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Sinclair BASIC history: Difference between revisions
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Unlike Sinclair's previous foray in to the computer hobbyist market, the MK14, this machine would ship with BASIC, based on the ANSI standard. But the aim was to keep costs down and that precluded paying a licence fee to Microsoft. To this end, Sinclair had already met with [[John Grant]] of Nine Tiles in April to discuss the software requirements of the ZX80. | Unlike Sinclair's previous foray in to the computer hobbyist market, the MK14, this machine would ship with BASIC, based on the ANSI standard. But the aim was to keep costs down and that precluded paying a licence fee to Microsoft. To this end, Sinclair had already met with [[John Grant]] of Nine Tiles in April to discuss the software requirements of the ZX80. | ||
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. | Given the tiny R&D budget, [[Nine Tiles Ltd|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. | ||
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. Grant wrote the bulk of the ROM between June and July. But the resulting program was 5K in length so Grant spent that August trimming the code. | 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. Grant wrote the bulk of the ROM between June and July. But the resulting program was 5K in length so Grant spent that August trimming the code. | ||