HP 85 Re: IBM 5150, am I nuts or what?

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Wed Mar 22 22:12:09 2000

At 09:13 PM 3/22/00 -0500, Megaan wrote:
>
>>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...

   It's not but INITIALIZE takes care of that! But be aware that that the
rubber feed wheels in most 85s have long since melted away.

    Joe
Received on Wed Mar 22 2000 - 22:12:09 GMT