\ $l sadsinclair

OVER 6808 T/’S ENTHUS

Support For sinclair 2281 - spectrun - @L

cord VOLUME 3

MIELUNEZ

ISSUE 6

JUNE 1987 $1.68

THE JOINT WEVSLETTER OF THE THREE TINEX-SINCLAIR USER GROUPS

1608 - 1308 - 2668

computers xx EBZUC x «x

Bilt Strick

IASTS JAM FEST '‘S7 AT INDY

Pete Fischer's report:

I think 1t @ight be easier to write about impressions of a Cyclone or iapressions of an earthquake.

A spectacular event took place in Indianapolis on May2-3. The 1987 T/S FEST had easily twice the people and 4-5 tises the excitement and activity.

To kick things off, Friday evening’s dinner was something like a dreas, as one by one {12 of the T/S Master Programaers, Vendors, User Group representatives and general folk all stood up and introduced theaselves.

There was Tom Woods, Tom Bent, Jeff Moore, Stan Leake, Dave Woods of Siriusware, Rod Gowen, Tim Woods of TIME DESIGNS, Rob Curry, Joe Newaann, John Coffey, David Ridge, Kurt Casby, Joe Williamson, Duncan Teague, Basil Wentworth and the list goes on and on...

It was evident that quite a "Meeting of the Minds" was about to take place, and no one left disappointed. Many conversations went on into the morning hours, aS some visitors relinquished the idea of sleep in order to make time to talk to folks they aight never see again.

Another s@ajor feature was the products. With over 55 vendors in attendance, one of the most exciting elesents of the whole weekend were the "GOODIES"...At last a person got to see and DEMO all the fantastic hardware and software they’ve heard about for YEARS: and what’s more, the author/designer was right there to answer questions! It was not to be believed! And as might be expected, there were some iteas there for FANTASTIC PRICES, such as 44K rampacs for $25 and Gis w/software for $99' Plus a truely amazing "T/S Swapmeet" with sellers from around the country. Many new products were released, an EXPERT SYSTEM from Novelsoft,

ral

IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY RARER

‘xx PSE «x x

xxSVUETecrvx«

WE'RE FOUR YEARS OLD!

This birthday issue of TIME-—-

neusletter contest. cles sent to us within the last yeor have been lLiberaliu quarded points ona il-S scale by Georse Mockr idge.

One of the qualifying contri- butors will win a brand-new @. computer om a $15@ gift certi- ficate.

Join us for the prize drawing at Sunmset Electronics; on Sa- turdey, Jume 27th at 1:06 P.M.

GOO0O0 LUCK! XKKOOOOOCOOOCOOOO000000O0OOK

A QL Book published by TINE DESIGNS, Amstraad had their new PC there, but sadly failed to bring any SPECTRUM 128’s or other Spectrum products. (I have to say, the poor guy looked a bit “neglected” as people rushed past hia.)

But the biggest thing about the Fest was PEOPLE. After nearly 2 years of exchange {electronic and paper), I FINALLY got to eeet Ed Grey- the aan’s as big aS a mountain! Also among amy biggest saogents was shaking hands with John Oliger and also Kurt Casby. No one EVER turns out to look as you imagined them...But I also aet a LOT of fine Sinclair fanatics that I never heard of before. These folks were ALSO a pleasure to seet. The only real problem with all this, of course, was that there was simply not enough tise to talk with any one person reasonably. I hope that the people I set will become friends during the next year and we can exchange letters and keep the spirit alive!

There were also 12 User Groups who were dedicated enough to forego the shopping and seminars and set up tables. But wany other groups were represented (no one knows how sany for sure) from Florida to Vancouver, from San Diego to New York.

Please tera the page.)

Iaside This Issue:

Tim Swenson shows OL evuners how te keep their secrets secret.

IMELINEZ

FEST ‘87 cCcont inuec?

There were also more than {15 door prizes awarded plus Six seperate drawings, aS donated by the vendors. Some of the prizes had to be given away sore than once as their first winners failed to claim thea.

Sadly, I completely aissed the many seminars as I had responsibilities of my own at a table. But several groups

had video cameras there and taped them all. Hypothetically, these will be passed around te the User Groups who aissed the FEST altogether.

My hat goes off to Paul Holmgren, Frank Davis, Willie

Jones and the other aembers of the FEST committee, | feel the whole 1/5 Community owes thea a great THANKS for such fine organization, and generally putting on one FINE show!

