What is the best BASIC Pocket Computer

[Csaba Tizedes]

(02-25-2019 12:05 AM)Jlouis Wrote:  

(01-09-2019 01:04 PM)damaltor Wrote:  I would rather stick with casio, the fx-880p is what i would select. the pb-2000 with the basic module is decent, too, the pb-1000 has a nice basic os, but the worst possible housing.

all three possibilities are not exactly cheap, though the fx-880p is a very nice device which might be "worth it" for whatever it is needed for.

alternatively, the older casio basic models are nice too but have exceptionally small displays. the good point is that i made a usb interface a while ago which allows transfer from the basic programs to and from the calculator, and also allows use with the tools made by Marcus to compile/decompile the basic programs.

The Casio pockets computers are very underrated in this community. Specially the Fx-850p and Fx-880p. The fellow Alvaro tried to put some attention to them in this thread, but was completed ignored. Only Sharps, TI's and obviously HP were discussed.

But actually, they're fantatiscs machines, very capable, the display, albeit 2 lines visible, can be scrolled in 8 lines! 10 programs capability with plenty memory! Independent line numbers for each program, not like Sharps! Lots formulaes, or pre-installed programs (IIRC 140), that can be called from user programs! I have a 880p with a 32kb ram card, making it a 64kb machine! And long variables names! A superb machine, for sure.

Recently I get one Casio FX-702p, the grand father of the Casio pockets computers, and although very different in many ways , is a fantastic one, for 1981, with its only 1.6 kb!

Paraphrasing Valentin Albilo, Long Live to Casios' pocket Computers

Cheers

JL

My first pocket was a 850P with additional 8K RAM, I used it 1-2 hours on each day when I was student. I have figured out how the memory mapped, tokens of BASIC keywords, BASIC listings of 128 preinstalled programs - and thats it: because all of them closed machines. No way to program them in assembly. Great toys to play with the user definied characters, playing with direct screen POKEs and PEEKs, making BEEP {0, 1} "music", writing data from/to MEMO, like an "Internal RAM", but thats all.

SHARPs are more open architecture: you can easily dive into the deep, and you can make some marvels like this:





The TIs similar like CASIOs, but it has a possibility to dig to the core and HPs are real "systems" on another level - BUT: if you ever seen a SHARP PC-126x and you checks the data sheets, these little machines far better designed ones like HP-1xC calculators. Unfortunately the HP's roboust design and functions are far better for problem solving than a BASIC programmable unit.