QL C Development Kit

ZX Computing

ALL AT 'C' We take a lose look at Metacomco's version of the C language. This is a package designed for the professional C programmer, but is also user friendly enough to be considered by the home user. As can be expected for such a specialist program, the cost is high at £99.95, but for this you get a plug in EPROM containing part of QLC, two cartridges with the compiler phases 1 and 2, and a third cartridge with the Screen Editor, C run time system and the linker. Also included is a 200+ page manual. Before looking at the package in depth it may be worthwhile looking at the language. THE C LANGUAGE Although Metacomco say C is a high level language it is generally considered to be a medium level one and was designed for general purpose applications on the UNIX operating system by Dennis Ritchie. This language has several advantages. For a start it is a compiled language which means that the final code is in the machine language of the processor and so will perform at very high speed. Secondly, it has excellent data structures and fairly structured control flow. Portability is a major advantage of the language, a program written in C for the Hisoft C compiler for the Spectrum will work on any other C compiler, providing, of course, no machine specific code has been used. Due to this portability a large library of general functions are available which saves having to program many routines yourself. C has many followers who are ardent fans, but to be fair, it also has its critics. METACOMCO'S C This is a full version which is as compatible with the original as is possible. Designed by Lattice, it is based in their tried and tested 8086/88 C compilers and includes a large library of UNIX and QDOS funCtions, full floating point arithmetic, Macros and extensive error trapping and messages. The screen editor is the main unit for creating C routines and is very flexible, with a large set of cursor and editing commands, user defined windows and the ability to run multiple versions. The linker will take the files created by the editor and the library and link them together before compilation into the final program code. IN USE OK, so far all this could be gleaned from the press release and advertising claims of Metacomco, now we come to the acid test. Using it. For a start, and Metacomco admit this, the microdrive tapes are a risky media for storing such an expensive program. Backup tapes are essential, and preferably a disk drive for maximum security. I used a 40 track with the Technology Research interface and I have not had any problems with my copies, although Metacomco are slack in net providing any built in backup routines. Users at this level are unlikely to possess similar quality equipment. Most importantly, even though the manual is a well written and lengthy tome, it is a 'functional description' only and no teaching of the C language is undertaken. Users are assumed to be proficient and if not they are directed to the 'C' bible, The C Programming Language by B.W. Kernighan and D.M. Ritchie and published by Prentice-Hall. An alternative is C at a Glance by A. Denning and published by Chapman and Hall. The manual covers the usage of all the programs and gives in detail the few departUres from the standard. The portable library is likewise explained in detail. Some of the library programs are concerned with memory allocations, some are I/O routines and finally, there are a set of Macros for general file, string and mathematical operations. The Editor is a joy to use, it can be soon mastered and entering programs and routines is simplicity itself. However, using the compiler is a fairly lengthy business and needs to be approached carefully and step by step. Experienced programmers will not find any problems but the novice may find it confusing. Once the program or suite of routines has been created onto tape or disk then the first part bit the compiler is used. This com piles the source programs into an intermediate code ready for use by the second part of the compiler. Finally the object code is linked to any other routines and the completed program may be saved. OPINION This must be the definitive C compiler for the QL. Everything is provided for the experienced programmer, and if they are competent in C they will find it easy to use this well produced version. I entered the sample programs supplied and also a couple of others that I had developed on the Spectrum and all compiled and operated without any problem. It seemed too good to be true! For novices or those wishing to learn it could be looked at as an investment, if you approach it seriously than all the features you could ever want are provided. The price makes it prohibitive for the home dabbler and you must be certain that you will be intending to get full value out of the program. It is perhaps wise to buy a teaching book to study before investing in this program (you'll need it anyway). Finally yet another moan about the microdrives. I know it isn't Metacomco's fault, but after making only one backup copy one of the tapes failed. A frustrating and expensive problem. QL C - priced £99.95 is available from Metacomco, [redacted].

