Foundations
The ideas every machine and language shares.
Before you pick a machine, before you pick a language, there are things true on all of them. These short primers teach them once, language-neutral, and shown running in Sinclair BASIC so nothing stays abstract. They're the on-ramp before the on-ramp — start here and everything downstream gets easier.
Where you are
01 · Foundations
The shared base before any machine route.
This is the first layer when programming ideas are new. It teaches sequence, variables, loops, decisions, numbers, bits, source, and translation before a specific machine starts adding its own vocabulary.
- No programming experience is assumed.
- The examples run in Sinclair BASIC, but the ideas are not Spectrum-only.
- 01
General Programming
The ideas every program is built from — sequence, variables, loops, decisions, and how to debug — taught language-neutrally and shown running in Sinclair BASIC. The universal first step, before any machine or language.
Start → - 02
Numbers & Bits
How computers count — binary, hex, and two's complement — and the bit logic that reads and combines them. The language-neutral foundation the assembly on-ramp stands on, shown running in Sinclair BASIC.
Start → - 03
From Source to Silicon
How the program you write becomes something a machine can run — interpreting, compiling, and assembling — and why that one choice is the difference between a game that keeps up and one that can't. The last foundation before you meet a machine, shown running in Sinclair BASIC.
Start →
After foundations
Then choose what kind of work you want to do.
Foundations are the shared base. If you want to make games, The Craft teaches the cross-machine techniques next. If you already know the shape of the ideas, pick a system and meet its BASIC, assembly, display, sound, and quirks directly.