New Kid

[Kent]

New kid on the block. New to BBC basic and if no one laughs I started on a Sinclair ZX81, followed by the Spectrum, QL, Atari STE and when I got what most would call a proper PC, I have never programmed since.

As you can probably tell, I am not a young pup as I was in my late 20's when I got the ZX81. I have written so many programs I have lost count and ended my days with GFA Basic on the Atari STE. I have forgot more than I knew. Added to that a basic I have never used before and a graphics system that I am sure is totally different to what I was used to. So I hope you are all patient, I might have a lot of questions.

Glad to be here.

[Pete]

Hi Kent! Happy new year! I remember way back (was it 1981) when my brother got a ZX81, I think it had 1KB of RAM. There was an expansion pack which would overheat or you kept on having to re-set it in its socket.

BBC Basic original was brilliant - the best of the BASICs, and BBC Basic for Windows is brilliant too. It has everything from the original language and more to drive the modern day computers, including the Graphical User Interface of Windows (that's where I have been lacking knowledge and getting help here). The BBC Basic help section is detailed and thorough, and there are helpful people here too, so if you have any questions I'm sure they can be answered! Have a splendid 2022!

[Ric]

Here, here

[Kent]

Thanks! From my very brief adventure into BBC Basic I feel very comfortable with it. My last Basic, GFA Basic, was a very structured basic, if a little bloated. I cannot find the equivalent of INC or SUB, as in 'INC a' would be the same as 'a=a+1' but hey, the end result is still the same and having just counted they are both still only 5 key presses, but I guess 'INC falloff' is less keypresses than 'falloff=falloff+1'. 11 key presses vs 17. Am I really so lazy!

Yes Pete you are right about the ZX81 16K RAM pack that plugged into the back. The dreaded wobble. If the table/computer/RAM pack got a slight knock, the computer would crash and having to load your back up data from a tape recorder was a real pain, but also seemed state of the art at the time. It was still worth risking the RAM pack as otherwise you only had 1K of memory. You had to be very careful how you wrote your code as in LET A=0 used more memory then writing LET A=PI-PI. Still I got hooked and the rest is all history.

I nearly bought a BBC computer when they first came out but they were so costly compared to the Sinclair Spectrum that I went the route of the Spectrum, followed by the Sinclair QL and then the Atari ST. My first computer that ran MS-DOS with Windows 3 on top was a 486 DX2 running at 33mhz. I remember trying several Basic interpreters for that computer and could not feel comfortable with any of them and so thats when my programming hobby ended.

Happy New Year to you all too.

[Ric]

The equivalent code you are looking for is

<Variable> += 1

Hope this helps the lazy finger

Happy New year to all
Kind regards Ric