h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Very interesting article---takes me back. The comments on the QL were a little inaccurate however. (Although so few were sold, not many people knew what it could do!)

The QL was indeed similar to the ST and Amiga, but it was on the market much earlier. It appeared at the same time as the first Macs, and had a fairly easy to use OS (not as easy as Macs of course) and a built in "office" suite. It was very powerful, and at only GBP 400, incredibly cheap. It didn't take off because there were endless delays in producing it, then the early computers had faults, then people lost interest... Also, Sinclair's reputation for producing "toy" computers, together with the low price, made people think that it *was* another toy, rather than a computer as powerful as any PC of the day. Ironically, if they'd charged twice the price, they'd probably have sold more.

Finally, the programming language was BASIC. Forth was used on a computer called the "Jupiter Ace", which was very similar to the Spectrum. (it was in fact designed by two former Sinclair engineers.)

Cheers,

John