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I got into programming almost 20 years ago by coding on my TI-89, first in BASIC and later in ASM and C. Sad to see this platform closing down more, although on the other hand I'm also surprised to see that these devices are still relevant given how overpriced and under-powered they are by today's standards.


Note that TI-89 is a different “family” of models, which is as far as I can tell still OK with that :)

Of course, they’re only really still relevant because teachers and a number of entrenched institutions (College Board…) keep it that way.


It's been hard to make an underpowered calculator for 30+ years. What computationally intensive tasks does one even try to attempt on a calculator?

I do remember IRR calcs on an HP-12C taking a few seconds, or so. And that machine is not cheap either.

That being said, who's running IRR on a pocket calculator?


> What computationally intensive tasks does one even try to attempt on a calculator?

Back in high school I regularly hit integrations that took minutes to do on my TI-89.


must have been some pretty big integrals, these examples in exact form seem to be close to instant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoDkeg166xU

maybe not the TI-89 which ran 68K processor.


Those are all fairly simple, I'm talking much bigger stuff. (I actually had a Titanium, but it also has a 68k.)


I did as well, but with the TI-85. Learned Z80 assembler and have loved it ever since.




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