--- title: "Timex Sinclair Online User Group Meeting November 2, 2026" id: 77303 type: "video" slug: "timex-sinclair-online-user-group-meeting-november-2-2026" url: "http://localhost/video/timex-sinclair-online-user-group-meeting-november-2-2026/" markdown_url: "http://localhost/video/timex-sinclair-online-user-group-meeting-november-2-2026.md" published_at: "2026-11-15T09:59:25+00:00" modified_at: "2026-11-15T10:52:38+00:00" author: "David Anderson" featured_image: url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/tsug-11-2-26.jpg" excerpt: "Charlie Day showed browser-based IDE for LEAP ROMs with bytecode engine, supporting BASIC, C, Forth, and upcoming Pascal." post_tag: - name: "Timex Sinclair Online User Group" slug: "timex-sinclair-online-user-group" taxonomy: "post_tag" url: "http://localhost/tag/timex-sinclair-online-user-group/" - name: "TS 2068" slug: "ts2068" taxonomy: "post_tag" url: "http://localhost/tag/ts2068/" model: - name: "Timex/Sinclair 2068" slug: "ts-2068" taxonomy: "model" url: "http://localhost/model/ts-2068/" indiv: - name: "Charlie Day" slug: "charlie-day" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/charlie-day/" - name: "David Anderson" slug: "david-anderson" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/david-anderson/" - name: "Evan Wright" slug: "evan-wright" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/evan-wright/" - name: "Joe Vandezande" slug: "joe-vandezande" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/joe-vandezande/" - name: "John Mobley" slug: "john-mobley" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/john-mobley/" - name: "Jon Becker" slug: "jon-becker" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/jon-becker/" - name: "Michael Kutzner" slug: "michael-kutzner" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/michael-kutzner/" - name: "Mowgli Assor" slug: "assor-mowgli" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/assor-mowgli/" - name: "Paul Holmgren" slug: "paul-holmgren" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/paul-holmgren/" - name: "Ryan Gray" slug: "ryan-gray" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/ryan-gray/" - name: "Stewart Newfeld" slug: "stewart-newfeld" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/stewart-newfeld/" video_date: "20261102" youtube_video_link: "https://youtu.be/ItZvkku0JQg" --- # Timex Sinclair Online User Group Meeting November 2, 2026 ![Timex Sinclair Online User Group Meeting November 2, 2026](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ItZvkku0JQg/maxresdefault.jpg) [Charlie Day](http://localhost/indiv/charlie-day/) demonstrated a [browser-based IDE for his LEAP ROMs](https://nchiker.github.io/2068-Leap-IDE/ide.html), which grew out of [Jon Becker’s](http://localhost/indiv/jon-becker/) question about putting a bytecode engine in a cartridge. The editor is an open-source one taught the syntax of each language, with help text drawn from Charlie’s ROM documentation, autocomplete, and a debugger showing variables, stack, registers, symbols and memory, plus breakpoints. The emulator is [TS Run](https://josef-jelinek.github.io/TSRun/), and the IDE includes a UDG editor and a draw editor that converts a sketch into BASIC lines. BASIC compiles to bytecode and runs on a virtual machine; C and Forth compile to assembly. A finished program can be built as a cartridge image and tested on a stock ROM. Next on his list are Pascal, a sprite-based game builder, and TS-Pico support. Jon Becker showed a [CP/M port for the 2068](https://jon0x0.github.io/ts2068/) that runs from a cartridge using the TS-Pico’s RAM and storage. It uses Oliger-format disk images, and the TS-Pico reads them wrapped in a .tap file. Jon had added Zork and Planetfall to a disk image and tried Zork in the browser. Jon also described a “personality” system for the Pico: drop an environment into a folder on the SD card and pick it from a menu at power-up. He has built a Spectrum 128 personality that way, with Spectrum BASIC and the Pico’s file commands, and the group discussed using the Pico as an accelerator or to offload floating-point math. The [new TS-Pico firmware](https://github.com/timex-sinclair-projects/tspico-firmware-build) adds the 2068 keywords CAT, MOVE, ERASE, OPEN, CLOSE and FORMAT. COPY now copies files, because the Interface 1 use of MOVE for copying struck Ryan as odd; MOVE changes directory and renames. Typing LOAD “” opens a Norton Commander-style file browser, so no other command needs learning. [Stewart Newfeld](http://localhost/indiv/stewart-newfeld/) is working on OpenSpand modules, an open-source (CC BY-SA 4.0) successor to the ZXpand for the ZX81/TS1000. The original uses a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 with an off-the-shelf DAC, real-time clock and SD module, and is slow to hand-assemble. After talking with Stewart, David had Claude design a [surface-mount version in Memotech-style module format](https://github.com/timex-sinclair-projects/openspand-smd), with TF card slot, audio jack, USB, nine-pin joystick port and composite video. The Pico generates the video, so the 81 need not be opened. David showed his [new Pico board](https://github.com/timex-sinclair-projects/tspico-hardware), which add an ESP32 running Zmodem software for connecting to bulletin boards, plus a General Instrument SP0256 speech synthesizer emulator with text-to-phoneme rules. [John Mark Mobley](http://localhost/indiv/john-mobley/) reported on the [44th Chicago TI-99/4A International World Faire](https://www.chicagotiug.org/) in Evanston, where about 25 people attended and he presented Kip Koon’s LUMEN-99, a web-based emulator with more than a thousand virtual blinking LEDs showing registers and single-stepping code. John Mark is vice president of the Glenside Color Computer Club, and the group traced Chicago’s retro scene through [Bob Swoger](http://localhost/indiv/bob-swoger/), who helped start the T-SNUG newsletter ZXir Qlive Alive, which ran about 13 years. David also showed a [portable 2068 prototype with an ESP32](https://github.com/timex-sinclair-projects/ts2068-p4), running a Fuse port and the Pico firmware, with a Bluetooth keyboard planned and a 3D-printed case still to come. The last item was a [KiloZed](https://kilozed.codesurfer.dev/) update. David showed Ingo’s enlarged TS1000 case, a real key-switch keyboard, and custom inkjet-printed keycaps made with Loic of 3D Keys in Montreal. [Joe Vandezande](http://localhost/indiv/joe-vandezande/) printed a case, which took a couple of days at fine quality, and added a two-color light-up badge.