This mechanism was later removed in favour of the traditional letter-by-letter system from the Spectrum 128 and onwards.įor the ZX81, again Nine Tiles was called upon to provide the new BASIC, but this time there was 8K to play with.
#SINCLAIR BASIC CODE#
Based on the context of the line of code you're writing, the system understands when to do this, and when hitting 'p' just results in 'P' being displayed. For example, hitting the P key results in PRINT being displayed. Commands are entered via Sinclair's slightly odd entry system, where a single keypress if often all that's needed to input an entire command keyword. You could access these through the use of CAPS SHIFT and SYMBOL SHIFT keys, or a combination of them both. Grant laid the path for things to come, introducing many unique features of Sinclair BASIC, such as the way it refuses to allow most syntax errors to be entered into the program, instead pointing out where the error is in the line before it is entered, making it much easier to learn and use than any other version of BASIC.Įach key on the keyboard (or keypad in the case of the ZX80 and ZX81) held upwards of 3 or 4 commands, depending on the 'mode' you were in. But the resulting program was 5K in length so Grant spent that August trimming the code. Grant wrote the bulk of the ROM between June and July 1979. To achieve the launch price of £79.95 in kit-form, RAM was limited to 1K and the integer BASIC had to be crammed into a 4K ROM. Given the tiny R&D budget, Nine Tiles stood to make hardly any money out of the deal, but the feeling was that the project was exciting and worthwhile, and one the company would benefit from being associated with.
#SINCLAIR BASIC SOFTWARE#
To this end, Sinclair had already met with John Grant of Nine Tiles in April 1979 to discuss the software requirements of the ZX80. But the aim was to keep costs down and that precluded paying a licence fee to Microsoft. Unlike Sinclair's previous foray in to the computer hobbyist market, the MK14, this machine would ship with BASIC, based on the ANSI standard. Sinclair was inspired to create the machine after seeing how much his son enjoyed using a TRS-80 but guessing that many people would be put off buying one because of the high price - just under £500. In May 1979, Clive Sinclair's engineers began work on the machine that would become the ZX80. It started out as an incomplete version of the 1978 ANSI minimal BASIC standard, but evolved through the 8K ROM in the ZX81 and Timex-Sinclair TS1000, and eventually became and almost complete version in the 16K ROM of the ZX Spectrum. Sinclair BASIC was created by Nine Tiles Networks Ltd in Cambridge, UK, back in 1979 to fit into the 4K of ROM available in the Sinclair ZX80.
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