A full graphical desktop squeezed into the 48K ZX Spectrum
A graphical desktop for the ZX Spectrum
ZX Desk is a GUI operating system for the 48K ZX Spectrum, written in Z80 assembly. It packs overlapping windows with z-order and focus, pull-down menus, a heap, an event queue, swappable storage backends, dialogues, a notepad, clock, calendar, two-pane file manager, and a working settings panel into 48K on a 1982 machine. It runs on real hardware and can drag a window within a single 69,888 T-state frame.
It all fits in 48K on a machine from 1982, and it can drag a window inside a single 69,888 T state frame. It runs on the real thing, not just an emulator.
- unnah
Related: The SymbOS operating system and graphical desktop for Amstrad CPC, MSX and some other Z80 machines was coded entirely manually - the first release was in 2006. https://www.symbos.org/
Of course for the Commodore 64 the GEOS desktop was already released as a commercial product in 1986. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_(8-bit_operating_system)
- veltas
This is the sort of thing I've wanted to write for a long time. Yes it looks like this is vibe coded but I'm glad this was made because it's cool to see what can be done, and it's interesting seeing how AI can be used as a compiler essentially given the output is assembly.
I'd be interested if the author would tell us more about what they did here and what went into the design and evolution, rather than the AI README.
- kalleboo
> Three rules that earned their place:
> One commit per verified piece of work, with the acceptance numbers in the commit message
Project: One single commit: "ZX Desk, first release"
???
- pmg101
I had fun playing around in Claude getting it to write 6502 assembler for the BBC Micro. It is fun to imagine what we could have built on those old machines with these new coding agents! But it is kind of hollow isn't it.
- vilaca
Wow I did so many of those when i was 12 or around that age. Mostly I tried copying the Amiga Workbench on my +2A (the gray one).
Obviously at that age my knowledge of coding and window managers wasn't exactly deep and i mostly only had seen other OS from magazines. I don't think I even knew what 'drag-n-drop' was and was a bit confused at what the Trash bin should do (i loaded code from tapes).
Good times i guess :)
- j4cobgarby
It _does_ look really cool, genuinely, but calling it a "labour of love" and then having AI write the readme/docs seems conflicting.
- jakzurr
Sure are cute little pieces of history:
- Andrew2565
Can anyone suggest a simple high-level graphical desktop (perhaps written in a mix of assembly and C) that comes with good documentation, or even an associated textbook?