This issue of the QHJ is a little smaller that I would like. I’ve been busy getting ready for the QL show in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This is the same show that has been held in Newport, Rhode Island, but Bob Dyl wanted to try a different place this year.
I’ve been busy making some distribution disks of some QL programming freeware, verifying the entries in the Sinclair Internet Resources List, printing up this list, printing up a hard copy of the QHJ, MausNet, and Z88 e-mail lists, spending a week on a trip to Pensacola, Florida (It’s tougher when you travel with 2 kids), and all the other QL related stuff I do normally.
For those QHJ readers on the net (which is most), you might know that the QL Mailing list that was maintained by Beppe Zannetti is no more and has been sort of absorbed into the QHJ e-mail list. I’ve also been asked to break out the MausNet readers out of the e-mail list. Due to bandwidth restrictions, it turns out that it is better to mail the QHJ to one MausNet reader and have him post it to the MausNet QL newsgroup. So that others can use either of these mailing lists, I plan to put them on the QL Anon-FTP servers (those in Finland, Norway, and Italy).
I’ve noticed that the Sinclair (Spectrum/T/S 2068) mailing list is now gone. This means that T/S 2068 and Spectrum users have no mailing lists. I’ve also noticed more ZX81 interest on comp.sys.sinclair, some from people that have recently picked up older machines at a flea market (or boot sale for those on the other side of the pond), and others that have discovered the various emulators available.
I would like to start a Master Sinclair E-Mail list. I hope to create an Archive database with users names, e-mail addresses, and what computer they have. From this database, I can generate any e-mail list I want (with names or just the e-mail address). If you know of anyone out there that would like to be on a Master Sinclair list, have them send me an e-mail note. It is the ZX81, Spectrum, T/S 2068, and Z88 users that I need the most. I think I’ve got most of the QL users out there.
I don’t plan to make these mailing lists into a LISTSERV type of system (collecting then redistributing Sinclair e-mail message), but more as a phone book to look up Sinclair persons and to use when wanting to do a mass mailing (instead of a USENET posting).
As mentioned above, I’ve prepared a more up-to-date Sinclair Internet Resources List. It contains a list of Sinclair FTP sites, Gopher sites, World Wide Web Sites, Mailing lists, USENET Newsgroups, etc. Like the e-mail lists, I will put a copy on the three Anon-FTP servers.
One project that I am thinking about working is an other version of the Structured SuperBasic (SSB) filter. For those that don’t know SSB lets you write SuperBasic programs with no line number and indenting, and will add the line numbers for you. I’m thinking about adding support similar to that found in the C preprocessor, such as; #define, #ifdef, #end, #elseif, etc. I also plan to compile the program and make it all available on the three Anon-FTP servers. I’m looking to see if there is any interest out there for this. Let me know.
In QHJ #19 was an article on the Soundex algorithm. For some odd reason I could not get the code to compile. I know I had to be missing something. Peter Tillier found what I was missing. In the comment preceding the FOR statement, it is terminated with a * and not a */. This comments out a bunch of code until the next */. Don’t you hate it when it’s the little things that get you.
Per-Erik Forssen of Sweden, where my great grandparents came from, has provided the QHJ with it’s first article dealing with assembly language. I’m glad to have it, since a number of you commented in the readers survey that you wanted to see articles on assembly.