The Sinclair QL Forum

What are people looking forward to / hoping for in terms of QL-related software, hardware, events etc for next year?

My list:

- Q-emuLator for iPad (the most likely candidate, since Daniele has already ported it to Mac OS X which runs the same OS kernel underneath). Now that would be very nice indeed.

- somebody porting SQLite (relational database) to the QL, with SuperBASIC commands to run queries and manipulate result sets. I don't expect this to actually happen though!

- I'd like to find the time to write a new piece of software myself.

- this forum to become the central point for QL discussions. I really don't like the mailing list approach, so I don't post there myself. Forums are so much nicer

I'd love to see some kind of compact flash or memory card storage device.

Hi,

You should have a look at DBAS, which is database extensions for the QL.

Derek

vanpeebles wrote:I'd love to see some kind of compact flash or memory card storage device.

You should have a look at the HxC Floppy Disk Emulator which is a kind of half-way house - see http://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/detail ... es%29-1140

RWAP wrote: You should have a look at the HxC Floppy Disk Emulator which is a kind of half-way house - see http://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/detail ... es%29-1140

That does look pretty good, would this also work with BBC & Archimedes machines?

As for QL Hardware, I would love to see QUANTA do another run of Super Gold Cards!

robheaton wrote:

RWAP wrote: You should have a look at the HxC Floppy Disk Emulator which is a kind of half-way house - see http://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/detail ... es%29-1140

That does look pretty good, would this also work with BBC & Archimedes machines?

As for QL Hardware, I would love to see QUANTA do another run of Super Gold Cards!

Yes it should work easily with BBC and Archimedes machines - the person that writes the software to convert disk images for use with the system is very good at identifying issues and correcting them.

As for another run of Super Gold Cards - I do think that there would be a market out there for these, but unfortunately, there is at least one chip which is now obsolete. In quite a few cases where Super Gold Cards (and Gold Cards) no longer work it is down to the Altera chip.

Now, I am sure someone will put me right on this if I get the specifics wrong, but basically, the Altera chip is a one-shot programmable logic chip and some people got their fingers burnt as the chip is not cheap and Altera altered the specifications without altering the designation for the chip, and the code for the Super Gold Card relied on some of the un-published specifications of the original, which no longer work.

Therefore, even if you can get some of the Altera chips, there is no way of knowing whether they are original spec, or the newer spec, until you program them and try them in an existing interface.

You have then wasted your money (£100s based on minimum order requirements!) - you can't sell the chips on as they cannot be re-programmed and you can't get your money back, as they are still within specification!

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,

You should have a look at DBAS, which is database extensions for the QL.

Derek

Thanks, I will.

I still think it would be cool to have a version of SQL available on the QL (even if only to confuse people with all those similar letters! )

Sparrowhawk wrote:What are people looking forward to / hoping for in terms of QL-related software, hardware, events etc for next year?

My list:

- Q-emuLator for iPad (the most likely candidate, since Daniele has already ported it to Mac OS X which runs the same OS kernel underneath). Now that would be very nice indeed.

Unless the speed of the iPad is dramatically improved this is the best you can expect http://www.qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=46

I would like to see this

USB?
Well, good idea.

"Thanks to USBwiz chip, through RS232, UART, SPI or I2C interfaces you can access
many USB devices, including USB memory drives. Also, you can read/write files from
the any formatted SD or MMC card. The board comes with the D-SUB25 connector to
access all USBwiz's functionality"
http://www.ghielectronics.com/downloads ... Manual.pdf

Oh, it contains the card adaptor, too!