Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

Hi.
Is there no exclamation point character on the ZX81?

No, but there is a useless £

And if you go to the Lambda 8300 clone, there is no question mark or colon either. (On this machine it’s more important to have space invaders characters.)

Go figure... Odd to forego the exclamation point in favor of the pound sign on a computing machine. Even worse choices on the Lambda.
But hey I suppose that is what makes these machines all the more quirky!

Vorticon wrote: ↑Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:12 pm Go figure... Odd to forego the exclamation point in favor of the pound sign on a computing machine. Even worse choices on the Lambda.
But hey I suppose that is what makes these machines all the more quirky!

On a primarily British computer a country which still has the pound as its currency I would say it was and still is pre requisite for the three of us that actually use it as a computer like Sinclair intended, and not a games console which is what the majority treat Sinclair machines as, and may want to run financial programs which contrary to popular belief it is more than capable of doing when used correctly and with some intelligence and I find it silly that the pound symbol is missing from the Forth implementations found here meaning all my financial musings are done in bloody dollars.

Nobody seems to have any qualms over the dollar sign instead of an exclamation mark, anti British bias perhaps?

The $ was used for string variables by a convention predating the ZX81. But you are correct about Sinclair's intentions to have a distinctively British computer, hence the pound character. That said, by your reasoning, if the Zeddy was to be used as a general purpose computer for serious endeavors, then word processing would have loomed large here, and the lack of an exclamation point then becomes even more incongruous...

Your logic is slightly askew re "Your reasoning" It was Sinclairs' reasoning not mine that the 81 would be an introduction to serious computing hence it requiring some of the attributes of bigger machines. Word processing in the form of third parties was catered for especially in the form of Memotech's hardware word processor module ( I posses one) which if you read the write-ups of the time, especially when computer magazines were serious publications re computing and not games catalogues, it did ok especially amongst the fanzine community exclamation mark not withstanding.

Those same magazines had interviews with many individuals/companies using it seriously from payroll to stock control with those aforementioned third parties providing proper printers, modems and other hardware required for said purpose.

I don't think we'll see eye to eye on this one and as there is enough shit going down in the world at the moment lets not push it further and just leave it there eh?

The pre Zeddy convention that a$ needs to be a string only shows that $ is nothing to count on

Apologies if I struck some kind of nerve here and I am certainly not interested in starting a flame war over an exclamation point. I was just curious about its conspicuous absence. Moving on.

Paul wrote: ↑Sat Apr 16, 2022 7:51 pm The pre Zeddy convention that a$ needs to be a string only shows that $ is nothing to count on

Paul old pal your Germanic sense of humour always makes me smile.

@Vorticon.

Apologies too, bad day at the office as they say and something just set me off no offence to you my friend.