1 ern a +t omen:

Se Mae MA IS > oir malas OTS Nel eth AE eine OEE ie NaN iri Eh eS SR + ENED ahs ~o

SO rawing

by 3D Drawi Horm LehnFfretdt

ng by Norm Lenfetdt

Here «ts a true 3S-—dimensional drawing. It cam be viewed by most peopieg without any kind of optical aid. Bring the page close enough to your eyes so that each eve sees only one of the drawinas. Try to relax your eye muscles so that the tuo moges fuse into one. You shoutd te able to see the various ob— jects in the picture at diffe- remt distances from the paper .

Iowilt bring a larger, colored Versiom of the drawing to the June 21 PUG meeting, along with a Viewer that will make it easy for anyone to see the 3—dimen— SsLonal effect.

This drawing Cdone on a 2a@6S with Artwors) has been posted hale CompuServe as am RLE ara-— phic.

I believe many interesting 3-B effects are possible with this Ss hem .

Wry mot qi

sgn ae?

tta try?

2068 PROGRAN

Here is another of ay unsophistated programs. It (oh gosh thats unsophisticated)(at 73 you don't do over) DOES do two different types of qraphs, as shown, though and I don’t think I have seen that before.

REM &

SRA HS

Kac

MOMAHAW POG

Sa0 spe wes YSOS HAYDEN, Ib S5235 S18 INPUT “NUMBER OF ITEMS °: 4 S2Q@ GIA Siti: BIN yi SSG LET B-8: LET F=1e8eae SSS IHPUT “FOr AR EQUATION, 2 POR EWTERING THE GATA., 2 "I SSY GO TO B484 ital) +54d¢4 iiss S40 FOR NH=xl To & S45 LET Yihii -<iSeSIN Line il +34FT S246 60 TO 3688 Sdo FOR N=l Ta @ SSQ INPLT “ENTER "oY UNG S6Q IF Fi: ith} THEN LET Fey thi S65 IF O¢<vYihit THEN LET Bey iN? SYOQ LET £ iii <NeSBherao: PRINT - ih af LRG SSO HEST SSG PRINT “Li <a MiGcH a S35 FAUSE i868: CLs LU90 FOR Pst To #@ L810 IF Fe THE £2 TO Lars LWe20 FOR Mal To YiPi¢is7 cb) L650 PRINT AT S8-M. (P+ tP-1) tint (PEGG) 4,515 °F LUGS PRINT AT £21.16 etP-Li#ihiT (2 Bit. 5) iY ie 3 LG4d0 HExXT LQ¢5 NEST & LUEOG STO LYE PLOT &8,2F LHSO DORAL SEG LR ' LLw@e LEY Retr Peedi et. e == SSINT (il@448-(b}'+,5) «id 12110 LET Abagy if! 453487 L120 PLOT (Fen: -258-0.R2 21225 LET BistiiiPed: -Fi #F) LET ¢c LatviPeli-vibir ss Lise® CRAL BL.iL LisS IF F:-<G-2 THEN STOP LidG® HExT & ™, hee _ =: ,

Lad =

New = see Tee 2

IMEL INEZ.

EBZUG NEWS

BY FRED TEMPLETON

REPORT ON MEETING OF MAY 28, 1987

16 members and guests attended the meeting which was held at the TEMESCAL Branch of the Oakland Library, where our next meeting is planned to be held on Thursday June 25th. The address is: 9205 Telegraph Avenue (at 5ist) enter from back door. The present plan for our July meeting is to invite ourselves to another PUG meeting Sunday July 19th due to the fact that we can only use the Temescal Library for three consecutive months.

Darwin Thompson gave a report on the 1987 Midwest TIMEX Computer Fest. The two day event was attended by approximately 800 people from all over the country. Many of the TIMEX support suppliers had booths and had there stuff for sale. A lot of the good stuff was sold out Saturday morning. On Sunday there was a lot a discounting, with the QL computer selling at one booth for $99. Darwin purchased some software he needed and lots of souvenirs including: a TIMEX COMPUTER FEST T-Shirt, a TIMEX hat. and at least 6 TIMEX pins that he had attached to the hat. He also displayed photos he had taken of the event.

Pat Morrissey brought us up to date with the LogOn Unlimited Bulletin Board System which he is the TIMEX/Sinclair SIG OP. Located in San Mateo, call (415) 571-6911 [word 8, stop 1, No Parity] to log on to LogOn. He reports that there are many TIMEX programs that we can transferred to our own computers to use. He invited everyone to give it a try, there is no fee for using the system, but a $25.00 per year donation is requested.

