing the philosophy behind the design and implementation of SSB helps to understand the what’s and why’s of SSB. SSB Must…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Structured SuperBasic (SSB) has been sitting on my shelf for a number of years without having any upgrades. I really only upgrade SSB when there is a new feature that I need SSB to support. Since I’ve had the Pointer Environment (PE) for just over a year, I’ve always wanted to do some programming supporting…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
The biggest news this issue is I’VE GOT A HOME PAGE. I got a wild hair a while back and decided to get myself a home page. Since I could not use a server at work to host my home page (the government sort of frowns on that), I had to find a commercial service…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Jon Bentley has been around computers for years, spending most of his time with AT&T Bell Labs (the birth place of Unix and C). In an article in “Unix Review”, Jon mentions some guidelines on building languages. I thought these guidelines also apply to writing other programs, so I thought I would pass them along.…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
JOYFU when sounded out means “Joyful, with no L” or as it is really supposed to be sounded out “Joyfull Noel.” The lack of an L turns one word into two. This is sort of an interesting introduction to missing letters or constructs. I happen to read a DoD journal called “CrossTalk, The Journal of…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Filter programs are common in the UNIX world, but they are found to a varying extent on other platforms (such as QDOS) as well. In QDOS filters were introduced in 1984 with the QL-Toolkit (which later turned into Toolkit II). A filter program is typically a program that reads a stream of characters and makes…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Last Issue I introduced the QHJ Freeware Awards and asked for votes on programs for each category. My original idea was to decide the awards myself, but I felt it would be a good idea to get your input. Well, after getting only one response, I did have to decide the awards myself. At least…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
This issue of the QHJ is a little smaller that I would like. I’ve been busy getting ready for the QL show in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This is the same show that has been held in Newport, Rhode Island, but Bob Dyl wanted to try a different place this year. I’ve been busy making some…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Over the last couple of weeks I have seen a number of award shows, like the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Grammy Awards, Peoples Choice Awards and the Comedy Awards. This started me thinking about awards and lack of them in the QL community. Now magazines, newspapers, and other print media have their own version of…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I’ve been watching the current trend in programming move toward the Object Oriented paradigm for some time now and I still have no idea of what the real differences between Object Oriented Programming (OOP) and procedural programming. I have yet to see an article that compares the differences using an example program. To give an…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
INFORM is a language used to create text adventure games. It is based on the text adventures that the company INFOCOM used to produce. The adventures were composed of two data files and two programs. The adventure is first written in the INFORM language and compiled with INFORM. This creates a datafile that is then…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Now that I have an HP Deskjet 520 inkjet printer, I’m starting to think about what type of output I could do on it. I’ve found the price of any word processors that support it to be a bit too steep. I have rigged up Quill to support one of the fonts built into the…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Richard Zidlicky has ported a version of APL to the QL. APL stands for A Programming Language. APL is known for being about the worst write-only language. APL uses special symbols as it’s operators. This means that it usually requires a special keyboard, thereby making it a language not easy to port. APL is also…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I recently found out about another C compiler. Peter Tillier send me a copy (legal, of course) of a C compiler by GST. Peter says that the compiler is now available from Quanta for about 15 pounds. The compiler seems to be a cross between Small-C and Metacomco QL C. Like Small-C, it supports a…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In one of the programming newsgroups I read, I saw a couple of postings dealing with how to reverse a string or a list. A short example would be to take the string “abcde” and make it “edcba”.This little puzzle seemed interesting, so I thought I would give it a shot myself. My first approach…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In looking through listings of new uploads to the MS-DOS/Windows site CICA, I came up with an idea for a program for the QL. Not having the full expertise or time to work on it, I thought I would present the idea here. Hopefully someone will run with it. Descriptor is a program that allows…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Another few months, another issue. I don’t know if there is any special significance to putting out issue #20, but it looks nice to have a zero in the 1’s place. One thing nice to report is that the number of QHJ readers is increasing (at least direct readers). I keep running into more QLers…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Soundex is an algorithm for storing words, primarily names, in a number format so that they could be easily look up, and words that sound alike will have almost the same soundex result. This is sort of the thing they use when you call information and ask for a persons number. They will type it…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In a back issue of the QHJ I wrote a SuperBasic program that saves a section of the screen to memory and brings it back again. This allows you to save a section of the screen where you are about the put a new window, draw to window, and then bring back what was under…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Jon Bently writes a column called “Software Explorations” for the magazine Unix Review. In the November 1994 issue, Jon discusses how to handle big digit numbers. He starts off by discussing how to store the number, in decimal or binary. He opts for decimal storage and the use of a simple array to store the…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
