| A New FORMAT | FORMAT_BIN, a public-domain 68000 SuperBASIC extension by Réal Gagnon (November 1989) that redefines the dangerous FORMAT command: the medium name must now be given in quotes, a warning appears, and formatting starts only when F1 is pressed. It works on QLs with JS or JSU ROMs. The program can be ordered from QL_DOC for $4 plus a medium, created with the given SuperBASIC loader and DATA lines, or assembled from the listed source with an assembler such as Metacomco's. | Sinclair QL, Type-in program |
| Abacus Applications: Adding Times and Printer Codes | Two Abacus spreadsheet tips. The first adds up hours and minutes in separate columns with SUM and INT formulas, noting that Abacus lacks a MOD function. The second sends printer control codes from a cell by starting it with CHR(0): compressed mode (up to 132 or 160 characters per line, with the printer paper width set under DESIGN) and underlining on and off. | Sinclair QL |
| ACT Special Edition (Review) | S. Vandezande reviews Digital Precision's ACT (Adventure Creation Tool) Special Edition, an improved version of Shadow Games' APT. It describes the graphics designer (GDES_task), the sound editor, the vocabulary, location and message editors and the CAPTAIN linker, and the two example games on the disk, including Imagine. Verdict: very good for anyone planning to write and sell several adventures, but slow to learn. Price 49.95 pounds. | Sinclair QL |
| Programming Languages | A short survey of programming languages by W. Harmer, first published in the Ottawa-Hull user group's TS Bulletin and translated and adapted by QL_DOC. It explains why computers are not programmed in plain English and sketches FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, Pascal, C (after A and B/BCPL), Modula-2, LISP and Prolog, Ada, Forth, PL/1 and APL, ending with application languages such as dBase and Lotus 1-2-3 and their QL equivalents Archive and Abacus. | Sinclair QL |
| Renaming a Floppy Disk | DISKreNAME, a short SuperBASIC program by Réal Gagnon that changes the name of an already formatted QL floppy disk without reformatting it, by reading and rewriting the disk's first sector through the direct-sector device (flpN_*D2D). It works only with floppy disks, not microdrives, and names are limited to 10 characters. The listing follows. | Sinclair QL, Type-in program |
| Sinclair News | News items: Tony Tebby's plan for a ROM version of QDOS for the Atari ST, replacing TOS and turning the ST into a "super QL"; Minerva, a faster, debugged replacement for QDOS from the British company QView; and ABC Elektronic's hard-disk controller for the QL, with a PC-compatible expansion slot, a subdirectory toolkit and support for ST506 drives, at 129 pounds. A European report from J-L Dianoux of the QLCF covers the Brussels Microfair (Tony Tebby's SMS 2, QRAM 2), the troubled Thor XVI, hard disks from Miracle Systems, Rebel Electronics and ABC, The Painter, and a public-domain QL emulator for the Amiga; and the Ottawa-Hull club opens a free Sinclair BBS. An errata box corrects the Abacus directory article in issue 12. | Sinclair QL |
