This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Sinclair  QL (Quantum Leap) computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message! For other purposes like sales messages, hardware & software questions or information requests, please use our main forum.

My first computer, before I went PC mad. QL had the big breakthrough - after using BBC micros - in its bundled advanced suite of Psion programs called Xchange, plus an advanced BASIC. Tony Tebby was the software engineer - I met him at QL meets, a very enthusiastic man with long hair and glasses who thought in assembly language. The excellent Xchange word processor, database, spreadsheet and business graphics, were let down by the printers of the day, but programming the printer driver taught me loads about ASCII and serial/parallel comms. No USB then! Until the Amstrad WPs came a long, the Xchange Quill WP was many people''s first choice. We somehow got used to the clunky keyboard. I still have my QL, plus its Microvitec monitor. Somehow, I feel affectionate to the old thing.

This computer was my upgrade from the 2068. I had the extended memory card, a pair of external quad density 5.25" drives. I did a lot of programming on this machine with a QL version of Pascal (ISO, not Borland). I may still have it in the closet... I have to admit, even after all this time, the microdrive was one of the coolest media ever.

I used a QL all the way through university - the 2 built in microdrives were surprisingly reliable. I also remember playing quite a good adventure game on it called "The legend of Zkul"

2009 is the year of the 25th anniversary of breaking innovations in personal computing. Early 1984 two milestones were unfolded on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Europe was first with the launch of the 32bit multitasking/multiwindowing Sinclair QL. 12 days later America saw the launch of the 32bit GUI/multiwindowing Apple Macintosh. They both entered the field to compete with IBM''s PC.

Even the Sinclair QL failed in the designated market with only about 150000 machines sold, it inspired many experts and influenced today''s products in one way or another. Most prominent example is Linux, where its creator Linus Torvalds was a QL crack back in the 80s and learned the basics about preemptive multitasking on the QL. To know more about all that, please follow the full 25th anniversary story. http://www.tinyurl.com/9ryma3

There are new QL versions available today, have changed a lot (into a some format of mix between PC and Spectrum) but if you are a QL fan, you have to visit this link:

http://www.q40.de/q40.dedownload.html

This versions have been called "Q40", "Q60" and "Q80", and have also a nick "The Super QL''s"

Greetings from Spain.

I used a Sinclair QL at university in 1994. I needed a cheap computer that I could use to type up my final year project and Dr Buist sold me a QL for £50. The QL he sold me had an external floppy drive that could read and write PC disks. Once I had typed up the project I could transfer it to a PC for formatting and final printing. I even taught myself 68K assembly language so that I could play with the internals of the machine. There was one chip (I think it was the I/O chip) that used nybbles (half of a byte) to communicate.