The QL is here! I ordered it in the middle of February and received it on the 22nd June (promised delivery date at end of June). It came with the revised operating system 'AH' stored internally (i.e. no kludge) and seems to have most bugs corrected.

The Basic and Microdrive access seems to have been considerably speeded up. Quill (80K) loads in 30 secs rather than 2 minutes as on the pre-production model. It came with a comprehensive User Guide with beginners guide and keyword dictionary, etc.

One tip that I've found is that pressing CTRL and F5 during listing acts as a stop/start toggle. I've managed to interface my Brother EP22 with built-in RS232C with the QL - it requires OPEN #3,serlc and 300 baud to print to channel 3.

SuperBasic highlights structure and puts BBC Basic in the shade. I was also impressed by the speed of the graphics and flexibility of their syntax. The Psion packages seem to be tremendously good value, utilising power with a good user interface.

All in all, the QL (in my view at least) deserves all the success it will no doubt receive.

R. Snowdon
Newton Aycliffe, Co. Durham

Now how about sending us some QL Microwaves...? - Ed