Again again again again, deeper and down

I note with interest that a recent number of old QUANTA magazines have made their appearence on eBay.


Here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-SINCLAIR-QL-MAGAZINE-QUANTA-VOL-12-ISSUE-6-JULY-1995-/160651588770?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item256794b4a2#ht_5038wt_916


Just goes to show that a price increase in the subscription has the effect of older magazines are now a sellable commodity :)

These are just the yellow ones

Yesterday is gone

Well, pleasingly I have achieved what I didn't think I could and that is to have both Qemulator and QPC2 both running side by side on a MAC system with LION OS.

Qemulator is the MAC version, whereas QPC2 was running on my PC laptop and gave me a problem with key mapping (see older posts) that I couldn't resolve. QPC2 has been installed and running under PlayOnMac.


PlayOnMac can be found here http://www.playonmac.com/en/ and is a WINE based package so no second emulation stage.

Finally goodbye to PC based on Windows for most things now, yippee.

In the year, twenty eleven

Originally published in 1985 and reprinted by QUANTA in 1989, the book "QL SuperBASIC, The Definitive Handbook" has had much mention in the QL-User list in the past 6 months. As it was referred to with reverence  by more than a couple of people I thought if a copy surfaces, then I would get try to obtain it.


Well one did, and I did purchase it and for the first time (with regards to technical books) I actually read this from cover to cover over the space of about 5 hours (on a plane) and there were a few things that struck me about it.

Chapter 1, "SuperBASIC is a language designed by programmers for programmers", what fantastic statement, it should be the signature or tagline for everyone promoting the QL.


The writing style of the whole book to me is personal with every now and then a comment from Jan talking directly at you, great! (e.g. Introduction - or why we did it)


The order in which it is written is also for programmers , totally different to the QL User guide, starting with 'Procedures', starting as you should go on in your own programs.


Its a really nice book to get to grips with the QL and should be first on everyones shopping list coming back to the QL.


I could go on but suffice to say it is that attention to detail in the book that gives it its edge over most others (and this is despite the fact it was written by the the designer of SuperBASIC). If you get the chance of a copy or if Malcolm Lears scanned version sees the light of day, grab it. If you already have a copy then you should already know what I am talking about.


Jan makes reference to another Machine Code book about the QL by Colin Opie as being the one to buy, so if anyone knows a copy please let me know.

Holiday

Holiday season over and the QL and QL Users get a mention right near the end of this video


 http://www.raspberrypi.org/?p=112 


Just goes to show if you don't do anything nothing will happen, if you do something then something may happen.


This time it did :)

Atomic (sounds like off topic :) )

In documentation, websites and even emails (and this isn't just QL related), what is it with acronyms?


e.g. IMPS can be displayed as I.M.P.S. but I have seen acronyms displayed as I.M.P.S without the last dot. Now if this is grammatically correct to do so then used at the end of a sentence the full stop is added and thus I.M.P.S. But if not grammatically correct then using I.M.P.S. at the end of a sentence do you then add another  I.M.P.S..?


 I.M.P.S. btw way is fan based Star Wars film in progress (a few years so far) and can be found here.http://www.impstherelentless.com




Social Comment
The final off topic point I wish to make, is about my disgust at these morons, the actions of the so called youth, jumping on the current bandwagon against the police and government does not justify this.


http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150333636850851&comments