Your Sinclair

Graham Rydout

THE COMPLETE QL SOFTWARE BUYERS GUIDE At under £200, the QL has started to look a real bargain. If you've splashed out on one already or you're considering taking the plunge this Christmas, you'll want to know just how much software is available for the machine. The answer is still not much but things are starting to look up. Graham Rydout surveys the field. THE LANGUAGE BARRIER Very soon after its launch eighteen months ago, the QL was blessed with a wide range of languages and a couple of 68000 assemblers from Metacomco and Computer One. Now that range has been further complemented. Title: Assembler Development Kit Publisher: Metacomco Price: £39.95 Rating: 6/10 Title: QL Pascal Publisher: Metacomco Price: £89.95 Rating: 9/10 Title: BCPL Development Kit Publisher: Metacomco Price: £59.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Lisp Development Kit Publisher: Metacomco Price: £59.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: QL C Publisher: Metacomco Price: £99.95 Rating: 9/10 All of these come supplied with the Metacomco full screen editor that has now become the QL standard. So much so, in fact, that Metacomco have licensed it out to other companies for inclusion in their packages. Title: Assembler Publisher: Computer One Price: £29.95 Rating: 7/10 Title: Forth Publisher: Computer One Price: £39.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Pascal Publisher: Computer One Price: £39.95 Rating: 6/10 Title: Assembler Publisher: GST (via Sinclair) Price: £39.95 Rating: 9/10 Title: Editor Assembler Publisher: Adder Price: £34.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Publisher: Hisoft Coming Soon This list will give you an idea of the range of Assemblers and language packages available from companies other than Metacomco Title: Mon QL (Microdrive) Publisher: HiSoft Price: £14.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Mon QL (EPROM) Publisher: HiSoft Price: £39.95 Rating: 10/10 Title: QL Monitor Publisher: Computer One Price: £24.95 Rating: 9/10 Title: QL Monitor Publisher: QJump Price: £24.95 Rating: 7/10 With only three disassemblers/debuggers on the market, HiSoft comes out tops with MonQL on EPROM but the others are expected to follow suit shortly. Title: QL Monitor Publisher: Digital Precision Price: £18.05 Rating: 2/10 This is a very simple package and suffers greatly from a sever lack of features - not one I'd recommend. Title: C Compiler Publisher: GST Price: £59.95 Rating: 7/10 This isn't a complete implementation of the language but it's well suited to the beginner. Title: Supercharge (compiler) Publisher: Digital Precision Price: £59.95 I haven't yet seen the finished version or this compiler out it promises to be a product that everyone can make use of. It's written by Simon Goodwin oi Zip compiler fame (take a look at Your Spectrum 3) and it claims to convert almost every SuperBasic program into fully multi-tasking 68008 code. Title: SuperBasic extension Publisher: QJump (via Sinclair) Price: £24.95 Rating: 9/10 Title: SEE (EPROM) Publisher: Hisoft Price: £39.95 Rating: 9/10 Of these two SuperBasic extensions, QJump's leads the way but HiSoft's SEE has some very useful facilities. It gives the QL true windowing capabilities and as it's on ROM you don't have to keep loading it in. Title: Microdrive Toolkit Publisher: Compware Price: £9.99 Rating: 5/10 Title: Microdrive Toolkit (with source code) Publisher: Compware Price: £34.99 Rating: 5/10 The toolkits change the QL#s microdrive commands into functions so that values can be returned and errors such as 'drive full' trapped. Title: Keydefine Publisher: Psientific Software Price: £9.95 Rating: 10/10 This is a complete key redefinition package that'll let you use the redefined keys in almost every QL package. You could, for example, define the P key so that when you press it with the Caps Lock held down, the current document from within Quill could be saved and then printed. Freebie programs provided are a fast copier (a multi-tasking directory lister that lists directories from within other programs) and a printer spooler. Title: ICE (EPROM) Publisher: Eidersoft Price: £49.95 Rating: 9/10 ICE (Icon Controlled Environment) gives the QL a full Icon based Desktop Manager and Frton End to QDOS. It removes most mundane file handling tasks and I can thoroughly recommend it. Title: WD Utilities Publisher: WD Software Price: Microdrive £7.50, 5.25" £10.00, 3.5" £12.00 Rating: 6/10 WD Utilities are a complete set of SuperBasic procedures providing a menu driven system to manoeuvre files. Title: Cartridge Doctor Publisher: Talent Price: £14.95 Rating: 9/10 If you're frequently visited by the 'Bad or Changed Medium' error message, you'll welcome this program. It's a fully automatic set of routines to recover corrupted and deleted files. Title: Q Doctor Publisher: Talent Price: £14.95 Rating: 5/10 If you prefer doing things the hard way, Q Doctor only allows you to load and edit sectors from the microdrive. Unfortunately, there are no similar products available for disk users. Title: GraphiQL Price: £34.95 Rating: 6/10 Title: M-Paint Publisher: Medic Price: £49.