Four application packages are supplied with the Sinclair QL computer. Psion, who until now has produced software mainly for the Spectrum and ZX81, has produced the packages, called Quill, Archive, Abacus and Easel. The packages offer word processing, database, spreadsheet and charting facilities. According to Psion, each of these packages should be able to produce data which can be moved from one package to the other, creating a full business system.

There are a couple of points relating to the packages that I would like to dismiss. First, it was previously thought that the packages would be able to run in multi-tasking mode; this is not so. Second, the QL has a fair amount of RAM, but don't except to use a lot of data - this is because the packages are very large.

The screen layout of each package is divided into three main areas. the top section is for the control area; the centre being used to display commands. Common prompts are shown at either side. This area is updated as different commands are used.

The main work area is used as the main display, and it may be split into more sections depending on what package is being used. The lower part of the display is used for the display area. Its purpose is to show information relating to options chosen, program status, user input, etc.

Each package uses the function keys on the QL. F1 calls up the help file, which is organised in levels, and you return to the main display by pressing Return or the Escape key. F2 switches off the control area, thus giving more room for the work area, and F3 will toggle in the control area commands. Finally, pressing Escape will return you to the last command.

The user can select a 40, 64 or 80 screen width to suit the TV or monitor being used. Also printer configuration programs will allow fancy features such as underlining to be used.

Quill's control area displays information on cursor movements as well as deletions and paragraphing. Information on what file is in use, page number, word count and others is shown in the display area.

Cursor movement is by letter, word or paragraph. Deleting text is achieved by letter, word or line. Both tabs and margins can be set as desired and will remain in effect until reset.

Different visible typefaces can be incorporated within the text, and provided the printer driver is used, these effects should appear on the final copy. Typefaces include superscript, subscript, bold, underline and 'paint'. Paint simply allows existing text to be changed to a particular typeface.

Headers and footers can be incorporated as well as pageing. Options allow line spacing to be changed as well as details relating to the format of the document.

The screen I/O on the QL is atrociously slow, and this is evident when using different features of the package. Things grind to a halt when the package is accessing the Microdrives, and Quill uses them a lot.

The latest copy of the Quill which I used had some oddities. It didn't allow more than one paragraph to be copied if there were spaces between them. Also, running out of memory sometimes resulted in the machine hanging up, or in some cases giving weird line numbers with minus values.

As far as features are concerned, Quill offers a lot. However, it lacks in some respects, flexibility being one. The fact that existing Quill files cannot be marged is just one example.

Archive's real power lies in the fact that it can be used as a simple index system, or as a complex data management system.

This is because it offers two modes of operation. It can be used in command mode, where the user enters commands that are directly executed on a data file. Using the Archive program editor, it's also possible to define whole procedure orientated programs that can do tasks from creating a new database to maintaining an old one.

There is no fixed limit on the number or fields there are in a record or the length of each field. Records can therefore be of varying length and can be added or deleted at will.

Two types of data are permitted: numeric and alphanumeric. Records can be sorted in ascending or descending order and multiple key fields are allowed. No immediate commands are provided to change the type or number of fields in a record, but under program control this operation would be very easy.

Data within a file can be interrogated in a number of ways. Jumps through a file can be made to the first or last record, or forwards and backwards by one record, or forwards and backwards by one record. FIND will preform a global search through all records and fields while SEARCH will do just that, but by using expressions such as IF NAME$="David" ...

Subfiles can be created by using the SELECT command which will 'group' together records that match a specified criterion.

With a package as flexible as Archive, its many other capabilities can only be matched by the imagination of those who use it. I found that the only item to hold up the operation of the package was the Microdrives.

Abacus incorporates all the normall features that you would expect from a spreadsheet. The difference between it and others is that it has very flexible text and labelling features as well as an excellent user-interface.

Up to 64 columns by 256 rows can be used to make up the spreadsheet. Moving about within it is achieved using the cursor keys, and the row/column position is always indicated. Larger movements use the GOTO command followed by the cell reference.

All calculations are performed to 16 digits, and as most don't require that many digits to be displayed, a host of formatting options are available. These will allow text and numbers to be displayed left, centre or right justified.

One of the main features of Abacus is that rows and columns of cells can be referenced by sensible names. That is, any text in a cell can be used as a label and can be used in calculations. The label can mean a reference to a whole column or row, and this method of identifying whole sections of the sheet is very easy to use.

As I have mentioned, the user interface is very good. Entering figures on a spreadsheet is nto the most exciting thing to do, and any aid in error-free entry is welcome. Abacus provides the user with many (sensible) defaults, and on occasions I was surprised at how little I had to bash out commands or ranges.

This is by far the easiest package to use. Sinclair claims that it is possible to produce a graph after seconds of using the package - and it is right.

This package will usually be used with imported data from Archive or Abacus, but it can also be used quite quickly manually.

When the program is run, a bar graph is selected as default with months displayed along one axis. The graph will be re-scaled depending on what values are entered, and if the entries go off the edge of the graph, it will be re-drawn on a smaller scale.

Different bar designs can be selected using different colours and thicknesses, and scales can be reset. Line graphs and pie charts are available as alternatives, and as with the bar charts there are plenty of ways in which they can be presented. For the final copy the photo of the screen can be taken, or the high-resolution screen dump to an Epson FX-80 can be used.

Using the package was great fun if nothing else. It was so simple to display bar graphs that I completely overlooked the more advanced editing features of the package. These allow you to create a new set of figures (and a new chart) from previous data.

Each of the packages has its methods of saving and loading data. But this data can only be read by the package that it was saved with. Data can, however, be moved between packages, and this is referred to as importing and exporting. This is possible between Abacus, Archive and Easel, but not Quill which can only import data.

The compatibility between the different packages is achieved because the format of the data produced by the three is exactly the same. The only 'problem' in exporting data between the packages is that a few rules have to be followed. This does not restrict the user because the necessary information is well presented. I had no trouble at all.

Quill data cannot be exported because it is formatted text. Importing to Quill is achieved by exporting data to a Microdrive ASCII file which is formatted, and thus can be handled by Quill.

For 'free' software, the QL packages are good. However, the "you can't complain for the price" attitude doesn't apply. Many are going to buy the QL purely because four pieces of software are thrown in, and many are no doubt intending to use these packages in their businesses.

I would strongly suggest to anyone who intends to use the packages for 'serious' work to think again. There is nothing more precious than your data, so the software that you use and the system that you use it on has to be of very high quality.

In the packages I received, bugs (or oddities if you wish) need to be sorted out. Also note that the packages are quite large, and in the case of using Quill, don't expect to write a chapter or two and hope to have memory spare - there won't be.

But by far the biggest setback are the Microdrives. As a form of mass storage they are a joke. Not so funny when data files can't be read back into one of the application packages though. To summarise their performance - they are slow and unreliable.