At Least as Good

That’s what ZX programs should be, at least as good as programs produced for other computers: this is not an impossible target for the ZX enthusiast (especially as the quality of some professionally produced software leaves quite a lot to be desired!). As always, it is difficult to pass an objective opinion on your own work, especially if it has worked perfectly since it was finished, doing all that is required of it. As soon as you produce a piece of software which saves you time and effort, your friends and colleagues will want to use it to do the same for themselves. You hand over a program which has run faultlessly for months and it crashes within minutes. Friends and colleagues don’t have the same understanding of the program that you do. They don’t understand that a black blob at the bottom of the screen means that a number is needed, if there are no quotes on either side. They make a few tentative but inappropriate keystrokes and produce the full horror of the program listing on the screen. Not a sight to inspire confidence in a neophyte.