The Sinclair QL Forum

Just a reminder to one and all that the Quanta Workshop and AGM will be held this coming weekend in Manchester, at the 3rd Davyhulme Scout Headquarters on Conway Road, which is just off Lostock Road, Davyhulme, Manchester (near to Junction 9 of the M60 motorway). Further details and map from http://www.quanta.org.uk.

Everyone is welcome - you don't have to be a member to attend.

Rich Mellor (RWAP Software) will be there, along with Adrian Ives of Memory Lane Computing, who I hope will have the latest on the QL SD Card Interface unit.

I'm also hopeful that George Gwilt will be giving a talk on a subject of his choice! And if finished in time the launch of a "Dock" program for the QL, along the lines of such programs on other systems.

There is a Quanta Dinner on the Saturday night held at the Pond Quay restaurant - if you'd like to attend that, get in touch with Quanta Chairman Sarah Gilpin for further details or to book a place.

As ever, there'll be plenty to see and do, and plenty of like-minded QL users to chat to. In previous meetings we've had some fun watching members of the local QL group (NEMQLUG) trying to resuscitate dead QLs. If you have some QL stuff you'd like to sell, bring it along and we can put it on a "bring and buy" table for you.

See you all there!

Dilwyn

If anyone wants me to take anything in particular, please let me know before Friday

Just relaxing after a failry hectic weekend - the show was very enjoyable, and there was a couple of great talks by George Gwilt and Adrian Ives.

Adrian's talk included a demonstration of the QL-SD interface, which has a great adaptable driver, and was tested and working fine with a standard QL, QL+ Trump Card, QL+ Gold Card and QL+ Super Gold Card.

This was some great news for QL users and Adrian / Peter should both be congratulated on an excellent project, with plenty of encouragement for it to be taken to the next step.

It was also interesting to hear that someone doing a media studies course, had actually recently covered the Sinclair computers, so that was a new generation hearing about the ZX81, ZX Spectrum and QL !

Dilwyn will no doubt fill you all in on one of the great quotes from the show which reflects the modern age of QL computing. He also demonstrated a cracking bit of graphics which could re-invent the whole QL desktop approach.

Thanks all for a great weekend - for those who could not attend, why not fit it into your diary for next year!

Sounds like a good show! Any photos? Also any fancy games on display?

Thanks for the fast report
I'm very interested to see this cracking bit of graphics which you've mentioned ....

thorsinclair wrote:Thanks for the fast report
I'm very interested to see this cracking bit of graphics which you've mentioned ....

I have added a show report and pictures to my website at http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/gen/quanta/agm2012/agm2012.html

As far as 'cracking graphics' is concerned, the program is called Q-Dock and is a very graphical small program dock system for SMSQ/E systems. It makes extensive use of GD2 colours for a nice icon-driven dock system, with a modern feel.

I had intended to demonstrate the first version at the workshop, but embarrassingly brought a very limited early version due to a mistake copying it to my laptop late the night before. However, in the end it proved beneficial because speaking to Rich Mellor, Lee Privett and Bob Spelten over the weekend gave me lots of ideas on how to further enhance the program. So I apologise it has been mentioned before it is ready (my fault, Rich didn't know I intended to further enhance it after the weekend) - I'll put details on my website soon and it will be available to buy online from Quo Vadis Design at http://www.ql-qvd.com/products.html like most of my QL software products.

Dilwyn

Can I add that following the workshop and AGM, the QUANTA website has a new looking logo on its front page, we welcome any comments.

http://www.quanta.org.uk/