ELUB MEWS

ruUG NEWS by Walt Gabdv

THE tiAy if MEETING OF FUG Was HIGHLIGHTED BY FRESENTATIOWS FROM THREE rENBERS:

Firk>l. NORM LEHFELDT. THE WEewW

EDITOR OF TIMELINES ». REPURKIED ON THE USE OF FRONT PAGE (A Lh

FOR THE PREPARATION OF GUR NEWSLETTER.

Lat tiv SWENSON we A

AUTORNATA, USING THE OL.

ca Alc Al

THE JUNE TOSUE

Mae NEWSLETTER

TEST «

MONITOR CONNECTION... TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY A DIAGKA USiNte

fECHURAW,

STUART REE REPORTED THAT HIS COLLECTION OF ENGLISH GAMES I5 NOW OVER 400 ITN WURBER. WELL. REEL Yi ALERT FOR iGGG AND i300 USERS! SEE GEORGE POCKRIDGE KEGARDING MEW SOFTWARE CATALOG FROM SILI- Me)

ATTENTION: VOLUNTEERS WEEDED TO SERVE ON A COMMITTEE TO FLAN

& SINUCLAIRE FAIRE:

WEXT MEETING DATE: JUNE Zi.

IMELIWEZ at PROGRAM | 302] 'OL-CRYPT' FILE ENCODER ‘QL-CRYPT* Listing By Tim Suenson =

199 WINDOW #1,512,256,9,9 110 PAPER 0 : INK 4: CLS

This program encrypts 120 CSIZE 3,1 Cendcodes) an ASCII file and 130 PRINT\S converts it back. Once the file 140 PRINT ” QL-CRYPT"” has been encrypted, it is almost 150 CSIZE 0,0 impossible for anyone to convert 160 PRINT it back with out the password 170 PRINT "” | that was used to encrypt it. An Encoding and Decoding I first saw this program on Utility” an IBM PC/XT. The program came 180 AT 21,25: PRINT "by Timothy with some documentation Swanson” explaining how the program 190 AT 13,8: INPUT ” Input worked. A while back I Password : ”; passwords remembered the program and 200 LET length = LEN(passwords$) figured I'd give it a try on the 210 LET pass = 0 QL. 220 FOR x = 1 TO length Basically what the program 230 LET pass = pass + does is this: It first takes CODE ‘password$ (x) ) the password that you entered 240 NEXT x and converts it to a single 250 LET pass = INT(pass/length) integer. This number is used as 260 RANDOMISE pass a seed to the random number 270 CLS table. The seed tells the 280 AT 5,2 computer where to start on the 290 CSIZE 3,1 w random number table. 300 PRINT ” MAIN MENU® Now a character is read from 310 PRINT ” the ci Les A FANAGM iWUMDEF eee WAN between i and 4 is generated, 320 CSIZE 0,0 added to the ASCII value of the 230 PRINT ” 1) character, and then outputed to List Instructions” \\ the output file. This is 340 PRINT ” 2) repeated until all of the file Encode a file’\\ is encrypted. 350 PRINT ” 3) Now the random number table Decode a File’\\ is basically a long list of 360 PRINT ” 4) pseudo-random numbers. The seed Quit program’ \\\\\ points to a start place in the 370 INPUT ” Enter table. Once at this start your choice : ";choice place, the generator just reads 380 IF choice = 1 THEN off the numbers as it goes down instructions the table. So with the same 390 IF choice = 2 THEN encrypt seed one can get the same random 400 IF choice = 3 THEN decrypt numbers in the same order. 410 IF choice <> 4 THEN GO TO This is what is used to 270 decode the file, except that a A20 DEFine PROCedure encrypt random number between 1 and 4 is 430 CLS : RANDOMISE pass subtracted from the character, A440 AT 7,3: PRINT "Please enter thus giving us the original file to encode.” ; character. 450 INPUT infile$s

460 AT 10,3: PRINT "Please enter output file.”

470 INPUT outfiles

480 OPEN_IN #5,infiles

490 OPEN NEW #6, outfiles

IMELINEZ .

