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Sir Clive Sinclair has died

theguardian.com

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Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#191

Post by nanis »

ghoul2 wrote: post #101

RIP Sir. I was gifted the 48K when I was 6 yrs old - it changed my life. I am here because Sir Sinclair built a machine whose setup instructions said: Now that you have set up the computer, you will want to use it. The rest of this booklet tells you how to do that; but in your impatience you will probably already have started pressing the keys on the keyboard, and discovered that this removes the copyright message. T…

Mine was smuggled into the country due to currency crises and import/export controls. I owe thanks to my mother for arranging that so that I could graduate from writing programs using paper and pencil to using an actual computer.

Thank you Psion's Horizons cassette for teaching me about computer architecture. Thank you Toni Baker for teaching me Z80 assembly so I could program x86 with no problem.

But, thank you Sir Clive, above all, for making such an affordable and approachable computer. What I learned on the ZX81 and the ZX Spectrum is still with me.

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#192

Post by RantyDave »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #177
ghoul2 wrote: post #101

RIP Sir. I was gifted the 48K when I was 6 yrs old - it changed my life. I am here because Sir Sinclair built a machine whose setup instructions said: Now that you have set up the computer, you will want to use it. The rest of this booklet tells you how to do that; but in your impatience you will probably already have started pressing the keys on the keyboard, and discovered that this removes the copyright message. T…

I had no idea. This is amazing.

I'm another who had exactly the same experience. That one sentence did the entire country a massive favour (and is, sadly, no longer true)

The quality of the documentation with these early computers was also truly exceptional. I learned basic in a weekend.

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#193

Post by RantyDave »

afavour wrote: post #106
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

Oh wow, it turns out the QL hardware was reused in the ICL One Per Desk. We had one at home growing up (for some reason?!). Kind of funny to read that it's greatest success was in networking hundreds of bingo halls together across the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Per_Desk

The QL failed because (amongst other things) they had outsourced the basic interpreter to another company for the ZX series and decided to bring it in house for the QL :(

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#194

Post by gojomo »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #144
hughrr wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shredding him. His business acumen was nil and his cost cutting nailed shut the coffin of every venture he started. I don’t get the hero worship.

Dude, he's just died. There's definitely a time for robust debate about his legacy and potential flaws, but that time and place should not be this thread.

When should we schedule the full, honest picture, if not now, when he's on people's minds moreso than he will ever be again?

I love the positive remembrances here. I also appreciate the full picture, like the joke about the "Sinclair digital penis" in another thread.

Sinclair did well for himself & his family. He did a lot of good in the world, from the people he introduced to tech.

Neither he nor his legacy are harmed in the slightest with an honest recounting. Instead, the memory is improved with realistic texture.

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#195

Post by dvirsky »

ghoul2 wrote: post #101

RIP Sir. I was gifted the 48K when I was 6 yrs old - it changed my life. I am here because Sir Sinclair built a machine whose setup instructions said: Now that you have set up the computer, you will want to use it. The rest of this booklet tells you how to do that; but in your impatience you will probably already have started pressing the keys on the keyboard, and discovered that this removes the copyright message. T…

Same here, but it also reminds me, the first programming lesson in school (not on a Spectrum but on an IBM PC), our teacher told us "there's nothing you can do with code that will harm the computer in any way" (these computers did not have a hard drive so you could not wipe anything).

This immediately set us on a quest to find ways to prove him wrong - the basis of hacker thinking. Not that we did find anything with our limited knowledge but it was a nice thought exercise (our best bet was to create a program that constantly switches between graphics mode and text mode. The monitor would make a clicking sound when this happened, so we figured if we do this enough times we'll probably burn some circuit, but we never tried it).

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#197

Post by flir »

beardyw wrote: post #156
belter wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. This is my desk decoration: "The Complete Spectrum ROM Disassembly" http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/zxspectrum/docs/Comple...

The book remains on the shelf behind me when most others have gone.

For me it's these https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanchantrell/6446816275

Godspeed, Sir Clive. Your projects were all bonkers in the best possible way.

Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died

#200

Post by midnightclubbed »

Very sad. For American readers it may be difficult to explain quite how much Sir Clive and his products shaped tech and a large number of British engineers. So many of us found a love of programming from Sir Clive's computers.

The beautiful thing about Sir Clive's products (particularly the ZX Spectrum) was that they were cheap. Basically a Zilog Z80, a ROM, RAM, membrane keyboard, and a single asic. No sound chip, no video chip, no disk drive, bring your own tape deck (connected directly to Z80 IO pins).

By designing for cost Sinclair Research were able to make a home computer that working class families could afford. Rather than being an enthusiast purchase, kids could bug their parents for one - and millions did. Thousands of these kids turned their programming experiments into businesses and careers.

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