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From: David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: The integral type 'byte' (was Re: Suggested method for returning
 a string from a C program?)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:19 +0100
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 26/03/2025 15:08, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> On 26.03.2025 11:29, David Brown wrote:
>>
>> In the UK at least, home computers were wildly popular from the start of
>> the 1980's, when they became much cheaper, had usable BASIC languages,
>> and a wide supply of games.  DOS and CP/M systems were pretty much
>> business only - home computers hugely outnumbered such systems.
>> Virtually all home computers were 8-bit - though most users would have
>> little knowledge of that.
> 
> I basically agree. Only that those geeks and nerds who privately
> bought such computer systems here were mostly informed about the
> technical details.

That would, I think, apply to the technically-minded adults who bought 
early computers themselves - rather than the kids whose parents bought them.

> 
> (Ah, now I remember the system name I forgot in a previous post;
> it was a "Schneider" PC with CPM. And some toy called Sinclair ZX
> or so.)

The Sinclair computers (ZX81, ZX Spectrum) launched a generation of 
programmers and technically-minded kids in the UK - it was much more 
than a toy.  I learned machine code programming on a Spectrum (along 
with a BBC Micro), as well as some Forth, C, Pascal and Logo, in 
addition to the built-in BASIC.