----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy wood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [ql-users] Show management - quantity and quality
>- and you did not approach me to ask to give a talk at Hove and you had Q->Word Funny you should mention that. I emailed the main author of QWord in February suggesting a demonstration at a QL show, but never got a reply to that part of the email. In the circumstances all I could do at Hove was to show it to a few interested people just to prove it was not fantasyware. QWord is a good example of something worth talking about at shows because it could be approached from many aspects. It has an interesting history. It started off in quite a small way as just "another" QL program, but Rich and I felt that we should call in an expert to help us with the sound and graphics. Little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for when Phoebus took on the job! It illustrates the difference between the standards of commercial and PD software. One of the reasons for the delay in release is bringing the program up to the standard that allows it to run on all systems, in all modes and in all resolutions. Plus allowing for QTYP and non-QTYP users etc. My part of the program was relatively small, but without some technical word knowledge over such things as relative letter frequencies and designing grids for maximum word generation the program would have been much the poorer. Rich and Phoebus have been working at the limits of new QL technology and have faced even worse problems than I did. They have learnt lots of things about the new colour drivers and their associated programming difficulties. Extrapolating from this the theme of Hove could have been the QL in a new coat and the possibilities and problems this gives. We may have found other people who are experimenting with the new drivers and even if they did not want to give a talk, they would have been able to join in a discussion. There are lots of interesting issues. The amount of memory the colour drivers consume - welcome bloatware to the QL. Will those of us who program in EasyPtr now have to learn QPTR or TurboPtr - how easy will that be? What new programs do people expect? All it takes is something to start the thing off and a bit of open-ended thinking from a small group of QL leaders well in advance of the show. And if need be let it happen just once a year at the AGM. Add a show dinner and possibly some other social activity and you create an interesting show. Possibly an argument for the role of the local group to be smaller and the role of QUANTA to be larger in the AGM show. No one pretends that the police have to control the crowds at American shows, but I have yet to hear anyone moan about the quality of one of Al's shows. Geoff Wicks
