The International QL Meeting

The 21st March 1992 saw the International QL Meeting in Germany, organized by the Sinclair QL User Club e.V. Munster-Roxel, NW Germany was the location, and QL/QDOS enthusiasts from several countries gathered in a school hall to see, try out and discuss everything to do with the QL. I was part of a contingent of British Quanta members who travelled by mini-bus from Ramsgate, England, via Dunkirk through Belgium and Holland to Germany.

For a moment, I thought we had come to the wrong place. Surely this was an Atari ST show? But no, they all turned out to be ST-QL’s upon closer examination, being very popular in Germany thanks to the work of people like Jochen Merz.

Looking around, I quickly took stock of the traders and various user group representatives present. From Germany, Jochen Merz was present of course with his well known QL and ST-QL products, demonstrating his QD4 editor and a new card game, The Lonely Joker (3 patience games running in pointer environment), along with Jurgen Falkenburg’s range of hardware add ons including a low cost hard disk interface, Albin Hessler Software with EasyPtr 2 (pointer environment programming aid) and an interesting looking QL mouse (I think it was a PC type serial mouse) connected to the serial port on а QL with software to make it work with the pointer environment. From Belgium came PROGS (Professional And Graphical Software) with their range of graphics and database software. COWO Electronic represented Switzerland, showing off QTop software and ExeQtor,(their tower system QL). From Italy, Davide Santachiare of Ergon Development was present. Traders from Britain included Miracle Systems Ltd who sold a large number of Gold Cards, EEC Ltd with a range of products, TF Services exhibiting Minerva and Laurence Reeves (!) and the tame robot ‚familiar to visitors of the TF Services’ stand at British shows. DJC was present, with the range of QL software, and Quanta (the independent QL user group) also had a stand there.

There were members of QL/QDOS user groups from most European countries, including those from Qltaly, QL Contact France, Sin-QL-air from Holland, plus visitors from Scandinavia and Belgium and possibly other countries, making this a truly international event. Language was mostly no barrier – it quickly became apparent that English was the standard QL language of communication! Some of us tried to learn some German beforehand, but we left the show knowing much more than when we arrived. The local people were very patient and understanding with us!

The level of activity and knowledge of the QL scene in Germany surprised me. I was aware that there were a large number of QL and ST-QL users in Germany, but I was not prepared for the level of enthusiasm I came across while I was there. The products on offer from German companies seemed to all be of a high standard, and clearly explained by knowledgeable individuals. Most German users appear to use the pointer environment, which is in stark contrast to the British scene. This is probably due in no small part to the efforts of people like Jochen Merz.

ST-QL’s are very popular there and I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow one to play with while I was there (thanks, Ralf). I was very surprised at the high level of software compatibility – not one commercial program I ran on it fell over! It ran QL software quite fast, and oh boy, did I love the 4MB environment. Imagine it – twice the space of a Gold Card!

Several discussions and seminars took place on various subjects from BBS’s to Fleet Tactical Command, from the future of the QL and QDOS to Minerva and QForth. Sadly, I and several others missed most of these because it was not clear what was being held where and when, a point to improve for next time..

Overall, I was very impressed. It was my first trip to a QL show outside of Britain and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, although we all ended up pretty tired at the end. My thanks to the organizers, including Franz Herrmann, and everyone else for their friendliness and good spirits. I shall definitely be looking for an excuse to go to the next one!