A number of freeware programming packages have come my way. I have copies if anyone is interested. Most if these programs should be available on the Internet. If not, I will try to put them out there. BISON – Port by Dave Woodman BISON is another version of YACC (Yet Another Compiler Compiler). BISON is…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
[It’s not normally the policy of the QHJ to publish programs that are written for other platforms than the QL. But in this case, I can make an exception. The following program by Jeff Kuhlmann is designed to display a QL screen file on an MS-DOS computer. I’ve tried it with my MS-DOS laptop (CGA…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
[Jeff Kuhlmann has written an interesting program to display a TI-Artist instance file on the QL. I don’t know how many have been wanting to do this, but here it is. On the disk that Jeff sent me, were many example files. If you are interested in this, I can provide a disk with all…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
Well, it looks like another issues has taken longer that I would like. It’s been one of those “too busy to program” type of dry spells. The only key item of news is that as I am writing this the latest version of C68 v 4.2 has partialy come out. I received the zipped version…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
A while back I asked for some help in porting a program listed in the C Users Journal. Emiliano Barbaini of Italy volunteered to help. I sent him the code and in return he sent me back the changes he made to get the program to run on the QL and on an BULL DPX/2.…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In a number of recent postings to alt.folklore.computers, the answer to the question “What’s the shortest ‘Hello, World’ program for a specific language? For those that don’t know, ‘Hello, World’ is the first program used in K&R’s book on C and is synonomus with the simplest program to write as a beginner. The whole scope…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
While reading one of the many computer magazines that I read in a month (got to have something to do while I eat my lunch), I read an article in which the columnist talked about security and mail. He was commenting about how open Internet mail (and e-mail in general) is fairly open and easy…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
In past issues, string matching has been a reaccuring theme. In the April 1994 issue of “C Users Journal” there was an article on string matching that uses a different algorithm for guessing how close two strings are; Frequency Distribution. Frequency Distribution counts how many occurances of each letter appear in the word. For “test”,…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
This is the second issue that is far later that I would like. Let me explain the reason why. Back in March I was told that I was being matrixed to do computer support for the B-2 Bomber Systems Program Office. What this job entails is managing a computer and telecommunications branch. I have three…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
[This article was sent in by Mike Fink, owner of Domino Cubes, a Z88 Dealer. Once Mike told me about his work, I thought this would be a good article. Plus, Mike has had problems getting Academia to look at his work. I plan to additionally post this article to one of the math newsgroups.…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
[Below is an interesting permutation program sent to me by Herb Schaaf. He did not include any article or explanation, so I’ll just present the program as is – ED] 100 REMark Permutation110 REMark H L Schaaf120 REMark February 28, 1994130 REMark cleaned up from 'permutations' of January 27, 1994140 REMark to show permutations of…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
This article is dedicated to show some rather randomly chosen aspects of portable programming with C68 on the QL. A ‘C’ program is fully portable if the source text can be compiled on any operating system which provides a standard compiler (usually the standard is defined by K&R or ANSI) without any changes at all.…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
I received a total of 11 responses the the Readership Survey. Some of the surveys came with some long comments that were good to hear. What languages do you program in? C (8 votes), Basic (7 votes) and Assembly (6 votes) were the highest answers. There were a few votes for Pascal, XLISP, Prolog, Forth,…
article, orig pub: 12.18.25, updated: 12.18.25
As much as I want the QHJ to come out about every other month, It’s slowly becoming a quarterly. Between work, family, and other hobbies, the QHJ is getting little time. Luckily, this month most of the articles are user submitted. In fact, this is the first time that more than one article in a…
article, orig pub: 12.17.25, updated: 12.18.25
Timachine, a BASIC compiler, from Novelsoft.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.16.25
TIMACHINE compiler users may be interested in this correction. It shows up when compiling large programs and *D & *E are used. After the program has loaded (while the backup prompt is still on the screen), break into the program by deleting the left quote and entering STOP (SYMBOL SHIFT A). Add the following lines…
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 12.16.25
I thought I would take another crack at TimeMachine, the Basic compiler for the T/S 2068 and with some pointers from David Anderson, I was able to get it working. Here is how I got it working on Zesarux.
article, orig pub: 07.11.25, updated: 12.16.25
There are two available BASIC compilers for the T/ S 2068, TimeMachine and ZXbasic. TimeMachine is native on the T/S 2068 and ZXbasic is a cross compiler, written in Python, that runs on Windows, Linux and MacOS. This article will do a short comparision between them.
article, orig pub: 07.11.25, updated: 12.16.25
Hint for moving Novelsoft’s TIMACHINE to disk.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.16.25
Comparison of floating point (sine/cosine) math between two compilers.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.16.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.16.25
TIMACHINE and Larken disk system.
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.16.25
article, orig pub: 10.27.20, updated: 12.16.25
Notes on using TIMACHINE, how it differs from Sinclair BASIC.
article, orig pub: 09.13.22, updated: 12.16.25
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 12.16.25
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 12.16.25
article, orig pub: 10.07.22, updated: 12.16.25
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