I've never used one, so can someone tell me how the Sinclair
ZX81 keyboard works?
Because I'm seeing like 5 options per key, and only one shift key.
Like the "S" key: It's Save, ARCCOS,. "S", LPRINT, and that graphical symbol. How do you select between those?
I have looked up the manual
this has made me more confused
but the answer seems to be: it's a combination of shift and being modal.
The computer knows when you'd be typing BASIC keywords, so pressing "P" gives you PRINT in that case, no shift required.
you can also do shift-9 to get to graphics mode, which'll let you type the graphics.
and there's some way to get inverse text, but I'm not sure how. it doesn't have lowercase.
You can't intentionally switch to K-mode: it's done automatically at the start of lines or when it needs numbers.
and confusingly, F and G modes work different:
you do shift-newline to get to function mode, but function mode turns off as soon as you press another key.
you do shift-9 to get graphics mode, but it stays in graphics mode until you press shift-9 again.
@foone A 300 DPI scan of a ZX80/81 Reference Card from 1982: https://growf.org/stuff/ZX80-ZX81-Reference-Card.jpg
(Source: https://www.sinclairzxworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=1017)
@foone i would've said "oh go use the keyboard from that american market timex ts1000 thing" but i just looked it up and uhh... yeah they just re-used the original UK keyboard, £ and all
ah sinclair, always cutting every single corner imaginable
Yes. At the start of a line, the cursor becomes an inverse-video "K" and pressing a key gives you the BASIC keyword in white text above the key. The cursor than turns to an "L" and lets you enter letters.
SHIFT inserts the red characters/keywords. I don't remember if it's modal or not.
SHIFT+NEW LINE puts the cursor in "function" mode and it will then insert the keyword below the keys; these are functions that can be used in expressions.
(ctd)
SHIFT+9 puts it in graphics mode and lets you enter the special boxy characters next to the letter inside the key. Once again, I don't remember if it's modal or not.
EDIT (SHIFT+1) let you modify a line of your current program.
I don't remember how to do inverse video; I think it was something programmatic. They were done via a hack in the glue logic rather than being part of the character set.
(ctd)
Also, fun fact: all of the keywords were also characters in the character set. Which helps when you only have 1k of RAM.
(This was my first computer. I still have it in a box somewhere, actually. I wonder if it still works.)
Mine was assembled for me by a friend's dad who also gave me a non-standard power supply. It had (has?) a metal case with a switch. Nice piece of gear but I have no idea if it'll still work, nor if I'd want to try it.
It was my first computer, so it was only up from there. But I learned a lot from it.
Also: from what I know now, it's pretty astounding that they were able to do *that* with *that*.
Also: now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that SHIFT wasn't modal. As I wrote this, I had a tactile memory of pressing SHIFT+THEN.
FWIW, I ended up getting a third-party 16K RAM module, so it's only 16 times.
Also, you'll miss out on the experience of losing your work when you bump it a little bit harder than usual.
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