"The basic route to a habit-forming hobby". Advice 35 years ago, to earliest computer enthusiasts!

Behold, that which I stumbled upon the other day!

An old 1983 "Sinclair User" magazine, with some words of wisdom that are still true!

We've even been blessed by a couple of living legends, from the original staff at that time. The prophetic wizard of words John Gilbert and prolific game reviewer - Rebecca Ferguson (expand the comments at the end of the article).

The magazine is out of print, and successive publishers are no more, but credit to them all.

[Bold italic text below in square brackets are my comments. The images and text after are from a PDF, supplied by retro8bitcomputers. Also see magazine credits at the bottom]

[This is where it all starts for every enthusiast right? Back then, the newsfeeds were magazines and forums were "pen pal" letter clubs!]

The basic route to a habit-forming hobby

Buying [any connected device, like a smart watch, phone, tablet or PC] can be the start of a life-time's obsession with [filming everything, endlessly swiping through/updating social networks and watching amusing videos!]. It is easy however, to become discouraged if everything does not go according to plan from the beginning. [Still true today! Web users often blame the problem on the computer - when it was the browser, or the website itself.]

For those with only a little knowledge of computers and their capabilities, the best way to approach the machines is to abandon any ideas for special uses. While the 48K Spectrum is big enough for simple uses in small businesses, the range of Sinclair computers does not contain machines for major uses. It is better to become accustomed to the many facilities and then decide how you wish to use them.

[Wow 48K useful for small business... :D

Spreadsheet and database programs, even back then. Today, the processor in your phone is more powerful than those behind moon-landing missions of the past!

In fact you can even dabble with Quantum Computers today! You can learn the lingo for free with starter kits, then rent time on a REAL Quantum Computer, when you're ready to save humanity and heal the world!]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/quantum/development-kit ! <- O: Yes.. it's REAL!

Begin by unpacking your machine, overcoming your surprise at its size and weight [Priceless!] and, following the manual, set up the system. If you cannot get the K on the screen, check that everything is plugged into its correct socket and re-set the machine by pulling-out the power plug [Oh yeh! No switches back then, just yank that thing out!] for one second and try tuning-in again. [Such fun, tuning the telly into JUST the right frequency! Of course these days we have HDMI, USB ports, Wi-Fi streaming dongles, etc.] If still nothing appears, check the power supply unit by shaking it. If it rattles, return it. If it is satisfactory, check your system with that of a friend.

[And so it begins! Geeks begin to gravitate towards, then stick to each other… causing isolated "clumps of geeks" in bedrooms and sheds.

Until a "critical mass", or "sparks of creativeness" ignite them out of the darkness and into billion-dollar industries!]

If you have a Spectrum you will have received an introductory booklet which explains what the computer can do and giving detailed instructions on how to set it up. Also included is a fault-?nding guide.

[Today, we can buy the latest mobile phone, accompanied by no more than a slip of paper, bearing a web link or 3d barcode. Which in turn, is frequently an incomprehensibly translated online manual!

The fault finding guide is replaced with online forums. This truly is a great improvement... if it is done well and it is just as easy to navigate, for those most common faults. Often not the case. But now have Bots!]

Once the K appears you are ready to begin learning about your machine. It can prevent family arguments if you can afford a separate television set for your system.

[Back then, most kids' first "display" was an old, giant, heavy "cathode ray tube" television. A hand-me-down, when parents upgraded. Or resurrected from a local flea market!

They weighed a ton! I even slogged it to school on a few occasions, for after-school clubs. Just black & white screens, for the ZX 80. Then COLOUR for the ZX Spectrum! Revolutionary!!

These days the display is built in, or "cast" over airwaves to any dongle, or compatible screen. Kids today are unfit, no tech-weight lifting!]

It also makes life easier if you find somewhere to leave your equipment set up permanently. You will ?nd that a few power sockets are needed and a four-way block connector on a short length of extension cable will help to tidy trailing leads.

