4 ms·

I very much enjoyed this report, and especially the fact of a significant target of your attention being the ZX Spectrum - this is a true and honest approach to

I very much enjoyed this report, and especially the fact of a significant target of your attention being the ZX Spectrum - this is a true and honest approach to the programming art! :) Its definitely true that even learning older architectures can sharpen your focus and skill, general platform dexterity. You may not use a lot of the Z80 assembly skills elsewhere (but then again; you might), but for sure the bounds of your depth and understanding of how computers work today are definitely reset. Sure, stay 'focused on Ruby'/et al. - but if you have to pace yourself at your day-job, having a fun project/waste of time in the same department albeit with significantly fewer bits is also, as in such an attentive case, a professional perk. Old computers never die; their users do!

paines 12y ago
Well spoken! In regards to the Speccy: there is still a nice community around it, developing even new hardware for it: e.g. you can easily attach SD cards or newer hard disks to it, and boot speccy games in a second, there is networking etc.... go to worldofspectrum!
- fit2rule 12y ago
  Actually .. I'm an Oric-1/Atmos fan, and have also recently been able to give my old 8-bit collection a revival courtesy of disk-emulators being released for the old hardware .. it has re-opened the old world to me again and again, and I have the privilege of watching my kids get into it now, too .. nothing quite like the sanctity and peace of mind of having the kids use a computer that has very little chance of running a web browser, though. That's something the speccy users have got up on us Oric people, heh heh .. ;)
reidrac 12y ago
OP here! I found Z80 assembler quite interesting (I had previous experience with Intel 16 and 32 bit), and Z88DK supports inline asm so it wasn't too bad if you can restrict the assembler code to small routines and still do the main bits in C.
- fit2rule 12y ago
  I've had the Oric-1 OSDK (http://osdk.defence-force.org/ http://osdk.defence-force.org/), which offers the same universe, in my hack/inbox for a while now .. its an amazing thing to return to these old architectures and realize just how much we take things for granted today, and yet - in spite of the limitations - the things are still just as useful and interesting as they ever were. 'tis a delight to witness a 7-year old and a 5-year old pillaging through an ancient (30+ years) collection of floppies and tapes, and .. gradually over a few months .. accruing their list of favorites on the 'bookmark disk' from the collection, such that it is (* -). An 8-bit machine with 8 gigabytes of storage available is a truly profound and superlative new realm for exploration. I'm glad I'm doing it vicariously! (* - http://www.oric.org/software/ http://www.oric.org/software/)
  - reidrac 12y ago
    "and realize just how much we take things for granted today" Well, Z88DK has some... bugs. It is definitely a new experience when the compiler segfaults because a syntax error ;) To be fair, I'm glad it exists, but it got me busy for few hours because of a couple of bugs less evident than a compiler crash. My experience when I was 13 was with the Spectrum, but after getting back in contact with "the old 8-bit world" I think the Commodore 64, the Amstrad CPC, or even the Oric could be quite interesting to revisit and explore; and I'm sure there are still some users out there that would love new software!
    - fit2rule 12y ago
      I can say with certainty that there are users of all of those machines out there who would love to get some new software, indeed! Let me know if you're interested in the Oric scene .. I'd be happy to show you around!

paines 12y ago

Well spoken! In regards to the Speccy: there is still a nice community around it, developing even new hardware for it: e.g. you can easily attach SD cards or newer hard disks to it, and boot speccy games in a second, there is networking etc.... go to worldofspectrum!

fit2rule 12y ago
Actually .. I'm an Oric-1/Atmos fan, and have also recently been able to give my old 8-bit collection a revival courtesy of disk-emulators being released for the old hardware .. it has re-opened the old world to me again and again, and I have the privilege of watching my kids get into it now, too .. nothing quite like the sanctity and peace of mind of having the kids use a computer that has very little chance of running a web browser, though. That's something the speccy users have got up on us Oric people, heh heh .. ;)

reidrac 12y ago

OP here! I found Z80 assembler quite interesting (I had previous experience with Intel 16 and 32 bit), and Z88DK supports inline asm so it wasn't too bad if you can restrict the assembler code to small routines and still do the main bits in C.

fit2rule 12y ago
I've had the Oric-1 OSDK (http://osdk.defence-force.org/ http://osdk.defence-force.org/), which offers the same universe, in my hack/inbox for a while now .. its an amazing thing to return to these old architectures and realize just how much we take things for granted today, and yet - in spite of the limitations - the things are still just as useful and interesting as they ever were. 'tis a delight to witness a 7-year old and a 5-year old pillaging through an ancient (30+ years) collection of floppies and tapes, and .. gradually over a few months .. accruing their list of favorites on the 'bookmark disk' from the collection, such that it is (* -). An 8-bit machine with 8 gigabytes of storage available is a truly profound and superlative new realm for exploration. I'm glad I'm doing it vicariously! (* - http://www.oric.org/software/ http://www.oric.org/software/)
- reidrac 12y ago
  "and realize just how much we take things for granted today" Well, Z88DK has some... bugs. It is definitely a new experience when the compiler segfaults because a syntax error ;) To be fair, I'm glad it exists, but it got me busy for few hours because of a couple of bugs less evident than a compiler crash. My experience when I was 13 was with the Spectrum, but after getting back in contact with "the old 8-bit world" I think the Commodore 64, the Amstrad CPC, or even the Oric could be quite interesting to revisit and explore; and I'm sure there are still some users out there that would love new software!
  - fit2rule 12y ago
    I can say with certainty that there are users of all of those machines out there who would love to get some new software, indeed! Let me know if you're interested in the Oric scene .. I'd be happy to show you around!