Sinclair 4K Basic for the ZX80
5 days ago
- #Tiny BASIC
- #Sinclair ZX80
- #Retro Computing
- Sinclair 4K BASIC featured a unique keyboard layout that tokenized BASIC keywords for efficient memory usage.
- The ZX80 used its own character set instead of ASCII, which included tokenized keywords to save screen RAM.
- Functions like CODE() and TL$() were unique to Sinclair BASIC, aiding in string manipulation without a LEN function.
- Graphics were limited, with symbols entered directly into strings, and lacked an INKEY$ function for game development.
- RAM usage was dynamic, with screen size adjusting based on program size, and supported variable-length names in the symbol table.
- The ZX80 BASIC interpreter allowed for more sophisticated variable handling compared to other Tiny BASICs like TRS-80's Level I BASIC.