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Sinclair BASIC history: Difference between revisions
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The original plan was to issue only a limited number of Spectrums with the incomplete ROM and provide an upgrade, much in the way the bug in the ZX81 ROM had been handled, except that by the time Sinclair got its act together, around 75,000 units had been sold and the plan became unworkable. This is the reason why the Microdrive commands don't work in the standard ROM, and hence led to the development by Ian Logan of the shadow ROM in the Interface 1 in order to handle peripherals which should have been supported directly by BASIC. | The original plan was to issue only a limited number of Spectrums with the incomplete ROM and provide an upgrade, much in the way the bug in the ZX81 ROM had been handled, except that by the time Sinclair got its act together, around 75,000 units had been sold and the plan became unworkable. This is the reason why the Microdrive commands don't work in the standard ROM, and hence led to the development by Ian Logan of the shadow ROM in the Interface 1 in order to handle peripherals which should have been supported directly by BASIC. | ||
Those who are interested in what the finished ROM might have looked like should visit | Those who are interested in what the finished ROM might have looked like should visit [http://web.archive.org/web/20150530072925/http://www.wearmouth.demon.co.uk/ Geoff Wearmouth's website], where you can download the latest version of his Sea Change ROM, complete with source code. Wearmouth's version of Sinclair BASIC cunningly includes RS232 and network support in the main ROM, although sadly it is incompatible with the majority of commercial Spectrum software. | ||
Various "enhancements" were made to the BASIC over the years, including the extra syntax of the shadow ROM introduced with the Sinclair Interface I, and in the United States in 1983 when an attempt was made to overhaul the BASIC by Timex when it launched its [[Timex 2000 series|TS2068]]. But again, the version of the ROM launched with the machine was incomplete, and the TS2068 was unable to run the majority of Spectrum software because of hard-coded calls to locations in the ROM which were different in the Spectrum. | Various "enhancements" were made to the BASIC over the years, including the extra syntax of the shadow ROM introduced with the Sinclair Interface I, and in the United States in 1983 when an attempt was made to overhaul the BASIC by Timex when it launched its [[Timex 2000 series|TS2068]]. But again, the version of the ROM launched with the machine was incomplete, and the TS2068 was unable to run the majority of Spectrum software because of hard-coded calls to locations in the ROM which were different in the Spectrum. | ||