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TI-83+ played a huge role in my formative years as a programmer/nerd. This was early 2000s. If you like calculators, I also recommend checking out the visual h

TI-83+ played a huge role in my formative years as a programmer/nerd. This was early 2000s. If you like calculators, I also recommend checking out the visual history of vintage TI calculators at http://www.datamath.org/ http://www.datamath.org/

billfruit 5y ago
Please don't take it the wrong way, but by early 2000s PCs were widespread, so wouldn't it have been easier to get into programing through PCs than through these very restricted calculators? I never understand the American fascination with programmable calculators. To me they sound like a racket by calculator manufacturers and education authorities to mandate an unnecessary and expensive device on to students. In many other countries students get through high school and even many undergraduate courses (like CS for example) without needing any calculator at all. Perhaps this is due to the greater focus on analytical problem solving than numerical solutions which is perhaps done in the US?
- yareally 5y ago
  There's a few reasons that only make sense if you were in high school at that time in the United States: - Many schools didn't offer programming courses in the 00s (including mine) - Ti calculators came with a large manual and a list of the keywords/functions built into it - Lots of free time while in high school. Study halls, for example - Sharing apps could be done through plugging a serial cable into two calculators - The calculators were ubiquitous for students - Many of us didn't have great internet at the time, so getting programming resources wasn't easy (manuals, compliers, other tooling)
- jurassic 5y ago
  In the pre-smartphone age, calculators represented the only widely available mobile gaming platform for bored high school kids. That motivated a lot of people I know, including me, to dabble in programming.
- jude- 5y ago
  As someone who cut his programming teeth on TI calculators, I think the fascination from the student side is because it hits a "sweet spot" for casual and budding professional programmers alike: * It's very easy to get started. The built-in TI-Basic interpreter is fully documented in the manual, and is expressive enough to be useful for a wide variety of imminently useful tasks (e.g. writing programs that help you with your homework) without too much of a time investment. Moreover, your math teacher can likely help you, since they probably also write their own TI-Basic programs. * It's a "small" system. You can comprehend how everything in the hardware works end-to-end if you make it to C/assembler programming (doable without professional or academic training). * At the same time, it's a rich and complex enough system that you can make non-trivial games that you and your friends will share and enjoy playing surreptitiously in class. * Everyone you know has one, which means there's a large online presence and user community to help you get started and who will delight at the programs you write. TI calculators precede the Raspberry Pi, smartphones, and netbooks, so there was at one point a "nerdy coolness" factor of having a pocket-sized programmable device you could take everywhere. They were also more affordable than Palm Pilots, and since everyone had one, it was less nerdy to be seen using one in school. Just my two cents.
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
  > wouldn't it have been easier to get into programing through PCs than through these very restricted calculators? The restrictions are what made it easy to get into.

billfruit 5y ago

Please don't take it the wrong way, but by early 2000s PCs were widespread, so wouldn't it have been easier to get into programing through PCs than through these very restricted calculators? I never understand the American fascination with programmable calculators. To me they sound like a racket by calculator manufacturers and education authorities to mandate an unnecessary and expensive device on to students. In many other countries students get through high school and even many undergraduate courses (like CS for example) without needing any calculator at all. Perhaps this is due to the greater focus on analytical problem solving than numerical solutions which is perhaps done in the US?

yareally 5y ago
There's a few reasons that only make sense if you were in high school at that time in the United States: - Many schools didn't offer programming courses in the 00s (including mine) - Ti calculators came with a large manual and a list of the keywords/functions built into it - Lots of free time while in high school. Study halls, for example - Sharing apps could be done through plugging a serial cable into two calculators - The calculators were ubiquitous for students - Many of us didn't have great internet at the time, so getting programming resources wasn't easy (manuals, compliers, other tooling)
jurassic 5y ago
In the pre-smartphone age, calculators represented the only widely available mobile gaming platform for bored high school kids. That motivated a lot of people I know, including me, to dabble in programming.
jude- 5y ago
As someone who cut his programming teeth on TI calculators, I think the fascination from the student side is because it hits a "sweet spot" for casual and budding professional programmers alike: * It's very easy to get started. The built-in TI-Basic interpreter is fully documented in the manual, and is expressive enough to be useful for a wide variety of imminently useful tasks (e.g. writing programs that help you with your homework) without too much of a time investment. Moreover, your math teacher can likely help you, since they probably also write their own TI-Basic programs. * It's a "small" system. You can comprehend how everything in the hardware works end-to-end if you make it to C/assembler programming (doable without professional or academic training). * At the same time, it's a rich and complex enough system that you can make non-trivial games that you and your friends will share and enjoy playing surreptitiously in class. * Everyone you know has one, which means there's a large online presence and user community to help you get started and who will delight at the programs you write. TI calculators precede the Raspberry Pi, smartphones, and netbooks, so there was at one point a "nerdy coolness" factor of having a pocket-sized programmable device you could take everywhere. They were also more affordable than Palm Pilots, and since everyone had one, it was less nerdy to be seen using one in school. Just my two cents.
yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
> wouldn't it have been easier to get into programing through PCs than through these very restricted calculators? The restrictions are what made it easy to get into.