On 14/05/2014 19:10, j...@sinoda.demon.co.uk wrote:
Hi Geoff,
Let me say that the 2012 Quanta AGM was when I decided that I would
never go to another Quanta show. It was a two day event with nothing
whatsoever planned on the Saturday. I spent most of the time
wondering whether I could quickly devise a presentation and not
having my original material with me eventually gave up and left the
show early. (My QL project at the time was the Just Words! QL mapping
page that I had felt was too much of a minority interest for a show
presentation.)
Then I am that minority. Of the top of my head, I would be interested
in how you converted the mapping data, what zero point did you use,
had you thought about pulling in data from the openStreetmap project.
After that I would be interested in how QWord was written, how to
convert other dictionaries, what to look out for when writing for all
the different systems, what are the differences, what makes it hard to
write are where would you want to see development, what is too far
behind and what is way out ahead,
To be quite honest I doubt if I could tell you much technically. The
mapping data all came from Hugh Rooms and were publically available NASA
files. He did not have broadband at the time so I downloaded for him and
sent him a CD.
The big problem was that they also contained a lot of extraneous
material and it was a huge effort to extract this. The only program I
found, both QL and PC, that could cope with the file size was
Perfection! I converted latitude and longtitude to QL x,y co-ordinates
via a short SuperBasic program using Hugh Room's formulae.
Any database containing data in the form Lat, Long could be used. I
believe one QL has plotted simple maps of airports from publically
available data.
QWord took several years to write and as new QL possibilities came along
they were added. Frankly it is very bulky code and really needs a
complete rewrite. The reason you have to have different versions for
different languages is that the grids are optimised for maximum word
generation, based on the frequency of words in that language. This was
information I already had from writing Solvit-Plus.
The next day there were two events planned, George Gwilt and Adrian
Ives. I was impressed that Quanta managed to get Adrian to the show
as his work was the hot topic of the time. Both presentations were
badly attended - about half the people present stayed at their tables
instead. After his talk Adrian gave a live demonstration at his
table. There were just 6 of us interested.
I was one!
I was really disappointed at the lack of interest in Adrian, given all
the effort he had put into the QL.
At the end of a show the committee had a post mortem. What was their
answer in 2013? A carbon copy of the 2012 event!
I had more fun personally at the 2013 event, but that was because we
were trying to get speed comparisons between different emulators which
started out because I was having such problems running the SMSQmulator
compared to uQLx on a Raspberry Pi.
Although it is a long way off, what talks/plans have been offered so far?
Will there be WiFi and if so what is the bandwidth, especially if you
are hoping to have Skype users?
Are you going to restrict any WiFi for those Skyping in?
Do you want people to set up tethering to MiFis to share out load?
Will it be recorded in any way such as film or just written down so
the information could be shared with those who cannot attend?
A good place to say something about the situation.
As far I can see at this stage there are three main areas:
HARDWARE will probably dominate and more or less look after itself.
Peter will be there together with some other German hardware
specialists. We also hope to have a Skype link to Dave in the USA.
SOFTWARE is a bigger problem as it is a bit in the doldrums at the
moment. I have had an interesting email from one of the Germans with
some thoughts about the present state of QL software and I think these
would form a good basis for discussion. I also think we should give some
attention to software preservation which has been one of the themes of
the last five years. Would there be a place for something on QL Games? I
have no one in mind at the moment. Finally if anyone has a software
project ongoing we would be glad to hear.
COMMUNICATIONS. It is one of my hobby horses at the moment, but I think
we could make more effective use of the internet. All being well this
will be the first UK event with a presentation by Skype. The problem is
that none of the QLis30 organisors has any Skype experience. I think it
is my job to put my money where my mouth is and to make learning to use
Skype my personal QLis30 project.
As far as the WiFi is concerned we do have permission to use this, but I
don't know if there are conditions or the nature of the church's connection.
At the moment no filming of the event is planned. Should anyone want to
do this they would need permission from any of the presenters. Not
everyone would want to be filmed.
Just a little word about how things are at the moment, because you may
find that QLis30 will go a little quiet in the next few weeks. I have
just finished writing an early draft of the QLis30 website, but to
complete this I have to go to Edinburgh to check a few things out and
take a few photographs. I am in Scotland for a short holiday in the
first week of June and will be staying overnight on my way to and from
the North Coast. My hotel is about half an hour from the venue, so it is
easiest for me to do the Edinburgh research then.
In other words the serious preparation for the show will begin mid June,
Best Wishes,
Geoff
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