RFO: HP 85/Rocky Mountain BASIC replacement

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Fri Apr 20 18:58:56 2001

John,

  First, I'm wouldn't worry about the reliability of a HP-85. They seem to
run forever and I expect there will be plenty of them that will out live
me! Surplus HP-85 are plentiful and relatively cheap. I'm grab several for
spares, find a supply of printer belts and learn how to repair the tape
drives (or better yet, get a compatible disk drive and transfer everything
to disk). Then you should be set to run forever.

  Second, IF I was really determined to replace the HP-85, I would replace
it with another HP such as a HP 9000 series 200. A 9826 or 9836 would be an
excellant choice. I would not use a non-HP machine. It would be a major job
to translate HP BASIC to something that would run on another machine. For
one thing, HPs use BCD arithmetic instead of binary so they'll much more
accurate than most other machines unless they use special software. In
addition, HP BASIC has lots of control statements that simply aren't
available on most other machines. Then too you would have to consider how
to make and operate interfaces that are capable of doing what the HP
interfaces do. If I did go to a 9826 or 9836, I would stock up on spare
machines, disk drives and whatever else I needed. These are also relatively
plentiiful and cheap (FOR THE TIME BEING!)

    Joe


At 02:37 PM 4/20/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello -
>
>My HP 85 is growing long in the tooth. I want to replace it with
>something more modern BUT just as reliable/dependable (e.g. doesn't
>crash). I'm afraid when it does break I won't be able to find parts to
>repair it. It's being used in a working research lab. I use it to
>control a rack of electronic gear (e.g. frequency synthesizer, dynamic
>signal analyzer, network analyzer, etc.) so I don't need anything fancy
>just bullet proof and reliable. This means windows and macs are out.
>
>What's your opinion.
>
>john
>
>--
>
>************************************************************************
>* * *
>* John Ott * Email: jott_at_hamming.ee.nd.edu *
>* Dept. Electrical Engineering * *
>* 275 Fitzpatrick Hall * *
>* University of Notre Dame * Phone: (219) 631-7752 *
>* Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA * Fax: (219) 631-9924 *
>* * *
>************************************************************************
>
>
Received on Fri Apr 20 2001 - 18:58:56 BST