The Sinclair QL Forum

NormanDunbar wrote:Thanks Jan,
I always assumed the PC could show italics onscreen.

We've got too familiar with hi-res graphical screens
PC Quill can't even display underline and high and low script as it does on the QL. It just displays different colours.
The boxed help text in the upper display area is drawn using box-drawing characters much like on the ZX81.
Hi-res on the PC was possible, but with dozens of different resolutions depending on the graphics card used, and not supported by DOS.

So the QL was quite ahead of its time in that respect

QL_Forum Post - The PC-FOUR, Psion's IBM Versions - 11th January 2021

Dear All interested

I've just spent some of my 'lock down' republishing the PC-FOUR user manuals.

https://sites.google.com/site/martin2re ... ls/pc-four

Dilwyn please note - Before publication; I posted a personal message to you on your site message form (3rd January)

Sincerely in good faith and not for profit
Martin Reid

MartinReid wrote:QL_Forum Post - The PC-FOUR, Psion's IBM Versions - 11th January 2021

Dear All interested

I've just spent some of my 'lock down' republishing the PC-FOUR user manuals.

https://sites.google.com/site/martin2re ... ls/pc-four

Dilwyn please note - Before publication; I posted a personal message to you on your site message form (3rd January)

Sincerely in good faith and not for profit
Martin Reid

Loving the Organiser II section on your website!

MartinReid wrote:QL_Forum Post - The PC-FOUR, Psion's IBM Versions - 11th January 2021

Dear All interested

I've just spent some of my 'lock down' republishing the PC-FOUR user manuals.

https://sites.google.com/site/martin2re ... ls/pc-four

Dilwyn please note - Before publication; I posted a personal message to you on your site message form (3rd January)

Sincerely in good faith and not for profit
Martin Reid

Nothing received, sorry. Send it as PM via the Forum instead - 123-reg have never managed to sort out the email forwarding on my domain.

It's causing huge issues whereby even "verify your email address" for new website signups are not being received. Bloody spam filtering lets through all the cr*p and stops the genuine messages.

Reminds me, Forum admins- did you manage to get the email notifications for private messages working?

janbredenbeek wrote:We've got too familiar with hi-res graphical screens
PC Quill can't even display underline and high and low script as it does on the QL. It just displays different colours.
The boxed help text in the upper display area is drawn using box-drawing characters much like on the ZX81.
Hi-res on the PC was possible, but with dozens of different resolutions depending on the graphics card used, and not supported by DOS.

So the QL was quite ahead of its time in that respect

That's interesting to know. I have PC Quill but don't use it often enough because it doesn't run on 64 bit machines natively. Wish the source was available so it could be recompiled. The Virtual XP on my Windows 7 works but it's a bit clunky.

I agree that the business 4-pack was a bit ahead of its time. I didn't have a QL until late '89 but likely didn't open up Quill until 92/93 and by that time I was spoiled by the wysisyg word processors on the Mac (WordPerfect I think). But if you compare Quill to WordPerfect of the same era, Quill is much nicer. Psion did a really nice job.

dilwyn wrote:Reminds me, Forum admins- did you manage to get the email notifications for private messages working?

Not yet..

bwinkel67 wrote: That's interesting to know. I have PC Quill but don't use it often enough because it doesn't run on 64 bit machines natively. Wish the source was available so it could be recompiled. The Virtual XP on my Windows 7 works but it's a bit clunky.

I have archived versions of almost all my PC's in VirtualBox VMs. Even the ones that ran OS/2!

I agree that the business 4-pack was a bit ahead of its time. I didn't have a QL until late '89 but likely didn't open up Quill until 92/93 and by that time I was spoiled by the wysisyg word processors on the Mac (WordPerfect I think). But if you compare Quill to WordPerfect of the same era, Quill is much nicer. Psion did a really nice job.

IIRC only MS Word was WYSIWYG. WordPerfect used text mode but had the famous 'underwater screen' where you could see al the format codes. But in the early PC days I preferred Quill too.

Jan

janbredenbeek wrote:IIRC only MS Word was WYSIWYG. WordPerfect used text mode but had the famous 'underwater screen' where you could see al the format codes. But in the early PC days I preferred Quill too.

WordPerfect has also produced a WYSIWYG version for MSW$, my brother used it in his company, but I don't know if it was adapted for Macs too.
It is still maintained by enthousiasts but under a different name, at least it was shown a few years ago at a computer fair in Holland.

BSJR

dilwyn wrote:

MartinReid wrote:QL_Forum Post - The PC-FOUR, Psion's IBM Versions - 11th January 2021

Dear All interested

I've just spent some of my 'lock down' republishing the PC-FOUR user manuals.

https://sites.google.com/site/martin2re ... ls/pc-four

Dilwyn please note - Before publication; I posted a personal message to you on your site message form (3rd January)

Sincerely in good faith and not for profit
Martin Reid

Nothing received, sorry. Send it as PM via the Forum instead - 123-reg have never managed to sort out the email forwarding on my domain.

It's causing huge issues whereby even "verify your email address" for new website signups are not being received. Bloody spam filtering lets through all the cr*p and stops the genuine messages.

Nothing to worry about, I just wanted to pay due respects and give you the heads-up before publication that I was using information from your pages for the re-published IBM PC-FOUR Manuals.

Sincerely and in good faith
Martin Reid