On Sat, 9 Aug 2003 19:01:53 +0100, gwicks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip>
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.
<snip some more>
Hi Geoff, Roy, Rich (et al),
quick response on that -await a more full email on this thread which lack of time has not let me sit down and write-
Geoff is right about Q-Word (btw, there was a demo of Q-Word during the US show albeit short enough, given the time constraints) regarding the problems we ran into but I wouldn't classify Q-word as cutting edge technology considering that these are capabilities we had since 1999 (at least). Of course despite that, in order for Q-Word to be made, we had to write peripheral Windows and QDOS software, use for the first time QDOS capabilities that haven't been at least commercially used before and in the process make George Gwilt create a couple more versions of Turbo ;-).Beyond these, what Rich has done (that deserves all the credit, as the only thing I do is to stall him) is to create a very complete programme that is:
a. Very self-explanatory
b. Easy as heck to use
c. Runs almost everywhere (and by almost I mean that it doesn't utilise 100% of every platform's characteristics... ie on the Amiga it will not show the 64 colours possible because the audience is way too small for it... although I have been in the process of harassing Simon for information on the AGA etc. (who as always was more than glad to help) as it is a good exercise in programming
But beyond that Q-Word was made to prove a point. And that point is that in terms of software we can have it all... good software, usable, good looking and compatible. Geoff is wrong to demote himself in terms of his contribution. Without his expertise Q-Word wouldn't be what it is and that's a good reason why it bears the name of Just Words!. Also another reason why despite Rich's offer I did not want my name on it. I did the "packaging" but all the effort belongs to Rich and Geoff.
Just to illustrate the amount of work gone into Q-Word, the latest executables sizes are: more than 1 Megabyte for the Aurora GD2 version and in excess of 4 Megabytes for the Qx0 and QPC/QXL versions.
Q-Word is NOT vapourware although many setbacks and delays have occured (most of them because of yours truly) but it is here and working *now*. As a matter of fact we are two "obstacles" before release. First one being the installation program which has to be of the same standards as Q-Word... ie if it's not Full Colour and graphical it mustn't exist ;-) and the second being the configuration blocks (but that's all there is to it). There is NOW a Q-Word version that can be run without problems on QPC and QXL if you're not into installation etc. but just because Rich's level of professionalism is such, that version hasn't been released. (Although it is good enough as for use and even better than most programmes that are sold as "release" versions.
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