Date   : Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:39:18 +0100
From   : robert@... (Rob)
Subject: Electric Dreams last night.

On 09/10/2009, Alex Taylor <zeem.uk@...> wrote:
> 2009/10/8 Rick Murray <rick@...>:
>
>> (or whatever), why can't I just type in the keyword? God, even the Oric
>> managed to parse BASIC, what's Sinclair's excuse?
>
> Very simple. It was a carry-over from the flat, touch-sensitive
> membrane keyboards of the ZX80 and '81, where it was devised as a
> method to speed up entering programs.

I always understood it that it was done this way on the  ZX80 (and
thus the '81) because it meant they didn't have to parse and tokenise
the input, as it was basically being entered directly as tokens.  No
need to scan through a line of text to try to determine what was
keywords, what was variables, etc.  It also allowed syntax checking of
the input at line entry time.

Rob