BASIC questions from a newbie

[LtCmdWilliams]

Hi!

I'm a former owner of ZX Spectrum+, with which I spent my childhood, and unfortunately, a few years ago I sold it, which I regret now. On the wave of my regret, I managed to repurchase ZX Spectrum on eBay! Now, back then I was writing some simple programs in Basic, and now I would like to return to the nice memories and play with it again, especially when I see that there is quite a big community, which creates something for it. I do not know if people have returned to the topic or if it was always like this. I would like to write something simple and maybe even share it.

In the beginning I have 2 questions for you:
1) What is the best environment for programming in BASIC, so that I could write in text mode and the result of my program could be immediately previewed on the Spectrum.
2) What program do you recommend to create images "loading screen"?
3) Is it worth familiarizing yourself with assembler (because I heard that you can also write in it), if so, are there any publications (in English or French) dedicated to Spectrum on the subject. Or maybe it is better to give up?

[R-Tape]

Hello, Lieutenant Commander!

1) What is the best environment for programming in BASIC, so that I could write in text mode and the result of my program could be immediately previewed on the Spectrum.

BASIN is best for this. I like to do BASIC in the ZX-Spin emulator and save snapshots, but I'm just stuck in my ways.
https://sites.google.com/site/ulaplus/h ... -and-basin

2) What program do you recommend to create images "loading screen"?

ZX-Paintbrush is tailor made for the Speccy. The original site no longer exists, but Alessandro has preserved it here, and here is the direct link: http://www.alessandrogrussu.it/zx/ZX-Pa ... _Setup.zip

3) Is it worth familiarizing yourself with assembler (because I heard that you can also write in it), if so, are there any publications (in English or French) dedicated to Spectrum on the subject. Or maybe it is better to give up?

I'd start by playing about with BASIC for a bit. Even if you move on to asm, you'll still need it, and it gives you a starting understanding of the Speccy's memory and ROM. If you then want to move to assembly, I started with Big Jon's 30 minute machine code, and then Jonathan Cauldwell's How to write Spectrum Games, and I used ZX-Spin 0.666 which has a built in assembler (PDFs available in both those links).

Have fun

[Jbizzel]

Boriel zx basic is a great place to consider going. It's powerful and you can use it to easily code basic and learn asm.

Another option is to get a spectrum next of clone. Then you can code in actual hardware:)

[WhatHoSnorkers]

Hi!

I'm a former owner of ZX Spectrum+, with which I spent my childhood, and unfortunately, a few years ago I sold it, which I regret now. On the wave of my regret, I managed to repurchase ZX Spectrum on eBay! Now, back then I was writing some simple programs in Basic, and now I would like to return to the nice memories and play with it again, especially when I see that there is quite a big community, which creates something for it. I do not know if people have returned to the topic or if it was always like this. I would like to write something simple and maybe even share it.

In the beginning I have 2 questions for you:
1) What is the best environment for programming in BASIC, so that I could write in text mode and the result of my program could be immediately previewed on the Spectrum.

128K BASIC mode is pretty good, as you don't have to memorise all the short cuts. And if you select Screen mode from the menu it behaviours more like the 48K.

2) What program do you recommend to create images "loading screen"?

ZX Paintbrush is great for digitising images. I then sometimes load them on to the Spectrum and then poke around with them. If you SAVE "" SCREEN$ you will lose the bottom two rows but there are ways around this.

3) Is it worth familiarizing yourself with assembler (because I heard that you can also write in it), if so, are there any publications (in English or French) dedicated to Spectrum on the subject. Or maybe it is better to give up?

BASIC is great to get started with. There are lots of options for languages on the ZX Spectrum, and that's without going in to the modern stuff. Machine Code is very powerful but sometimes making it work is tricky, and you need to do all the POKEing yourself, as the ZX Spectrum doesn't support the assembly language.

Don't give up! There are lots of options. Some modern BASICs will compile straight into machine code, the best of all worlds!

[Bedazzle]

Machine Code is very powerful but sometimes making it work is tricky, and you need to do all the POKEing yourself, as the ZX Spectrum doesn't support the assembly language.

What? :/

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/8 ... oft_Devpac
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/9 ... ctrum/Zeus
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... trum/ALASM
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... ctrum/TASM

[1024MAK]

This emulator works in a browser http://torinak.com/qaop#128

Mark

[WhatHoSnorkers]

Machine Code is very powerful but sometimes making it work is tricky, and you need to do all the POKEing yourself, as the ZX Spectrum doesn't support the assembly language.

What? :/

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/8 ... oft_Devpac
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/9 ... ctrum/Zeus
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... trum/ALASM
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... ctrum/TASM

It's not built in, like the BBC Micro. I've typed in a BASIC Assembler and also a Disassembler. I've also typed in a Forth compiler and got it working. But it's not supported, it's an extra. Same with C, or compiled BASIC.

[WhatHoSnorkers]

This emulator works in a browser http://torinak.com/qaop#128

Mark

As a kid I had a +2 and programmed in 48K mode. And you don't get the shortcuts on the keyboard. 128K mode is really nice.