Re: Re: [ql-users] £ 0.00 to spend! (1st attempt)

[Dave P]

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> Is it any wonder that so many people are abandoning the QL

It is an unworkable situation. It's all meaningless because even the
perfect solution doesn't help.

To take a different analogy, it's like everyone's in the QL lake, which
shrivelled up to a pond, and is now a puddle. Any smart creature has
already left. The water is muddy. Nobody is really enjoying it very much,
and no rain is in sight.

I view the scene as 'dead' in the sence that there is no new QL hardware
being manufactured. I don't count the Qx0 as a QL because it simply isn't.

I'm firmly of the view that there has to be a sea change - a step away
from the literal use of QDOS or SMSQ/E on 68k processors to something that
gives the community a chance.

With the current mele of versions and toolkits and patches and so on, no
two machines have an identical setup, and every machine behaves
differently.

I previously proposed one way forward, but there are many. However, all at
some point require a move to a different hardare platform and/or a
complete rewrite of the OS.

I strongly feel that it is not the hardware that makes the QL, it is the
OS and the software. The characteristics of the OS are more important than
the code itself. If Apple can completely change their underlying
architecture and move to an os like OS X so successfully, why can't we?

At this point, people comment about skills and resources and how the
obstacle is insurmountable. I respond that the goal is just far away, and
the longer we leave it, the harder it will be.

Linux works on many hardware platforms (as *most* Qx0 users know ;) and is
an ideal example of what can be achieved when people co-operate and get on
with it instead of sitting around saying it's impossible.

So, how hard would it be to embody the characteristics of SMSQ/E in a
portable, compiled OS that'll run on anything, or with us choosing a new
hardware platform and developing on that, so we can at least offer NEW
MACHINES at sensible prices? You can't get new users without new machines.

You trap yourself in an attrition cycle if you don't have new machines. If
you have new machines, you really need a new OS that takes the BEST of
SMSQ/E and leaves the worst characteristics behind, no matter how
exquisitely coded those bad characteristics are.

Dave