L Break Into Program

@breakintoprogram

Blog: YouTube: Ko-fi: Software developer & electronics dabbler. Restoring & programming vintage computers from Acorn Atom to ZX81.

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L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 12

Watching the men’s final at Wimbledon with the usual text commentary between me and my mum.

Text thread

Mum: Yes it's very tense
Me: Nice! Yes enjoying this
Mum: Want dinner to win xx
Mum: Meant dinner lol

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 12

You know the drill…

Cat, coffee in a mug with a bee pattern on it, laptop with crossword puzzle page open in browser.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 11

Has anybody mentioned Don Priestley's Spectrum games?

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 8

Was hoping to do some tweaks to the emulator tonight and publish a post about the MegaDrive music driver. Scratch that. Got a puncture in town, back wheel. Had to push the bike to the station. Also needed a new tyre. Managed to get one from local sports emporium. Old tyre owes me nothing.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 7

Celebrity spotting now. Camera just panned over to Cliff Richard in the crowd.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 7

No retro tonight. Watching centre court at Wimbledon with a commentary between me and mum on WhatsApp. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Psion Match Point tennis game on the Spectrum

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 6

Mainly TV adverts and pictures of the TYCO toy range if memory serves. It was enough. I should have thrown in the Green Cross Code man into the Gameboy version as an easter egg. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Peter Purves as the Green Cross Code man.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 5

Jason Momoa seemingly about to rugby tackle Henry Cavill on a film premier pink carpet. The caption reads:

Henry Cavill
Me 30 years later having changed career three times and preparing for retirement

Jason Momoa
Thomas the Tank Engine QA

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 4

Can fully sympathise - it took me a while before I could appreciate music again after starting to lose my hearing. Stopped playing a few years ago and singing more recently. Thankfully my tinnitus is not too bad. It does get better though, one can adapt. Sending hugs and my favourite topical meme.

Picture of a TV displaying static with the caption 'A cathode ray tube television displaying the tinnitus pride flag"

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 4

Going to tell my kids I was playing Pokémon Go this morning.

Some kind of half-man, half-chicken kind of thing

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 3

Finally!

Me beating a 45 year old computer at a word game.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 3

Considering this fits in just over 41KB including game logic, UI and dictionary, it plays a jolly good game.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 2

My sister’s just pointed this out to me. Tempted.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jul 1

I started off using std::vector for Speculation's look-up tables; they're neat, but why use all that sparkling standard library stuff for static tables. Reverted to C arrays. Before vs After

$Code snippet using std::vector // Look-up tables for ALU operations // vector<void (Registers::*)(uint8_t)> lut_alu1 = { &Registers::adda, &Registers::adca, &Registers::suba, &Registers::sbca, &Registers::anda, &Registers::xora, &Registers::ora, &Registers::cpa }; const char * txt_alu1[8] = { "ADD", "ADC", "SUB", "SBC", "AND", "XOR", "OR", "CP" };$

$Code snippet using C-like arrays // Look-up tables for ALU operations // typedef void (Registers::* alu1_t)(uint8_t); const alu1_t lut_alu1[8] = { &Registers::adda, &Registers::adca, &Registers::suba, &Registers::sbca, &Registers::anda, &Registers::xora, &Registers::ora, &Registers::cpa }; const char * txt_alu1[8] = { "ADD", "ADC", "SUB", "SBC", "AND", "XOR", "OR", "CP" };$

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 30

Fancied a game this afternoon. Not played this in years.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 30

Made a new friend.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 30

Day trip with Mrs B. Posh breakfast at the Assembly House then walking the lanes followed by circular river walk to the cathedral.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 30

This rather pleasing effect in Norwich Cathedral is made by these stained glass windows.

A purple/pink effect in the corridor of Norwich Cathedral

The two stained glass windows in question.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 29

Always amazed these old tractors are still earning their keep.

A very old rusty tractor on a coastal promenade

Close up of the tractor. It’s more rust than tractor. But it’s got a new exhaust.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 29

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 29

Things have come round full circle for Speculation. Having gutted my original disassembler for the decode/fetch framework, I'm adding the disassembly back in. It'll help me track down any compatibility edge cases.

A dump of Z80 in the console window of Visual Studio Code below a snippet of C++.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 28

Thank you! It is a neat trick. Credit to the Sinclair designers for coming up with that. Can recommend this book for an even deeper technical dive on that (and more)… www.zxdesign.info/book/

Book cover

The
ZX Spectrum ULA
How To Design A Microcomputer
Chris Smith

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 27

I'm building a team

The Tomorrow’s World presenting team in the show’s heyday, from left: James Burke, Judith Hann, Raymond Baxter, Maggie Philbin, Peter Macann and Howard Stableford. Photograph: PA

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 27

Was thinking more of a fifth Doctor Panama hat.

Peter Davison as the fifth Doctor stood outside the TARDIS wearing a Panama hat with a red ribbon.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 27

Spurred on by my dream decided to check in on the local charity shops. A poor show overall. This was there only item of interest. Handy for dealing with them pesky foreign voltages.

Inside the box showing a variety of adapters and a power brick.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 26

#TOTP

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 25

My main takeaway from those slides.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 23

Tuesday

Scene from Sunshine with some fella looking at a massive sun through the windows of his spaceship.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 23

You are in a forest. A path leads from east to west. You are thirsty. > drink water Your water bottle is empty.

Photo of some trees with a gravel and dirt path in the foreground.

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram· Jun 22

They’re not bad. Was going to get another one, mine got damaged, then a friend said they were chucking this out at work and was I interested. Works like a charm.