Funny you should mention that. I emailed the main author of QWord in
February suggesting a demonstration at a QL show, but never got a reply to
that part of the email. In the circumstances all I could do at Hove was to
show it to a few interested people just to prove it was not fantasyware.
LOL - now I've got to eat humble pie I guess... Yes, it was my fault, but I really was struggling to get a version which was working enough to allow you to demonstrate it properly at Hove.
I kept hoping it would be resolved, but alas, several Turbo updates later, and we were still hitting snags in compiling a 5Mb program, so it completely slipped my mind...
Sorry Geoff - I should have done better (smacked wrist)
QWord is a good example of something worth talking about at shows because it
could be approached from many aspects.
It has an interesting history. It started off in quite a small way as just
"another" QL program, but Rich and I felt that we should call in an expert
to help us with the sound and graphics. Little did we know what we were
letting ourselves in for when Phoebus took on the job!
It illustrates the difference between the standards of commercial and PD
software. One of the reasons for the delay in release is bringing the
program up to the standard that allows it to run on all systems, in all
modes and in all resolutions. Plus allowing for QTYP and non-QTYP users etc.
My part of the program was relatively small, but without some technical word
knowledge over such things as relative letter frequencies and designing
grids for maximum word generation the program would have been much the
poorer.
Geoff, Phoebus is quite right in promoting your part in this project - you did after all write the first working version of the program (ok no real graphics) based on my outline - what more could any programmer have contributed. I only did the machine code to display the graphics and a tidying up exercise, but the main core of the program is little changed from that first version.
Is it any wonder why the QL market would be so sad to see you leave....
Rich and Phoebus have been working at the limits of new QL technology and
have faced even worse problems than I did. They have learnt lots of things
about the new colour drivers and their associated programming difficulties.
Yes, it does work at the limits, but as Phoebus correctly points the Aurora version is using the hard coded 256 colour mode from 1999 (or so) and does not need SMSQ/e to work !!
Extrapolating from this the theme of Hove could have been the QL in a new
coat and the possibilities and problems this gives. We may have found other
people who are experimenting with the new drivers and even if they did not
want to give a talk, they would have been able to join in a discussion.
There are lots of interesting issues. The amount of memory the colour
drivers consume - welcome bloatware to the QL. Will those of us who program
in EasyPtr now have to learn QPTR or TurboPtr - how easy will that be? What
new programs do people expect?
All it takes is something to start the thing off and a bit of open-ended
thinking from a small group of QL leaders well in advance of the show. And
if need be let it happen just once a year at the AGM. Add a show dinner and
possibly some other social activity and you create an interesting show.
Possibly an argument for the role of the local group to be smaller and the
role of QUANTA to be larger in the AGM show.
I agree that talks in shows are a great focal point for drawing people to the show and as a result need to be promoted more. The above topic seems to be an excellent one to raise at the QL2004 meeting, once a few programmers have had chance to get to grips with the new colour drivers and how to adapt older software to work with it.
EasyPTR remains the main sticking point and unfortunately, I have not found the time (mainly due to my continued ill health) to look at the sources for this and try to work out what is needed to adapt this excellent utility to working with 65536 colours and the new WMAN. Unfortunately, none of the others who expressed an interest in working on this project have been in touch (hint hint) so is there anyone else willing/able to take up the gauntlet along with me??
The QL market is thriving in some ways - since I started running my website properly last year (was it only then??), I have added over 100 customers to my database and provided all their email addresses for future mail shots by the ever helpful Tony. A lot of those customers have been new even to his large database, and so it is hoped that we may be able to persuade some of these to attend future shows and especially QL2004.
It is a pity that there are so many people on this list at least (maybe Tony could emailshot his mailing list) who have responded to the poll on sinclairql.net about where the QL2004 meeting should be held.
Maybe it shows the general apathy amongst the users.
--
Rich Mellor
RWAP Services
35 Chantry Croft, Kinsley, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, WF9 5JH
TEL: 01977 610509
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/rwapsoftware