"OAL-—-CRYPT’ Listing Cccontinuecd

500 CLS : PRINT\\S

510 PRINT ” Current line working on :”

520 LET inline = 0

530 REPeat loop

540 IF EOFC#5) THEN EXIT loop 550 INPUT #5, ins

560 LET inline = inline + 1

570 AT 4,5: PRINT inline

580 LET length= LEN(in$)

590 FOR x = 1 TO length

600 LET rand = RND(1 TO 4) 610 LET out =

CODE Cin$ (x) )+rand

620 PRINT #6, CHRS Cout) ;

630 END FOR x

640 PRINT #6

650 END REPeat loop

660 CLOSE #5 CLOSE #6

670 END DEFine decrypt

680 DEFine PROCedure decrypt 690 CLS : RANDOMISE pass

700 AT 7,3: PRINT "Please enter file to decode.”

710 INPUT infiles

720 AT 10,3: PRINT "Please enter output file.”

730 INPUT outfiles

740 OPEN IN #5,infile$

750 OPEN NEW #6, outfiles

760 CLS : PRINTN\

770 PRINT ” Current line working on :”

780 LET inline = 0

790 REPeat loope

800 IF EOF(#5) THEN EXIT loope 810 INPUT #5, ins

820 LET inline = inline + 1

830 AT 4,5: PRINT inline

840 LET length= LENCin$) 850 FOR x = 1 TO length 860 LET rand = RND(1 TO 4) 870 LET out =

CODE (in$ (x) >)-rand

880 PRINT #6, CHRS Cout)d; 890 END FOR x

900 PRINT #6

910 END REPeat loope

920 CLOSE #5 : CLOSE #6 930 END DEFine decrypt 940 DEFine PROCedure instructions

950 CLS ~~...

960 AT 2,0 ~-™

Program

970 PRINT ” This program will encode a Sinclair ASCII file such that it can”

980 PRINT "not be decoded by this program, or any progran, with out the same ”

990 PRINT "password that was used to encode it.”

1000 PRINT ” Sinclair ASCII is any character code that can be printed to the ”

1010 PRINT "screen. This includes international characters. Machine code and "” 1020 PRINT "other like files can not be used.” 1030 PRINT ” will stay the save. spacing and number” 1040 PRINT "of characters per line will be the same as the input file”

1050 FRINT ”

go on ”

1060 IF INKEY$="” 1060

1070 END DEFine instructions

The file format That is all

Hit any key to

THEN GO TO

+ Ht #

CE ai cae i aa i ls Ai a ad Tl a

NOTICE

PERCEEESESEDOCESCECSOD CEES OSOCCESSCEEDEEEEES ES 6 03 "., “4 x Fronmtributorss:

To Our

issue of

a ee pe aden den ene a ip aie ae

* ‘ The next

TIRARELIWNE@ 8

vacation ¢ »

- wo tae

A wiil be a two-month, tasue. Please keep in mind

: the mext TWO copy deadl ines: x

. X , Monday, July 6th ¢ x ori , ’ Monday, September 7th

nd ae

x. ij

CLUB NEWS -- N/¢L EXCHANGE 304 |

FROM THE APRIL 1987 PLOTTER N/L OF CLACKMAS COUNTY, OREGON ;

FATCH FOR *D « xe &

TINELIMEZ

Sinclink

2, GUTS/SV seeting nens:

2.1 870527 at ’Star by the Sea’ Catholic Church in Alviso. Meeting Attendees: ; § Steve Nichols demonstrated the following prograss (which he wrote) for the 751000; 8% (SMB7528-) Nail List $t (SRB7528-) Speeds & Ratios, A prograa to coapute different drive train speeds and ratios with a conversion sub progras.

$4 (SC87528-) Cavity Cutter Version 4, This program figures dial readings on a ailing aachine for any cutter size and cavity 5128,

$¢ (5C87528A) Cavity Cutter Version

$$ (SC87528B) Cavity Cutter Version t

Steve has contributed all these der og to our software

library, eh have been copied to A&d Nicradrive Water

Nuaber 830822 for viewing and copying at aeetings. If you wish to view these at apy Es please cal] Bill Miller so we can aake arrangeaents to bring the equipaent.

$ Mark Wahl reports he plans two articles for TIMNELINE2/SincLink:

$3 A CMDS Static RAM bankswitching design for the TS1000.

(16K BYTES to 254 MB).

$3 751000/152068 X-NODEM cosaunications prograe.

t Terry Greenlee deaonstrated using his 151900 & TS2050 MODEM as a terainal to cotrol his MS-DOS Toshiba 1100+ thru an Avatex 300/1200 BPS MODEM.

