Quote:
Originally Posted by emeritus
My recollection is that the ZX81 manual encouraged you to PEEK into the memory and see what was in the various locations. A good way of getting an insight into to what was going on. Data for machine language programs usually had to be stored in REM statements.
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In common with all computers of that era you got a very decent manual with the ZX81 which encouraged you to try to program the machine, at least in BASIC. Once the 16/32 bit home computers faded away and the PC became dominant that whole culture very nearly died altogether and has only been kept alive by a few hardcore enthusiasts who continue to write demos and come up with new hardware for their beloved machines. The resurgent 'Maker' scene owes a lot to Eben Upton and his Raspberry Pi, and other programmable platforms like Arduino and the Micro:Bit.
I think if I was trying to write assembly language code on the ZX81 now I would come up with some system of injecting the assembled code directly into the RAM through the rear edge connector - getting the Z80 to then run it automatically would need some extra trickery. No doubt someone has already done it.