Sinclair BASIC (taking its name from innovator Sir Clive Sinclair) is a dialect of the BASIC programming language used in the home computers from Sinclair Research and Timex Sinclair. Sinclair BASIC was made by Nine Tiles Networks Ltd. Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (born July 30, 1940), is a British entrepreneur and inventor of, among other things, the worlds first pocket calculator, in 1962 and the beloved ZX Spectrum computer in 1982. ... BASIC is a family of high-level programming languages. ... A programming language or computer language is a standardized communication technique for expressing instructions to a computer. ... The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ... Sinclair Research Ltd was a home computer company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge, England. ... Timex Corporation, best known for the production of clocks, watches, and other timepieces, attempted to enter the fledgling home computer market of the late 1970s and early 1980s with the Sinclair line. ...

Originally developed in 1979 to fit in the 4 KB ROM of the ZX80, it was initially an incomplete implementation of the 1978 ANSI minimal BASIC standard and evolved through the 8K ROM ZX81 and Timex Sinclair 1000 (TS1000) to be an almost complete version in the 16K ROM ZX Spectrum. 1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ... A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix kilo-) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to either 1024 or 1000 bytes. ... Rom is also the name of a toy and comic book character Rom (Spaceknight). ... The Sinclair ZX80 was a home computer brought to market in 1980 by Sinclair Research. ... The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit standards organization that produces industrial standards in the United States. ... The Sinclair ZX81 home computer, released by Sinclair Research in 1981, was the followup to the companys ZX80. ... The Timex Sinclair 1000 (TS1000) was the result of a joint effort between British company Sinclair Research and Timex Corporation in an effort to gain an entry into the rapidly-growing early 1980s home computer market in the United States. ... The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a small home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research. ...

Original Sinclair BASIC

Reserved words

On the Spectrum there are 86 reserved words in Sinclair BASIC, denoting commands, statements, combined commands/statements, functions, and other keywords :

ABS, ACS, AND¹, ASN, AT, ATN, ATTR, BEEP, BIN, BORDER, BRIGHT, CAT², CHR$³, CIRCLE, CLEAR, CLOSE#², CLS, CODE³, CONTINUE, COPY, COS, DATA, DEF FN, DIM, DRAW, ERASE², EXP, FLASH, FN, FOR, FORMAT², GO SUB, GO TO, IF⁴, IN, INK, INKEY$³, INPUT, INT, INVERSE, LEN, LET⁵, LINE, LIST, LLIST, LN, LOAD, LPRINT, MERGE, MOVE², NEW, NEXT, NOT¹, OPEN#², OR¹, OUT, OVER, PAPER, PAUSE, PEEK, PI, PLOT, POINT, POKE, PRINT, RANDOMIZE, READ, REM, RESTORE, RETURN, RND, RUN, SAVE, SCREEN$³, SGN, SIN, SQR, STEP, STR$³, TAB, TAN, THEN ⁴, TO, USR, VAL³, VAL$³, VERIFY

Statements/commands found exclusively on the ZX81, TS1000 and TS1500 are: The TS1500 was a slightly-upgraded development of the Timex Sinclair TS1000. ...

FAST, SCROLL, SLOW, UNPLOT, GOSUB/GOTO (vs the Spectrum's GO SUB/GO TO)

The 128K models introduced two commands:

PLAY, SPECTRUM

Timex BASIC, used on the Spectrum-compatibles TS2048 and TS2068, has the following six keywords on top of the ordinary Sinclair BASIC ones: The Timex Sinclair 2048 was an enhanced version of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer. ... The Timex Sinclair 2068 (TS2068), released in November 1983, was Timex Sinclairs fourth and last home computer for the U.S. market. ...

DELETE, FREE, ON ERR, RESET, SOUND, STICK

Notes

1. AND, NOT, and OR are logical operators.
2. CAT, CLOSE#, ERASE, FORMAT, MOVE, and OPEN# are Microdrive-related file system commands/statements. Their use produces an error when a Microdrive is not connected.
3. String variables must consist of only one alphabetical character.
   Thus, «LET A=5», «LET Apples=5», and «LET A$="Hello"» are all good, while «LET APPLES$="Fruit"» is not.
4. There is no ELSE operator in the IF - THEN (- ELSE) chain.
   Thus, instead of
      10 IF V=5 THEN GO TO 50 ELSE GO TO 100
   it is
      10 IF V=5 THEN GOTO 50
      20 GO TO 100
5. LET is compulsory (i.e., «LET A=1» but never «A=1»).

In logical calculus, logical operators or logical connectors serve to connect statements into more complicated compound statements. ... The Microdrive is a miniature hard disk designed to fit in a Compact Flash Type II slot. ... In computer programming and some branches of mathematics, strings are sequences of various simple objects. ...

Sinclair Extended BASIC

This extended version of Sinclair BASIC was used on the Amstrad-developed/manufactured Spectrum +2 and +3 machines. Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc, usually known as Amstrad, is a company formed in 1968 by Sir Alan Michael Sugar in the UK, and based in Brentwood in Essex, England. ...

References

• Ardley, Neil (198X). Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ User Guide. Dorling Kindersley in association with Sinclair Research. ISBN 0-86318-080-9.

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is an international publishing company specialising in reference books for adults and children. ...

External links

• The History of Sinclair BASIC – By Andrew Owen, whose Sinclar BASIC website is hosted by World of Spectrum

See also

• Beta BASIC