As with Fred, my entry into computers came about three years ago, but my reasons were slightly different. A change of jobs brought. me into the computer era, Several college courses in programming and numerical methods helped bring me up to speed. My ZX81 gave me a real edge over my classmates though. Not only did I practice my school work at home, but I became proficient in converting between languages (Basic, Fortran and Pascal).
Enter, SyncWare News. I received Fred’s Vol 1/1 issue and got quite a kick out of seeing the math applications that he had developed. I sent my inquiry/reply to him (tore off the back cover) and found his return response soon afterward. Well, that started it (much to the chagrin of my wife).
When Fred relegated responsibilities to Tom Woods and me, the SWN outlook improved rapidly. Tom’s tremendous subscription drive, the letters we received asking us to continue and several endearing friends to all of us, who have volunteered their support, have insured SWN’s survival. This volume is a tribute to all of you.
The first thing Tom Woods wanted to do, besides upgrade, was reprint back issues, There were no masters. This is a complete recompilation. Fred started recompiling in late September, I started editing in late October and Tom Woods started strapping it all together in late November. There were only minor annoyances to get in the way, such as, moving, SWN21, SWN22, SWN23, Profile 2068, Updates and working for a living.
The computer technology has advanced at just an incredible rate, even for our forsaken Sinclair computers. As we (everyone) learn more about our machines, so do we learn about ways to improve what has come before. In this rework, I amassed an incredible pile of cassette tapes. Eighteen months of work spewn here and there, and all the while trying to get organized, from the Cave-man word processor to the cassette based Memotext, to a high speed Memotext and finally, as I write this last editorial, a Compusa disk based Memotext, with Memotext relocated above 40K! It’s just incredible!
This volume will be valuable to all who TAKE the TIME to read or even study its contents. You will find an incredible wealth of information herein.
Again, through technology, The amount of text compression on these pages will astound you. Proportional spacing can really cram information. Each page in this book contains about 3 pages of normal size text. The revised schematics herein were enlarged to make them clearer and prevent them from being “lost in the corner.” I took the liberty to denote connections by large circles. I hope you find them legible.
Some of the material here (especially the math) is even more applicable to the 2068. After experimenting on your 1000 and gaining confidence, (you may find tinkering easier and more fun than you thought), making some 2068 modifications may be easier to justify. There will be a lot more for both machines in the years to come, GO SLOW! Enjoy it, and may the Power be in your hands!
Make no mistake! This ENTIRE book was written on ZX81’s (32 column screen and inverse capitals), Memotext with 64K Ram and Memotech I/F and printed on a C, Itoh Starwriter F-10. However, the annotations for the SE program were written on a 2068 with Mscript and a Tasman I/F.