[These days with online banking and purchases, we must be so careful. Getting into your identity can lead to real financial loss...

If you have a device that does not encrypt your operating system or personal files "at rest" (when switched off), then you must ALWAYS secure them behind lock and key, when not in use.

In other words, do not leave laptops at work, or PCs & tablets at insecure locations. An attacker with physical access can potentially switch wires and boot your device up from their own portable drive.

They can then alter permissions and browse your hard drives, possibly altering files, or adding spyware for later keylogging. BitLocker is built into Windows 10. Use it, even on your C drive! Just don't lose the key!

Also, TPMs are built into many modern motherboards, for an extra layer of cold-boot encryption. You can also buy them and plug into most other popular motherboards. If your laptop or PC is from the last decade, it's likely you already have a TPM expansion socket, on the motherboard.]

When using a Spectrum, a television set has to be more ?nely-tuned than when using a ZX-81 because of the added dimension of colour [YEY]. If the set is not tuned properly, the colours will look hazy instead of sharp and clear. If no colour can be seen when it is switched on, the power supply or the television set may be at fault. [No mention of colour-blindness! ;D Don't hate, it was just the culture back then... ;)

Some users have experienced some dif?culty with some television sets, which include Hitachi, Grundig and Toshiba. Sets which many people have found compatible include the Sony Trinitron, Fidelity and Ferguson. [One word - streamcast! Oh, spell checker says two words...]

The manuals are written in great detail and are reasonably easy to follow. Some of the chapters may not seem immediately relevant, but it is worthwhile reading them as you might miss something important. [Ahahahaha! Still true today!]

Patience is needed at that stage, to learn the ways in which the computer will accept information. It is tempting to try to enter programs before you are ready but that is likely to lead to errors. For example, words like AND, THEN and AT should not be typed-in letter by letter.

[Syntax is still so important today, but now we have the almighty Visual Studio and VS Code. I'd say that Intellisense is undeniably the most useful thing which an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like VS brings to coders. Especially when your grey matter begins to thin...

Plus, it just gets smarter and smarter, now with IntelliCode!]

By the time you have reached chapter II in the ZX-81 manual and chapter 19 in the Spectrum manual you should have accumulated suf?cient knowledge to be able to type-in other people's programs, such as those in Sinclair User and Sinclair Programs, without too much dif?culty.

[Of course this is how we all started, even today! Nowadays it's just copy/paste. Back then it was painfully re-typing it in from the magazine.

Once, I copied ELEVEN A4 sized pages of code, in one day! Just rows and rows of 0's and 1's. It was the binary data for a very early example of a first-person 3D maze.

I then spent MANY MORE days, correcting loads of single digit typos!

So, I learned an early but valuable lesson in "technical debt" and "quality over speed"!

But it finally worked! Then I tweaked and expanded on it for months. Until, aged 14, I had totally grokked machine code, just thanks to that awesome, kind and massive code-dump donation! That moment when...

Morpheus: I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it. The Matrix

I suspect this is a common story (in less painful form) with most coders!]

It is that important when using the ZX-81 that it is not jolted. Some of the connections can easily work loose and everything which has been entered will be lost.

[The salty taste of grief, from loss! All new users soon learn to save regularly! In Windows' wonderfully uniform worlds, it's just Control+S.

Eventually, many programs, then even websites like this editor in LinkedIn, started to auto-save your work! Queue angels singing...]

The manuals are not to everyone's liking and if you ?nd them dif?cult to follow, a number of books on the market can help you. Find the one which suits you best.

[Since then, online media (music, video & e-books) have revolutionized our lives and removed all barriers to distribution!

Now the concern is ensuring artists and creatives still get rightfully paid, to make an honest living from their work. Back then, just as artists struggle today. Cassette tape piracy may have contributed to success of the industry, but many creatives lost out on life changing revenue]

As a way of relaxing you can buy some of the growing range of commercially produced software. That can be loaded directly from cassette, but make sure that your machine is big enough to take the tapes you buy.