¢ Bill Phillips is plunging ahead with the SLIX SORT and WRITE? functions and he hopes to have the code written and tested? by the next aeeting.

? Keith Felix promises to write a TIMELINE2/SincLink article about his 151000 voice recognition/relay board project.

§ Oliver Chaplin renewed his TIMELINEZ/SincLink subscription. Thanks Oliver.

$ Bill Miller denonstrated the 152068 DLAN “User Group Advertiseaent’ tor use at computer shows.

2.2 870530 Stanford Meeting % Dona) McRae; 408-738-2931 is pooxang for help to convert

two 2X Spectrua knitting prograas to his Macintosh. Both programs wil) probably run on a 152068 but one is so large (40517 BYTES) that it won’t fit in a T9208.

Can anyone an

What Don probably really needs is a 1S2068 wiyh Spectrue ROM. Does anyone have one for sale?

Thanks to Don for eae about (20) TIMELINEZ 8705 at the 8705530 Computer Swap Aserica swap seet at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.

Ob ae Oe ee ee a a OES 2S S22 STO OHS OES SE ST OS CS Se wt oe ee

SLVISO SEPAGCE DISPOSAL

Al vise . S*ttoway 80 a 4 yj y if RON

Je J Bette rt ~ Sa nic i, Wan LAE? gi pes ere 4 ee Call eh a ”

: : . Bs

4 Save Bw ; 28 easy ae BE Peas

COMFITILATION BUG TIMEMACHINE Users:

It has come to our attention that there is a small bug in the version of TIMEMACHINE which you have. Mast USES Will not even be aware af this hug because it is rather obscure. You will only encounter this bug when you are compiling very Large programs and are forced to use KD & XE to compile the data statements separately. Flease follow the instructions below to correct your copy of TIMEMACHINE.

After the program has loaded twhile the hackup prompt is still on the screen), break into the program hy deleting the Left quote and entering STOP ¢SYMEOL SHIFT A).

Add the following lines to Basic:

SPECTRUM VERSION we

FOR i=1 TO 4

READ address, n

FOR 4= @ TO n-1

READ byte: FOKE addresstj, byte NEXT j

ed NEXT i

10@ DATA 23952,4

101 DATA 205,249,133,¢

102 DATA 29145,4

103 DATA 205,240,133,9

104 DATA 29906,4

195 DATA 205,247,92,9

106 DATA 34288,12

1@7 DATA 17,%,0,205,247,92,192,237, 91,241,68,2@41

PoPfa Pl Bo hs

& Wr

TS 2048 VERSION

Lines £@ to 25 same as Spectrum, 19@ DATA 26834,4 101 DATA 205,%0,136,8

102 DATA 32070,4

193 DATA 205,6,130,0 | 104 DATA 32858,4 yw 195 DATA 285,71,104,98

106 DATA 33280,12

107 DATA 17,0,0,205,71,104,192, 237,

¥ 91,241,68,201

Now, type GOTO 8400 and ENTER to make a new backup copy

IAELINEZ JUNE:

zi Peninsula Users Group

1 P.M. Peninsula Hosp. 24 Sitlticon Valley Group

“7 P.M. Star Of The Sea

Catholic Churchs AlLviss 25 East Bay Group

’ P.M. Temescal Branch

Ceakland Public Library

July: ig Joint Meeting of all three say Reea Groups. 1 P.M. Peninsula Hospital Hugust: iG Peninsula Users Group 1 P.M. Peninsula Hospital 26 Siticon Valley Group fy P.M. Star Of The Sea Catholic Church, Alviso Note: August meetina of the East Bay oroup was mot set at press time.

Please call one of the officers

for tatest information.

Every Saturday Morning The Timex’Sinclair Special Interest Group of the Computer Workshop meets in room SBe6@C of Jordan Halt om the quadrangle at Stanford ue. 9:66 A.M.

IASON RAK

Support Your Local Temex/Staclatr Users Croup!

CLUB CALENDAR

EST BAY 200 USER CEOUP

CONTACT: RUSS ENELISH (413) 465-3116

EETINGS: FOURTH TOURSBRY OF EACH NOWTN, 7:30 P.A. WEST BRANCH | IDRRRY 1123 WHIVERSITY QVENBE, BERKELEY

MAKE CHECKS FOR BUES PRYBBLE TO “WOOBY NCPREETERS”.

