Was a Programmable Calculator Your First Personal Computer?

[ClausB]

Mine was a TI SR-56 with only 100 bytes of user RAM, in 1977. The only way to save a program was with pen and paper.

 

http://pwp.att.net/p...geid=350942&ck=

[JonnyBritish]

Funnily enough i came from a family that was not rich so of course not being able to afford a home computer I saw my opportunity for some form of programmable calculator but it was lame to say the least...i wish it had been an HP calculator running RPL oh well :-)

[JamesD]

Now that you mention it... yeah it was. I had a TI-55 or something like that.

You could program a certain number of calculations and looping or more than one variable was out of the question.

 

I remember I programmed it for different things for class work, but the only program I actually remember was something to do with calculating the half life of a radioactive element.

 

In college I bought an expensive HP which now has a broken display and is useless. Bummer, it was an awesome calculator.

[akator]

My father had a TI-59 with PC-1000 printer for work. Programs could be saved on magnetic strips. I would run what seemed like a million of them through to load and play Star Trek, which would in turn eat up rolls of thermal paper. I think he was relieved when we got a ZX-81, because the cost in paper savings alone probably paid for the new computer within a few months

[ClausB]

I had a TI-55 or something like that.

My father had a TI-59 with PC-1000 printer for work. Programs could be saved on magnetic strips. I would run what seemed like a million of them through to load and play Star Trek, which would in turn eat up rolls of thermal paper. I think he was relieved when we got a ZX-81, because the cost in paper savings alone probably paid for the new computer within a few months

Cool. I have both the TI-55 and -59 in my collection, as well as a ZX81.

 

I goofed when I posted the TI SR-56 has 100 bytes RAM. That's the the program RAM size. Including the numeric registers, it has 240 user bytes!

[madmax2069]

No, my first computer was a C64 (given to me by my friend), but i do own a calc that's basically a computer, a TI-84+SE (found it in the trash,but works has a screwed up screen). I do own a TI-1200 but its not a programmable calc. I have always been interested in hand held computers, regardless if they was a programmable calc or a full out computer.

Edited December 16, 2011 by madmax2069

[awhite2600]

My first computer was a Radio Shack Pocket Computer PC1. The computer could be programmed using a fairly stripped down version of BASIC. There were 1424 "steps" available for programming plus some memory reserved for variables. There was almost no string handling capability. I thought of it as a computer, but looking back it was little more than a fancy programmable calculator.

 

I was 14 when I bought it and saved my paper route money for months. I couldn't even afford the error prone cassette interface at first. I'd write programs that stretched the unusual BASIC dialect to it's limit. Unable to save them, I'd end up deleting the programs to write something else.

 

I still have my PC1 and it still works.

[CGQuarterly]

My first computer was an 8088-based XT running DOS, which I got in 1990. I didn't get my first programmable calculator, a TI-81, until 1994.

 

Chris

[Rex Dart]

Naw, it was a 486. You're way off!

[Keatah]

I had a Ti-59, and it was among the first programmable things I owned, along with a PC1 and Apple II+. Still have them today.

[Prodos8]

No, but my first programmable calculator was the TI-66.