David McCann wrote: > The QL no longer has enough users to make commercial products viable, > nor to produce enough programmers to support open-source products.
True, but why does nobody seem to see that it's possible to get help from friendly open source folks outside the QL scene? There is good, nearly QL style code out there, it just needs to be discovered and adapted. Open source doesn't necessarily mean *nix. Some time ago I had a good degree of success in a few QL software projects, that could mean a decade of sparetime work, if done without help. That I didn't release them, was mostly because there was no decent open source OS covering the major QL targets. (I mean "open source" in the definition of the real world, so it is possible to link code from the real world, and to involve persons who just can't be motivated by a proprietary system.) > Look > at UQLX: when its developer moved on, no one else could or would take > over. There's no particular feature, like the games of the Spectrum, to > make any but a small band of "tinkerers" want to use it. I don't think Richard gave up UQLX. Some other QL wheels also need to be turned, so there may be different priorities. Usually, if you email him, he sends you more recent code. > Have fun tinkering with the old hardware, but admit that major > expansions and serious software developments are just not going to > happen. Your picture of the situation was already valid at the time of the Q60. Still Q60 happened. Things are far worse now, but I'd never say never. All the best Peter _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
