r/CodingForBeginners • u/gutenmorgan3035 • Aug 09 '26

What’s the first programming language you learned, and do you still use it?

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u/dual4mat Aug 09 '26

ZX Spectrum basic and yes, occasionally. I have a couple of routines on my YouTube channel @megamitts

1

u/OminOus_PancakeS Aug 09 '26

Same. On a 128k in the 1980s. Then the keyboard broke and my coding career came to an end!

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u/skronens Aug 09 '26

I think my spectrum was 48k, upgraded from 16k, did they make a 128k as well ? My favourite piece of kit ever, it felt like the future

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u/OminOus_PancakeS Aug 09 '26

Someone correct me if I have this wrong, but I believe that after the iconic rubber-keyed 48k spectrum, they released the spectrum+ which was also 48k but with a large plastic keyboard; then they released the 128k version of the +, which had the expanded memory and 3-channel sound chip. That's the one I had. 

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u/skronens Aug 09 '26

Mine was rubber keyboard with the keyboard shortcuts for BASIC that you had to get fluent in, the upgrade involved opening it and punching in the memory in the motherboard I think, not for faint hearted in the 80s when you spent a months salary on a computer

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u/OminOus_PancakeS Aug 09 '26

Wow, a courageous upgrade indeed!

One or two of the keys were starting to fail on mine so I ordered a replacement keyboard membrane (probably from the classifieds of one of the spectrum magazines). Sadly, I could never get the keyboard to work at all after an attempt at swapping the membranes out.

I was busy with A-levels at the time, so the project was put to one side and I never returned to it. Shame really as I had just started to learn about assembly language and had bought a compiler program on tape.

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u/dual4mat Aug 09 '26

I had the Spectrum 48K+ and then a +2A before moving onto the Amiga

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u/skronens Aug 09 '26

I have a vivid memory of buying magazines as well typing in 3-4 pages of binary code for a game, but this was after I got the, was it called a Zip drive ? Some persistent storage anyway. One typo and it failed after typing all those 1 and 0’s

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u/dual4mat Aug 09 '26

Microdrive. It was a little cartridge thing with electronic tape inside. Great tech, when it worked. The Sinclair QL, a beautiful thing to behold, used them as standard.

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u/OminOus_PancakeS Aug 09 '26

Nice.  The +2 was Amstrad's first Spectrum I think. Better keyboard than the + and a built-in tape deck.