The first thing I would like to announce in this issue of UPDATE is that Carol and I have decided to continue to publish this quarterly magazine for a third year. This was not an easy decision to make, but one we decided on because many of you wrote or phoned and let us know that you wanted us to. The majority of time we have enjoyed publishing UPDATE and still seem to have people who are willing to write, and still exploring ways to use their Sinclairs. Some of you have even gone so far as to go and pay for your subscription ahead of time. Thank you. I hope to receive the renewal subscription of all of you soon. With this we hope to upgrade our printing setup, in order to bring you a higher quality magazine.
This issue finds me trying to get used to a new version of a word processor I had owned, but not used much of, TEXT87. This is the latest version, TEXT87 PLUS4, and so far I like it, and I could not say that for version 2.0 and 3.01. As I am sure you can tell from how I did my MECHANICAL AFFINITY AD, I still have a lot of exploring to do in order to be skilled in its use, but I will! It is available from Peter Hale of EMSOFT, and you will find his ad elsewhere in this and all previous issues. My thanks goes out to Peter for the help and encouragement he has given me in the past, and the hope that it will be there in the future. We really need to make use of our dealers, in order to have them there in the future, (and I do not just say that as a dealer, but as one who is also a user)to make new aand exciting products available.
Some people I have noticed seem not to be aware of the fact that there are still new products being produced for our machines. The Hacker Newsletter (now defunct) of Los Vegas was such an example. Most issues they complained that there were no new products for Sinclair computers, so why use them. Not a single member ever subscribed to IQLR or UPDATE, so had no way of keeping up with what was happening. They did exchange newsletters with other groups, but never bothered to mention in their newsletter to their members about any new products reviewed in these newsletters. Never did I see a mention about the Gold Card for the QL, TEXT87, mice for the QL, new ROMS for the QL, new keyboards for the QL, emulators for all but the Z88, WORD MASTER for the Spectrum emulated TS2068, John McMichaels graphics for the Print Factory, Hybiscus for the TS2068, Bill Pedersens CAD program, or for that matter none of the ISSUE DISKS which we have made available to our readers (from many good programmers such as Bill Cable, Al Feng, Bob Hartung and Paul Holmgren to name only a few). I guess what I am trying to say is that you need a flow of information and a source for that flow in order to stay informed of just what is new and where to find it. We are proud to be at least one of those flows of information. When you find out something new, let others know about it!
Last of all, for this editorial, I want to once again mention the upcoming Computerfest at Dayton, Ohio, the last weekend of August. They are once again having an area set aside for vendors and user groups that support the Timex, Sinclair and Cambridge computers. T/SNUG, CATUG, ISTUG, QUANTA, SMUG, DMA SINCLAIR, UPDATE, AND MECHANICAL AFFINITY are ones I have heard are to be there so far, and perhaps CATS and the Cleveland Sinclair Group. I hope to see more when we get there. Many of us will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, North, phone no. 513-898-1054 for those wanting to be near friends. All Sinclair newsletters that have so far failed to inform your members of this show, please do so now, even if you do not plan to attend.
NEWS and VIEWS by Frank Davis
I have just a few short things to mention here. Thank you for the many letters and calls telling us how much you enjoy UPDATE Magazine!
Next issue we will finish off the TS2068 CAD program by Bill Pedersen. We will list the line differences for the IBM printer version and both versions for the Oliger Disk interface. As soon as possible we will also have a TOS version for it. Andy Hradesky of Colorado Springs (and a good friend) has offered to do some Issue Disk translating to TOS.
We plan on starting a new TS2068 program for the Larken (with other formats to follow). It is a PAYROLL program by Jim Bretz, and you are going to find it worthwhile. Jim has done a good job with this.
We will also have a new issue disk for the QL and will also be presenting it as a type in program for those who enjoy that. UPDATE supports SINCLAIR PROGRAMMERS. Now what I need is for you Z88 users to get us a new program to print or offer.
Some comments from a letter to me from Bob Hartung: “Several bits of info caught my interest in E. P. Wannum‘s ‘ Computer Meandering ‘ page (1/92 UPDATE). In fact his comment about using the TK WDIR command gave me an idea for using it in my BOOTsortCOPY program, although the way I originally wrote it the desired data could be extracted from a DIR file and the rest discarded. I do not have a Gold Card but with my Trump Card I found that WDIR flp1__doc (note the double underscore) is required to correctly catalog a wild card selection of _doc titles. I’m wondering if the same might be the case with the Gold Card TK2.”
Also a well done to Don Lambert and Bob Swoger for getting out four issues of TSNUG’s newsletter. I look forward to hearing about their Public Domain library.