Easy A Grades

In my seventh and eighth grade years we were required to produce reports for our math class. I can't say for certain what sort of material filled the reports of other students. Since it was pretty unusual for a middle school student to know how to program computers back in 1981 I had no difficulty getting my teacher's permission to write both my 7th and 8th grade reports on programming.

For 7th grade I wrote a report that explained programming on the TI-57 calculator. I hand typed the report on a manual typewriter. I remember being up all night before it was due (I had a bad habit of doing that).

For 8th grade I wrote a report introducing the BASIC programming language. The teacher decided that I should use the blackboard to explain to the class how it all worked. If memory serves, I remember that the presentation was also attended by a trained programmer, who happened to be the father of one of my fellow students.

I knew more than the teacher about this subject, so these were easy A's. :-)

My own TI-57

For Christmas in 1978 My father bought me a TI-57 calculator http://www.rskey.org/detail.asp?manufacturer=Texas+Instruments&model=TI-57.

He also bought one for my brother Ernie. This was not as nearly as powerful as an HP-67 (or the TI-59 my brother Neil had), but it was a wonderful first "computer" for me and my brother. Since we both had the same model we had a lot of opportunity to work together on games and other things.

These calculators came with very good instructional books and also a pad of program sheets where you would write down all program steps and explain what the program was for and how to use it. Great stuff.

Some of the sorts of programs we created did things like:

• Compute primes
• Plot curves
• Artillery games
• Lunar lander
• Number guessing games

Calculator or Computer?

I can remember it clearly the day I first was introduced to programming. When I was 11 or so years old I wandered into my father's home office and saw his calculator flashing patterns on its red LED display. I asked him what it was doing and he told me "You don't want to know." I told him, "Yes I do!"

The calculator in question was an HP-67. http://www.rskey.org/detail.asp?manufacturer=Hewlett-Packard&model=HP-67

My father was really wonderful about finding ways for me and my siblings to pursue things we were interested in. As long as my homework was done I could use his HP-67 in the dining room. The calculator came with a wonderful manual which taught programming in a most clear and enjoyable way. The HP-67 uses a Reverse Polish Notation style of arithmetic entry. It also supports a GOSUB and RETURN style of programming like BASIC. The other amazing feature of the HP-67 is a magnetic card reader. This is like a tiny floppy disk drive except that the card just moves straight through the calculator instead of spinning around. The cards are about a half inch in width. This made the HP-67 more of a personal computer than a calculator.

My first scientific calculator

My father is an electrical engineer, and when I was a kid I wanted to be one also. Along the way I decided that I should have a scientific calculator, so for a Christmas present my parents bought me a TI-30 calculator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-30.

The original TI-30 was bulky compared to TI-30 derived LCD calculators you can buy today. It was wedge shaped (like a sports car) and had a red LED display. Mine came with a blue denim pattern zip case.

The calculator was fun to use. When you used an advanced math function it spun a digit around in the display to indicate it was thinking.

Probably the best part of the calculator wasn't the calculator at all, but The Great International Math on Keys Book (yes, that really is the title) that came with it. This was a really fun book full of interesting things to do with a pocket calculator.

So, this isn't really a microcomputer but it makes sense for me to start my journey with the TI-30.