| Calendar Generator (Version 2) | Jean-Claude Touzin presents a second version of his SuperBASIC calendar generator for the QL (JS ROM), first shown in SIN. Each date now has its own window, so short messages can be shown on any day, and a routine marks recurring work/leave periods of equal length with a chosen letter. The month can be printed with GPRINT_PRT, which must be on the same cartridge; a sample April 1988 printout and the full listing are included. | Sinclair QL, Type-in program |
| Letters (INPUT<->OUTPUT) | Yves Gagnon proposes standard file-name extensions for QL programs (_BAS, _EXE, _BIN, _PIC/_SCR, _ASM, _DOC), and the editor adds the idea of a _BOOT file to start a multi-part program. Jean-Claude Touzin asks for a faster alternative to GPRINT_PRT and for a way to clear values but keep formulas in Abacus; the editor suggests the public domain MC_BIN vertical screen dump, and for Abacus the KEYDEFINE program, Super Toolkit II's ALTKEY, or keeping a blank copy of the spreadsheet. | Sinclair QL |
| QL_DOC Software: Public Domain List No. 1 | The first list (March 1988) of public domain QL software offered to readers by QL_DOC for postage only, at $2 per group on readers' own microdrives or disks. Group 1 is the Archive-based software library manager; Group 2 holds utilities such as CAPSTATE_EXE, CLOCK, SPOOLER_EXE, NLQ_OBJ for the Epson FX80, BLANK_EXE, LABELS_BAS and DLO_BAS; Group 3 holds font tools, Tony Tebby's SEDIT_BAS text editor, PLAY_COM, NOBREAK_BIN, ZOOM_EXE, LINK_BAS and CLE_BIN. | Sinclair QL |
| REMark: The Z88 in the Press, and a Public Domain Library | The editor notes that Clive Sinclair's Z88 is being reviewed in Science & Vie Micro, Computer Shopper (by Stan Veit) and PC Magazine (by Stephen Manes), summarising their verdicts, including the lack of French accents on screen and PC Magazine's complaint about its $500 US price compared with a Toshiba T1000 laptop. He also announces a QL_DOC library of public domain software, available for postage, with a five-for-five program exchange for contributors. | Cambridge Z88, Sinclair QL |
| Sinclair News | News items: QL Report's mention of Archive version 2.38, which allows a 64K index file for the ORDER command; a MIDI interface for the QL expected from Miracle Systems; a quip about PC compatibility; Apple's John Sculley seen holding a Z88; and TEXT87, a graphics-capable word processor from Software87 advertised in Quanta as faster than Quill, at £40, which the editor has not yet seen reviewed. | Sinclair QL |
| Software: 4MATTER, QFLASH and QEP III | Short reviews of three QL products. Zitasoft's 4MATTER makes backups of copy-protected key microdrives (the reviewer moved Psion's QDraw to disk with it), though the new version drops its EPROM_BAS utility; QFLASH is a fast dynamic RAM disk system with AUTOSPOOL, MDVLOAD and FBACKUP utilities, available on microdrive, disk, ROM or as a Cumana disk-interface ROM upgrade (both from Curry Computer). Care Electronics' QEP III, a ROM-based EPROM programmer for 2716 to 27512 EPROMs with configurable pin-outs, code splitting and three hex file protocols, sold by Gagnon Electronique, is called a professional product. | Sinclair QL |
| SuperBASIC Tips & Tricks | A collection of SuperBASIC tips for the Sinclair QL: detecting monitor or TV mode with PEEK 163890 after a reset, disabling CTRL+SPACE break with POKE_L 163900, and side-by-side comparisons with ordinary BASIC for waiting for a key with INKEY$(-1), case-insensitive string comparison with ==, single-line loops and PAUSE. It also shows how to put comments into a disk directory by saving empty files with descriptive names, and notes that single quotes are faster than double quotes in PRINT and INPUT. | Sinclair QL |
| Telephone Dialer | Yves Gagnon describes a simple circuit, plugged into the QL's NET 1 socket, that lets the computer pulse-dial telephone numbers through a relay in series with the phone line; it uses a 3.3k resistor, a 10 µF capacitor, a 2N3904 transistor, a 1N4001 diode, a 9-volt relay and a 9-volt battery. A schematic, the parts list and a short SuperBASIC test program that sends pulses through the network port are given, and a phone-book program is promised for the next issue. | Sinclair QL, Type-in program |
| The QL's RGB Output | Pierre Goudet recounts his struggle to connect his QL to a colour monitor: a Radio Shack CM-4 failed, and a 14-inch Sears RGB TV/monitor lost sync because the QL's signal was too strong, until on the editor's advice he put signal diodes (1N4148 or 1N914) in series with the sync lines. He praises the set as a TV, video monitor and TS-2068 display, and adds a carrying handle and an earphone jack. The editor replies with his own tales of PC incompatibility (a Tandy 1200 and an 8087 co-processor, CGA/EGA/VGA cards), his Commodore 2002 monitor, and a tip on the horizontal width coil. | Sinclair QL |
