Computer Education in Schools Instruction Language (CESIL)

July 12, 2024 | 1 comment

When I first learned programming in about 1978 the school I attended was lucky to have a Research Machines 380Z on which there was the BASIC language. Using this one of the pupils then wrote a CESIL interpreter for their (I guess) O Level project. Other pupils then used this to learn the fundamentals of programming.

Skip forward a few years and I now owned a Sinclair ZX Spectrum having also previously had a ZX81 too. I decided that I would also write a CESIL interpreter this time using Sinclair’s variant of BASIC. Remarkably I still own the sheets of … Read the rest

Sinclair ZX Spectrum Review

January 14, 2013 | 1 comment

Here’s one for all you computing history buffs out there. Two reviews of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum from PCW and Practical Computing magazines in July 1982. (Hey, hey, 16k)

… Read the rest

The Price of Memory

July 16, 2006 | Comment

I bought one of these last week – a 2gb memory stick. Yes, I know that it has “Go England” written on the side but that will scratch off in time and I will lose the top but it will still hold 2gb.
At this point you are no doubt wondering why you should care about this – everyone’s got one of these right? In fact if you are like me you will have several. Well at about the same time as I bought it my Dad also found five volumes of “Your Computer” magazine in the loft.

Your Computer … Read the rest

Hey Hey 16K

June 23, 2004 | Comment

Even before my love affair with Psions begin (see previous post) I was a Sinclair addict. Originally it was just a ZX81 with the obligatory wobbly ram pack but quickly I had moved onto a 48K spectrum with dual microdrives, a printer and interfaces 1 and 2.

All of this came flooding back when I found the following animated song by Rob Manuel. Brilliant!!!… Read the rest