First off, thanks to Herb Schaaf for providing most of the text for this issue. When Herb gets a hold of a problem, he does not let go until he knows all there is to know.
Secondly, I wanted to bring up something that has been discussed in the ql-users mailing list. I can’t remember who started it, but there was a discussion on what software QLers would like to see next for the QL. The obvious, and non-trivial, stuff was mentioned; a TCP/IP stack, a HTML browser, color graphics and software to use it, and so on. As much as these are nice, the level of effort to create them is beyond most QL programmers. What I would like to see is a list of more day-to-day applications with a much lower level of effort. Once a list is created, QL programmers could see what others want and take a try at writing the programs. As much as I write software for my own needs, it’s nice to know when others also find it useful.
To help this idea along, I’m willing to act as the go between the user and the programmers. I’ll take program suggestions from users and list them on my web page. From there, programmers can volunteer to work on a program, which I can coordinate so that two people are not working on the same program. So, if you have some ideas of what software you would find useful, send it to me.