For the ZX-81 there are a few tapes for the unexpanded 1K machine, but the majority require the I6K RAM pack. Similarly on the Spectrum most companies are taking advantage of the possibilities provided by the larger 48K machine rather than providing cassettes for the I6K.

[We download animated gifs on web pages, which are larger than 48K these days!!]

The tapes can vary in quality and it is advisable to read the reviews in Sinclair User and use your judgment to ?nd the best.

[Be kind and rewind! :D I really don't miss the screeching (audible) baud rate of the cassette magnetic tape download! Today's fiber and WiFi speeds just stun me!]

An alternative method to learn about both the ZX81 and the Spectrum is to plunge in at the deep end and see what the machines will do. Refer to the manuals when you have dif?culties. You can ignore the functions and calculations initially and experiment with PRINT statements to obtain the feel of the machines.

[I blew up my first ZX Spectrum, wiring the front door bell to the RS232 port on the back.. 12v buzzer... hmm... fizzzzz! That acrid smell...

Lessons learnt very painfully and early from my obsession with house automation! These days it's all cloud backed up!]

You may already have heard about the problem involved in SAVEing and LOADing your own cassettes. The manual gives detailed instructions but many of the early ZX81s would not accept tapes from some recorders. That problem is said to have been overcome but there can still be dif?culties.

[Nowadays, most devices leave everything suspended, in the background. Good if your device crashes. Annoying that it hangs around, like a bad smell, something I used to be doing...]

Usually they occur when LOADing tapes recorded by other people. [I think they're talking about... cassette tape piracy...] One simple method to overcome this is to wind the tape to the middle of the program and type LOAD " "followed by NEWLINE; then increase the volume of the recorder slowly with the tape running until the television screen shows four or ?ve thick black bands. If you then rewind the tape, the program should LOAD normally.

LOADing and SAVEing on the Spectrum is much easier and faster than the ZX81. One difference is that when SAVEing on the Spectrum the LOAD lead must be disconnected either at the recorder or the Spectrum.

Finally, a health warning. Apart from any practical uses, computing with your Sinclair machine can be a very entertaining hobby and is almost certainly habit-forming. You may easily ?nd yourself crouched over your machine, red-eyed, in the early hours of the morning thinking that in another ?ve minutes you will solve the problem. Try to break that habit by getting into the fresh air and meeting other Sinclair users.

[And there you have it! Thirty five years ago and nothing has changed!]

By obtaining a Sinclair computer you ?nd that you have joined a 'not very exclusive' club with many thousands of members, many of whom would be only too happy to advise you if you have dif?culties.

[For me, these were or still are: TechNet, TechNet Wiki, TechNet Forums, MSDN, MSDN Forums, docs.microsoft.com, Stack Overflow, Microsoft MVP, Cloud Developer Advocates, Microsoft Meetups, Facebook groups, to name but a few!]

Make sure of your regular copies of Sinclair User and Sinclair Programs and you can be guaranteed many happy hours.

[Tend to your LinkedIn contacts list, removing the marketeers! Follow and enjoy a news-feed of awesome outpourings, from amazing people!]

--------------------------------- 8< ---------------------------------

Special thanks to Sinclair User magazine, for a truly legendary article!

It was definitely the start of a lifetime habit, for me!

Original article credits for Sinclair User magazine:

Picture credits (1) ECC Publications Ltd - 1982-83 (2) EMAP 1984-93

Editor - Nigel Clark

Consultant editor - Mike Johnston

Production editor - Harold Mayes MBE

Staff writer - John Gilbert (see comments)

Program reviewer - Rebecca Ferguson (see comments)

Illustrator/Designer - Brian King

Editorial director - John Sterlicchi

Advertisement manager - John Ross

Sales executive- Annette Burrows

Editorial assistant - Margaret Hawkins

Production assistant- Dezi Epaminondou

Managing director - Terry Cartwright

Chairman - Richard Hease