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Paint Master Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £14.95 Rating: 7/10 Title: Tascopy Publisher: Tasman Price: £12.90 Rating: 8/10 Title: Sprite Generator Publisher: Digital Precision Price: £24.95 Rating: 6/10 Graphic printers are a personal choice. GraphiQL suits highly detailed work but is extremely difficult to use. For dedicated artists only! M-Paint is a coloured clone of Apple's MacPaint. Simpler to use but a shade less accurate on detailed work. Least sophisticated at all, PaintMaster is none the less the most appropriate tor your average QL user. Its ability to compile a drawing into a SuperBasic program that then copies it makes it practical if you want simple illustrations within your program. All have simple screen dump programs but Tascopy copies all or part of the screen in a variety of shades. Sprite Generator does just that but it's a complex to use package that isn't worth the asking price. DOWN TO BUSINESS The high reputation of Archive, Abacus, Quill and Easel is based on their quality - it's not just that they come with the QL. Other companies haven't released similar packages because most people are happy with what they've got. Doubtless improvements could be made but I expect these'll come from Psion rather than an independent house. Title: Q-Spell Publisher: Eidersoft Price: £19.95 Rating: 8/10 Pore spillars will welcome Q-Spell - a full-spec spelling checker to Quill. But be warned! Extra mamory's needed to check your document with Quill still in memory. Title: Home Finance Publisher: Buzzz (via Sinclair) Price: £24.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Self Employed and Cash Trader Publisher: Quest Price: £69.95 Rating: 7/10 Title: Small Business and Accounts Publisher: Sagesoft Price: £89.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Payroll Publisher: TR Rating: 8/10 Of the accounting packages aimed at home users Smallbusiness is the most professional. It has integrated Purchase, Sales, and Nominal Ledgers. Transferred from the IBM PC it just goes to show that the QL can compete in the business world. Payroll provides a perfect complement and deals with data for up to 75 employees. Title: Decision Maker Publisher: Triptych Price: £39.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Entrepreneur Publisher: Triptych Price: £39.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Project Planner Publisher: Triptych Price: £39.95 Rating: 8/10 The Triptych products help solve various problems and educate you in the process. Title: Equate (Microdrive and disk) Publisher: Flite Price: £39.95 Rating: 7/10 For mathematicians, Equate can solve most problems - polynomial, linear, simultaneous equations, differentiation, integration, curve fitting and various graphical problems. Title: QL Gardener Publisher: Gordian Computing Services Price: £24.95 QL Gardener is a database with information on over 1100 plants. Just a shame that the package won't dig or even weed your garden for you! QL ADVENTURES When you consider the QL's large memory and excellent graphics you'd expect plenty of adventures. But only three quality games exist, and they're all text only. Title: Lost Kingdom Of Zkul Publisher: Talent Price: £19.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: West Publisher: Talent Price: £19.95 Rating: 6/10 Title: The Pawn Publisher: Magnetic Scrolls (coming soon) Rating: 10/10 The Talents were released early on in the QL's history and they're still looking good. Zkul is based on the popular Dungeons and Dragons format and plays very well. West is set in the desert wilds - complete with menacing Indians. Few reservations about this one! The Pawn is extremely high quality, similar to that of the Level 9 adventures. It's set in the magical world of Kerovnia during a period at social upheaval and includes a very complex command interpreter that can understand commands as complex as "Get all except the cases but not the violin case then kill the man eating shrew with the contents of the violin case. Remove the shrew's tail and use it to tie the pole and the