| Letters (INPUT<->OUTPUT) | Jean-Claude Touzin of La Sarre, Québec asks about Quanta deliveries, RGB TTL monitor signal levels, choosing 3.5" disk drives (NEC FD1035, Citizen) for a Cumana interface in a SPEM case, switching power supplies, and whether magazine type-ins can go into the public-domain library. The editor replies on Quanta's change of editor and secretary, drive heights and specifications, the QL power supply's voltages and wiring and its 7805 regulator, switching versus linear supplies, and accepts magazine listings with their source credited. | Sinclair QL |
| Menu_bas | MENU_BAS, a SuperBASIC function that gives a program a one-line menu bar: it takes an array of option names, an array of short descriptions and the number of options, and returns the code of the first letter of the chosen option, or 0 for ESC. Options are selected with the cursor keys or TABULATE/SHIFT TABULATE and ENTER, or by typing an option's first letter. The listing, marked RG-o QL_DOC 88 and based on QL World April 1988, includes a demonstration with seven word-processor style options. | Sinclair QL, Type-in program |
| QL + CP/M = Success | A long review and how-to for Digital Precision's Success, a CP/M 2.2 emulator that translates Z80 code for the QL's 68008. It covers the CPMFILES container file and drive letters A: to G:, the basic CP/M commands and Success's extra utilities (ANALYSE, DEFINE, RDQDOS, WRQDOS), where to find CP/M software, and a home-made driver for reading Kaypro II disks, with its listing. It also explains .LBR libraries (NULU), squeezed files (UNSQ, NSWEEP), terminal patches for the VT52 emulation with DDTZ, and limits such as monochrome only and 64K. | Sinclair QL |
| QL_DOC Software: Public Domain Library | QL_DOC's public-domain software library, as of July 1988. Programs are sent in five groups for $3 postage each on the reader's own microdrives or 5.25" or 3.5" disks, and contributions are invited. The groups include an ARCHIVE software-library manager, CAPS LOCK and screen-blanking utilities, a print spooler, NLQ for the Epson FX80, font tools, a text editor, SuperBASIC extensions, a 68000 disassembler, Sinclair's original QL demo and two games. | Sinclair QL |
| REMark: Three Years of Newsletters | Réal Gagnon marks the third anniversary of his first newsletter, SIN, begun in August 1985 on a TS2068 with Tasword II and a Smith-Corona Fastext 80 printer, and compares the QL scene then and now, including CST's Thor and the QL's price drop to $99 US. He introduces the issue's long article on Digital Precision's CP/M emulator Success, offers CP/M software to readers, asks for replies to the reader survey, and asks for a copy of a Time Designs article that mentioned QL_DOC. | Sinclair QL |
| Sinclair News | News items: QLusa, a new US national QL newsletter (bimonthly, $15 US a year); two US regional Sinclair shows in August 1988, the Great Northwest TS Mini-Fair in Portland, Oregon and the Midwest Timex-Sinclair-Amstrad Gathering in Cleveland, Ohio; a report that A+ Computer Response may sell its remaining new QLs to an overseas buyer for machine control; and the Z88 now made in the USA by SCI Corporation and sold by SSI Computer Systems at $549 US, with 32K RAM and transfer kits sold separately. | Cambridge Z88, Sinclair QL |
| Speed_bas | SPEED_BAS, a short SuperBASIC test showing why a QL with memory expansion runs programs faster: it POKEs a small machine-code delay loop first into memory reserved with RESPR and then into the bottom 128K, and times both. The article explains that the ZX8301 ULA, which continually scans the 32K of video memory for the display, has priority over the 68008 on the internal 128K. The listing credits Personal Computer as its source, modified by RG for QL_DOC. | Sinclair QL, Type-in program |
| Tips and Tricks | Two SuperBASIC tips taken from QL Clef: reading DATA in a REPeat loop until EOF, so no counter is needed, and putting procedure arguments in parentheses so the procedure cannot change the caller's variables. Each tip has a short example listing. | Sinclair QL |
| What's New?! | New QL products: Digital Precision's Lightning, which speeds up QDOS text, graphics and maths routines (compared with Speedscreen); Sector Software's Page Designer 2 desktop publishing; QL Spy, a fast text and binary file editor from Ark Distribution; PDQL's DiscOVER for reading and writing MS-DOS, BBC and CP/M disks; and ABC Electronic's Mega RAM expansion of up to 3 Mb plus a PC keyboard interface. Prices are given in pounds and at the US dealer Sharp's, and vendor addresses are listed. | Sinclair QL |
