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Programmable .Calculator

eBay? New ones no longer exist. Your (new equipment) options are as follows:

-- Get an HP-33S, about the only significantly programmable non-graphing scientific calculator left.

-- Get an HP-4xx or TI-8xx programmable graphing calculators. Neither uses BASIC natively, however. (The HPs use RPL, which is pretty nice to program in, actually...)

-- Get a PDA. Under both the PalmOS and Windows CE, you can find many different programming languages out there, including BASIC.

The downside of the PDA approach, of course, is the lack of a large number of physical keys. There's a product called Qonos which is supposed to come out 'any month now' that's effectively a PDA reference design with various extensions including a scientific calculator keyboard; I'm looking forward to it.

---Joel Kolstad

Reply to
Joel Kolstad
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Hello,

Can anybody tell me where to buy programmable portable calculator, preferably in BASIC?

Tia

-- Fernando Carvalho

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Reply to
Fernando

Why not write Basic programs on your PC? Programmable calculator programs are limited in function and clumsy to use.

I haven't programmed a calculator in decades, not since the HP9100.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Well, I *have* modern programmable calculators, but what with the tiny screens and limited storage and program documentation and archiving, they just don't make sense to program. I write Basic programs that have friendly, colorful menus, commented internals, color graphics, and that I can save on a backed-up hard drive. And my Pentium will out-compute any calculator by 1000:1 or something, which is useful if an algorithm needs a lot of iterating. I must have hundreds of little Basic applications I've written over the years.

Basic programs are fairly portable, too; one can hack an old DOS Basic program to be useful in, say, PowerBasic in a few minutes. Lots of programmable-calculator programs are gone when that calculator goes out of production.

I bet none of them do file I/O, or big arrays, or accept input from other programs.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

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John

Reply to
John Smith

You could buy a Windows PDA (or PDA/cellphone combo) and program it in BASIC or Python or PL/1 or whatever.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Where abouts are you? I think TI, HP and Casio all make them.

Al

Reply to
Al Borowski

No, really, the 32-bit versions of PowerBasic can do gigabyte arrays, huge programs, TCP/IP, BIOS/API calls, all that good stuff.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

I am wanting to use the calculator in flight of ultralight and it is difficult to use a computer on board

I am wanting to know which the programmable calculators found now..

Tks

"John Larkin" escreveu na mensagem news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Reply to
Fernando

The HP71 and 75 could be programmed in BASIC.

I believe BASIC is also available for palm pdas.

Reply to
TCS

I wouldn't. Calculators are for arithmetic, computers are for programs.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

This is Fernando for forever:

No BASIC, but I like HP48/49 calculators. 49G+ seems rather good with SD card support. And RPL is easy, anyway.

-- Chaos Master®, posting from Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil - 29.55° S / 51.11° W / GMT-2h / 15m .

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Reply to
Chaos Master

So how can you comment on modern designs, when you've only used decades old technology? :-)

Depending on the complexity of the program, I'd get a TI84 ot TI89. Both can be programmed in basic. The HP line offer a 'basic' that really isn't much of a basic at all (no GOTO for instance). Dunno about the casios.

Al

Reply to
Al Borowski

Ah, I see. Sorry for the assumption.

Sounds more like an application for a PDA or Laptop then. It depends on what you want to do. A calculator will give a month or so battery life which can be useful sometimes.

In basic? I don't think so. If you want to use C then I think they all do.

Al

Reply to
Al Borowski

"John Larkin" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Calculators are also for 'simple' programs, such as finding MOSFET currents after branching based on the mode of operation, etc.

I think of programmable calculators as good for anything that takes less time to compute than it takes you to bring a laptop out of standby, launch MathCAD/Matlab/Excel/whatever, open your design file, and use it instead. :-)

Reply to
Joel Kolstad

But it won't run off of a pair or CR2032 batteries through a couple years normal usage now, will it? :-)

Reply to
Joel Kolstad

We're thinking about doing a benchtop instrument with a PC104 CPU (geode or something) inside and a small color VGA on the front panel. We'd program it in PowerBasic, booting off flash. Should be fun.

One of my retirement-list projects is to manufacture a clone of the HP-35 calculator, with some little cmos uP inside. The hard part would be getting the keys to feel right.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

A PalmOS device would be a *far* better choice for your application.

Reply to
Guy Macon

And you can run them on a PC104 system with a serial LCD and a custom keyboard that is designed for your application, and it will be about the size of a top-end calculator.

Reply to
Guy Macon

And you'd want to do those on a calculator because...? :)

Al

Reply to
Al Borowski

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