PUC PENINSULA USER GROUP ss: (311 AICHELLE LAME BALY CITY, CALIFORNIA 94615 (415) 878-1773

PRESIDENT: CEORCE NOCER INCE

PEETINGS: THIRD SUMBRY OF EACH MONTH, 1:00 P.A. PENINSULA BOSPTTAL 1763 El CANING REAL, BURL INCATE

MAIL DUES TO: PRT NORRISSEY 2000 CRYSTBL SPRINGS Reas BOILBING 21, MT. 22 SOM BRUNO, CALIFORNIA 94866

$US 766 SILICO URLLEY SINCLAIR TECRMOLECY USER CROeF

6675 CLIFFORD BRIVE

COPERTING, CALIFORHIA 95814

(498) 253-3175

RITA CARE, (408) 738-2888, 1-4579

LAST TOESBOY OF ERCH MONTH, 7:00 7.1.

CFOR LOCATION OF MEETINGS SEE ACCONPRNYING SUSTUG NEBS.)

PUKE CHECK FOR DUES PRYMBLE 18 “SINKLIME™.

TRIS TIMELINEZ WEUSLETTER IS & JOINT PUBLICATION OF THE TWREE TIMEX-SIMCLOIR BSER CROUPS IN THE S.F. Say MRER.

HEU FENBERS MB VISITORS MRE ALURYS VELCOPE! FOR FULL MEMBERSHIP CINCLUBING PRRTICIPATION IN CReuP

IFELIHEZ

Pete Fischer and Steve Ishii hove released the long-cauai ted Version 2.8 of the ‘Guide To Timex’Sinclair Telecommunica—- tions." It is certainty worth waiting for. CI suppose it is honorable to declare my inte— rest here —-- I contributed a couple of short programs to the book and did a little work on the cover .>

The mew volume is 96 8 1-2" by 11° pages. For those forced to squint at the reduced size type in the earlier version, the meu size is a maior tm— provement. But is is not the omiy one.

The book includes descr ip-— tions of all of the hordvucre and software currentiy avai ta- ble for atl of the Timex and Sinctatr machines. Sources cre given for most items. There cre modifications listed for some of the softvare and fixes for bues that have been discovered.

There is a listing of Timex Sinclair files on every BSS and commercial system that has such files that is said to be about 90% complete at the time of publication.

Those of us who have gotten heovily into communication with our computers find it so re- woerding that we can’t under- stand the reluctance of some of you to get involved. If you ore im that category,s this book should encourage vou to test the water. It includes repro- ductions of screen displaus and describes operating procedures for all of the BBS*s and sus—- tems discussed. This shoutd

Raneging Edilor: Hora Lebfeldt Editors: ESZUC: Jobn Ezike POC: Ceerge Reckridge

SUSTUC: Bill Miller u.S.a.

Bdvertising: PUG: Nora LebFetdt EGSZUE: Ball Strick

W/L Exchange: Kite Cerr

Advertising Schedule: Fall Page: Galf Page:

1/¢ Page: $13.08

1/8 Page: $10.88

Published naatbig bg the Tinex/Siacleir ser Greaps ia the Sen Frencisce-Oukiand-Sem Joce reas. Seat to all current nesbers.

$13.00 enousl dues.

$48.86 $23.08

THE ENITOR'S MUSINGS

make it fairly painless for you | who hove not yet discovered how — much Pleasure and information ome can get from computer tele— communication to do so.

Becouse the book is so largess Pete and Steve hove been forced to increase the price to $7.58 > Postage included. The book is well worth it. You should order

from: Pete Fischer P.0. Box 2002 Tenpe,s AZ SS261

A new Graphics Interchange Format <“GIF> has turched out of the clutches of CompuServe.

It is described by the con- Ppanmy as supporting the exchange of images as big as 16,0600 dots om a side in up to 256 colors simultaneously. The colors can be defined from a possible set of 16,000,000 colors. Images of photographic quality are said to

be possible with the system.

I mentioned that is has ‘lurched out of the clutches" of CompuServe because so far the company has released only a feu off-line decoders for the most

popular machines. Talk on the Ne

system is of the bugs being

found in these programs and of

CompuServe's refusal so far to

make adequate documentation a-

vVaiteble for those who wish to

write encoder decoders for us S$.

Don Thompson is amxious to write a decoder for the QL as S00N as ve can pry the info out of CIS.

NHL

TIMELIREZ

P.@. Bex 1312 Pacifica,

Ca 94044

First Class Mail