TSU Meeting MONDAY — October 5, 2026

David, John, Charlie, Joseph, Gustavo, Nick, Adam, Paul, Chris, Mike

John demoed TSWrite, a brand-new proportional-font WYSIWYG word processor for the TS2068. It runs from a cartridge (about 49K) and was inspired by GEOS/GeoWrite, using GEOS-derived fonts. It works in both high-resolution and extended color mode (ECM), and you can switch between wide and narrow page views. You can import images in SCR and ECM formats and crop them with a mouse-style cursor. It also imports and exports RTF, so documents round-trip to modern word processors like LibreOffice Writer through a small HTML converter. John built it from scratch with Codex in about a week. Gustavo and David offered to help integrate it with the TS-Pico's load/save, disk and RAM-expansion routines. John also described a proposal for a next-generation sound card: a Pico-based sample player with AY emulation for compatibility, which grew out of his arcade-port audio work. The group noted that ECM was almost never used back in the day, with 2068 Frogger as the known exception.

David reported new TS-Pico ROM features. Timex disk keywords (CAT, MOVE, ERASE, FORMAT) now work against the SD card, and files can be written directly to SD using a syntax similar to TPI. He also fixed a bug where switching from tape back to Pico mode touched the printer bit. The group discussed how hardware cartridges could coexist with the TS-Pico. The real constraint is LROS-style cartridges like OS64 that replace the home ROM. Charlie gave an update on version 2 of his Leap ROM, a replacement TS2068 ROM. It now uses an in-ROM editor, a compiler to compact bytecode and a virtual machine (modeled on Turbo Pascal), giving a much more QL SuperBASIC-like BASIC. It shares a math library with his Forth ROM, supports loading several assembly extensions at once, and has an early Pascal prototype. Version 1 is on GitHub, and version 2 will follow once memory optimization is finished.

Joseph showed QL Run, a new browser-based Sinclair QL emulator. It supports Minerva and Toolkit II ROMs, floppy, microdrive and hard-drive images, NTSC mode, mice, gamepads, serial connection to a real QL, and emulation of the QSound and QSound 2 (YM2203 FM) cards. This led to a technical discussion of QL video modes, its two ULAs and the 68008 CPU. Joseph has also redesigned the TS-Run TS2068 emulator UI. It can load archive.org titles directly, load cartridges, and boot Charlie's ROM with a ?rom=leap URL parameter. CRT mode uses colors computed from the NTSC phase angles in the technical manual. David is sending Joseph code for an emulated Pico backend, and John will file TS-Run bugs about high-res color preferences.

The meeting closed with a discussion of AI-assisted development: AI-generated game ports to the QL and Spectrum hi-color, plus the testing tools members have built to close the loop. Charlie uses custom Z80 and TS2068 debuggers, and David runs Pico backends in ZEsarUX and Fuse and flashes the hardware over USB. Members also mentioned the OpenSpand (an open Pico 2–based ZXpand-style add-on for the TS1000 with composite video) and the ZXpand+. The next meeting is Sunday, October 18 at 2 p.m. Eastern.

Highlights

John demoed TSWrite, a GEOS-inspired proportional WYSIWYG word processor for the TS2068 with images, ECM/hi-res views and RTF import/export
TS-Pico ROM adds Timex disk keywords (CAT/MOVE/ERASE/FORMAT) and direct file writes to SD
Charlie's Leap ROM v2 moves to an in-ROM compiler + bytecode VM with SuperBASIC-style BASIC and a Pascal prototype
Joseph launched QL Run, a browser QL emulator, and redesigned TS-Run (archive.org loading, ?rom=leap parameter)
John proposed a Pico-based sample-player sound card with AY emulation

Projects discussed: TS-Pico · Openspand Topics: Utilities & applications · Pico / modern interfaces (UnoDos, etc.) · Spectrum emulation & software · BASIC programming · Other retro computers · TS2068 / TC2068

Summary generated from the meeting recording; the full transcript is kept in the group's private archive.