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

In the Days Before Digital Downloads

October 26, 2019 | 1 comment

Digging through some old papers I came across a letter that I wrote to the magazine Your Computer in 1981 when I would have been 16.

What’s interesting about this historical artifact is not that it was hand written and sent through the post on paper (although that is certainly unusual these days). No it is that it contains a submission for publication of a program that I’d written.

It’s hard to believe in these days of digital software downloads that there was a time when programs were small enough that they could be printed in magazines and people actually … 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