noose together!" See what I mean? This game's by far the QL's best adventure yet. A WINNING STRATEGY If you compare this list of strategy games for the QL with the selection for the Speccy, it looks pretty paltry. Still, there are some good 'uns here. Title: Chess Publisher: Psion Price: £19.95 Rating: 9/10 Computer chess takes on a new dimension with a full 3D board display that makes impressive use of the QL's graphics. Title: Match Point Publisher: Psion Price: £14.95 Rating: 9/10 Match Point is converted from the Spectrum and improved graphics make the game more playable. Title: Area Radar Controller Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £14.95 Rating: 2/10 This is a very poor aircraft control simulation written in SuperBasic. Title: Bridge Player Publisher: CP Software Price: £14.95 Rating: 5/10 Title: Backgammon Publisher: Digital Precision Price: £12.95 Rating: 5/10 Title: Reversi Publisher: Games of Skill Price: £12.95 (Coming Soon) Aimed at novices, Bridge Player and Backgammon are of little value to the experienced. Coming soon is Reversi - a full version of Othello. Title: Comos Publisher: Talent Price: £14.95 Rating: 7/10 Patrick Moores, stand by your QLs. This is an astronomy package that allows you to display star and solar patterns as seen from any place on Earth at any point in time. From the star map you can choose any star with the cursor to find out extra data. ARCADE ACTION This list of arcade games for the QL may produce a snigger from Speccy owners - it doesn't exactly rival the selection on offer to them. Still, it's growing all the time! Title: QL Cavern Publisher: JMF (via Sinclair) Price: £12.95 Rating: 7/10 A massive 50 screen Jet Set Willy clone with 395 gems to collect. Good value, with a good many improvements over the standard platform game. Title: Meteor Storm Publisher: Arrakia (via Sinclair) Price: £12.95 Rating: 4/10 A bog standard version of Asteroids. Title: Booty Publisher: Firebird Price: £9.95 (Coming Soon) A locks and doors classic on the Speccy that sells for £2.50. Microdrive problems push up the price on the QL. Looks impressive! Title: EVA Publisher: Westway Price: £12.95 Rating: 9/10 A Jetpack-style game with very large sprite graphics. The most annoying feature is the almost continuous sound. Title: Star Guard Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £14.95 Rating: 5/10 Title: Galactic Invaders Publisher: Shadow Games Rating: 5/10 Shadow Games range from the reasonable to the pathetic. This pair come on the one cartridge and are just copies of Arcadia/Invaders. Title: Night Nurse Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £12.95 Rating: 3/10 This uses Digital Precision's Sprite Package (see The Language Barrier) and it just goes to show that commercial games cannot be produced with it. Shame. Title: Quazimodo Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £12.95 Rating: 7/10 Reasonable I suppose, very colourful and should satisfy if this is your thing. I'd back it! Title: Space Paranoids Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £12.95 Rating: 4/10 Another Arcadia style game - hardly worth loading up. Title: Zapper Publisher: Eidersoft Price: £10.95 Rating: 6/10 Similar them to Paranoids but slightly better value. Title: Master Blaster Publisher: Compugem Price: £9.95 Rating: 8/10 Excellent shoot 'em up that puts the rest to shame. Very smooth animated graphics and a wide range of aliens. Title: Cuthbert In Space Publisher: Microdeal Price: £14.95 Rating: 7/10 Microdeal has a very varied quality range. Cuthbert's aimed at the younger game's player and the hidden strategic elements make it more than a quick shoot out. Title: Lands of Havoc Publisher: Microdeal Price: £19.95 Rating: 8/10 A well packaged 2,000 screen arcade that players very well but could've made better use of colour. Title: Crazy Painter Publisher: Microdeal Price: £12.95 Rating: 8/10 You can hardly call this an Arcade copy - it's so different. Crazeee! Title: QL FLight Publisher: Microdeal Price: £19.95 (Coming Soon) A flight simulator that's due for release soon. Title: Hyperdrive Publisher: English Software Price: £14.95 Rating: 8/10 The QL's official Pole Position - rather disappointing considering what could've been achieved. It's on a par with the Spectrum version. LET US KNOW... We've tried to make this guide as comprehensive as possible but a list like this can never truly be complete. If you own a piece of software, or if you produce one, that's not included here, tell us about it and we'll pass the info on to Your Sinclair's software hungry QL readers. The address to write to is Your Sinclair, [redacted].

