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Sir Clive Sinclair has died

theguardian.com

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Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#134

Post by 123pie123 »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #37

The Spectrum and ZX81 are (rightly) the computers for which Clive Sinclair is remembered. But it was his unsuccessful follow-up, the QL, which inspired a certain Linus Torvalds to write Linux: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QL#Legacy

Whilst my first programs was on the acorn atom, Zx80 and zx81

the zx spectrum hold a special place in my memory because the manual was fantasic - I learnt almost everything from it.

and then progressed on to typing the monterous (using the aweful rubber keys) blocks of programs from magazines - THEN I learnt how to debug and rewrite the games that I'd just typed in from the magazines, because they never worked first time.

but it felt like I was living in the future

Thanks Clive - RIP

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#135

Post by gokhan »

danielrpa wrote: post #10

The ZX Spectrum was my first computer. So many good moments with it... It's hard to describe it for the current generation - if you were there, you know what I mean. Sir Clive Sinclair had an enormous impact on my life and career. Today is a sad day for me :(

It was also the first for me. It was expensive for my family to have but my school buddy had it and naturally we spent all our free time in their house typing programs from the large book. Fun times. RIP.

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#136

Post by herio »

Even as a Commodore person who's never really owned a Sinclair computer, it can't be underestimated what an impact Sir Clive had on early home computing.

He truly showed that affordable computing is possible and in my mind also inspired the large home computer "cottage industry" in the UK.

Kudos and may you long be remembered.

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#137

Post by Chris_Newton »

zarkov99 wrote: post #11

RIP. Many a programming career, including mine, was started thanks to Sir Clive. There was a sense of wonder and awe around those machines that is no where to be found these days, even though we have so much power computational power. Something was lost.

There was a sense of wonder and awe around those machines that is no where to be found these days, even though we have so much power computational power.

Indeed. After I saw this sad news and your comment, I was reminded of an earlier HN comment¹ I had written about the joy I experienced as a young child learning to program on a ZX81 and my regret that my children’s generation are not growing up with the same opportunities. I’m not sure there is any analogous device I could give my kids when they reach the same age any more. Any device they do eventually get when they’re older seems more likely to have preinstalled social media apps and regular security updates than a preinstalled programming environment and a line in the manual reassuring you that nothing you type will break your computer. Something certainly has been lost.

¹ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21119236

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#138

Post by timthorn »

tpmx wrote: post #33

The excellent Micro Men docudrama ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Men ) has somehow been on Youtube since 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM (1h24m) Micro Men, working title Syntax Era, is a 2009 one-off BBC drama television programme set in the late 1970s and the early-mid 1980s, about the rise of the British home computer market. It focuses on the rivalry between Sir Clive Sinclair (played by A…

The Centre for Computing History videoed Chris Curry, Steve Furber and Hermann Hauser watching Micro Men and chatting for the tenth anniversary of its broadcast:

https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/55810/Micro-Men-10th...

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#140

Post by Zardoz84 »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #37

The Spectrum and ZX81 are (rightly) the computers for which Clive Sinclair is remembered. But it was his unsuccessful follow-up, the QL, which inspired a certain Linus Torvalds to write Linux: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QL#Legacy

I have memories of my father using a QL. also, he was very lucky as he got a late version with many bugs fixed. He like it too, that when got a IBM PC compatible with a 8086, he thought that the QL was better.
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