22 Mar
2000
22 Mar
'00
12:13 p.m.
Speaking of which, has the HP-85 totally disappeared?
My dad had one
briefly when I was in high school, I remember using it to cheat on my
calc homework and brought in adding machine tapes with the graphs I
didn't feel like sketching by hand... And there was one in the computer
showroom on the second floor of the Harvard Coop. But I haven't seen one
since. IIRC, the BASIC "PRINT" statement *really* meant print, if you
wanted the display to be on the tiny CRT you had to use something else,
"TYPE" maybe? The way they stuck the BASIC keywords on single keys (like
a ZX81, only you didn't have to use them) was crazy, they were scattered
all over the place. But the combination of a cartridge tape drive,
adding machine printer, and teeny tiny CRT was kind of neat, each part
was low-end crap but if you put them all together it was a pretty usable
system.
They show up at flea markets from time to time... I've seen a number
of them at the MIT flea... I have one. Yes, the command PRINT does
so to the integral printer... DISPLAY outputs to the screen. The
tape drive uses the same cartridges as the TU58, though I am not
sure if the formatting is the same...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
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| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
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