Sinclair UserSinclair User Classic

Overall 5/5

John Gilbert 5/5

PUBLISHER: Metacomco PRICE: £99.95 The launch of the QL C Development Kit was a quiet affair, but it is likely to have a profound effect on the software market. The package is aimed at the professional programmer as well as the hobbyist. It is the first full Kernighan and Richie implementation for the QL and produces true, relocatable, machine code. The package consists of a lengthy manual, three microdrive cartridges and a ROM. The first cartridge contains the runtime editor and the Sinclair standard linker. The full screen editor will take any ASCII input and is standard to all the Metacomco products. The linker is used to chain together modules of compiled code. Compilation is a two phase operation, although the passage between the phases is easily accomplished. Each phase is on a separate microdrive. Phase one is invoked using the SuperBasic procedure name LCl. It reads in the source you have produced using the screen editor, and creates an intermediate compilation which is stored on microdrive or disc using the same file name as the source. Different types of file are distinguished by using file name extensions in a similar way to those used by the Psion business suite. For instance, the source code is labelled, _C; first phase compilation, _Q; and final phase, _O. In that way the computer knows the type of file it is dealing with. The command format for phase one includes a number of optional specifiers. Those will change the number of bytes used by the execution stack - from a default value of 2048 - and allow the entry of compile time options. The basic load command consists of the instruction followed by drive specifiers. For instance: LC1 "mdvl_ flp2_sinclair" would load the first phase code from microdrive one, load your source from disc drive two, produce an intermediate compilation and save the file. The second phase of compilation reads in the file created by the first, and produces object code in the Sinclair standard format. That object file must then be turned into an executable job using the linker. In comparison with the GST compiler, reviewed in August, the Metacomco Development Kit is far superior in performance and standard. It is a full Lattice implementation, whereas GST is manufacturing a version of RATC. That is in the public domain - anyone can use it - and is to C what mini-LOGO is to LCSI LOGO. The compilation process is slightly easier with the Metacomco package. GST QC changes the source into assembly language and converts that into machine code. While both packages use a similar process the QC components are run separately. Compilation can be automated with the Metacomco package by using the QLC command which loads in phase one and then phase two. The library routines, which make up the bulk of most C packages, highlight the differences between the Metacomco and GST packages. Metacomco has produced a version of the language which is portable - meaning that the source you write can be used on other machines. For that reason the library functions which can be linked into your programs do not deal with QL screen or sound. They include routines to deal with memory allocation, mathematics and files. The GST package is tailored to the QL. It too has a standard input/output library, but it contains routines to interface with QDOS and produces window and graphics effects. For that reason, and because of the low price, it was recommended for C beginners. Metacomco's package will provide the standard for system development. It will be used by professionals and those who are already expert in the use of C.