There is a way to make the keys as a hot key, but... the board dosen't hve the right amount of keys to do it.

...what do you mean, exactly? You mean there's a way to turn the physical keyboard into an alphanumeric keyboard?

In the top corner under System ,you hit the system drop down, and you select Shift Keys. You can then set (-) as the shift key and set letters/numbers/symbols as a shift value.

Ahhh, I see exactly what you mean. Fascinating, thanks for pointing that out. They should really publicize that feature more, I think.

Edit: Although something like a T9 implementation would require waay more code on the backend.

Just was also curious as to the speed of the 'Basic' language in this machine. How does it compare with the TI-89, roughly?

I would say that it is at least as fast as the TI-89's BASIC variant, and probably much faster based on some of the tests I've performed so far.

How does it compare to the prizm?

Well, it's not particularly reliable in terms of completeness of testing, but I tried this program on the Prizm:

Code:

And this program on the ClassPad 330:

Code:


Prizm time: 7:00.8, or 420.8 seconds
Classpad time: 9:32.3, or 572.3 seconds

Hmm, that's not what I was expecting.

Hmm... fx9860 is faster than both.

Can you back that up with actual numbers, please?

Just for comparison, I just typed this into my TI-89, on one line:

startTmr()->a: For i,1,9999,1: output 1,1,i: EndFor: startTmr()->a

After completion, I entered "Disp (b-a)", and it came back with 317 seconds or 5 minutes and 17 seconds.

I really believe the locate command in the Casios is kinda inefficient, as I know the Prizm's processor is vastly faster than a 12 meghertz 68000.

Edit: In the post above, a typo. Should have started with "startTmr->b".

Aye, the Locate command is known to be very inefficient on the Prizm and on the ClassPad as well. I know that math on both calculators in Casio BASIC is super-fast, so I'll try some high-iteration-count tests with something mathy next. As a sidebar, please try to edit your posts if it's within 24 hours of the post; two posts in a row within 24 hours of each other are generally called "double posts" and frowned upon.

Sorry, just now saw the edit button. Many blogs don't have this feature...

Sorry, but i currently do not have access to my 9860. However, the 9 queens problem was done for both in this thread:

http://ourl.ca/14763/276607

Not a problem; blogs do indeed tend to lack that. This software is actually generally called a forum, since anyone (not just the owner of the blog) can start new topics. Anyway, here's my new test program:

Code:

Prizm: 10.9 seconds
ClassPad 330: 1:43.2 = 103.9 seconds
TI-84+SE with OS 2.41: 46.8 seconds

42 has a 9860, i think. he may be able to test this for you.

I suspect that the ClassPad 330 takes longer because it doesn't tokenize at all; commands are characters instead of tokens. From a math point of view, it certainly doesn't skimp on power.

I do have one; I shall test it once I arrive at home.

EDIT:

I have 19.3 seconds, 3 trials confirm this.

I tested out the following code on my 9860, prizm, and 84+ SE (MP)


Code:


9860: 22.6
Prizm: 19.0 (This is not much of a difference)
84+ SE (MP): 64.9

so casio is faster than TI?

In this area, yes. However, I'm sure that the 84 could own the casio calcs in anything drawing-intensive, as Kerm demonstrated earlier.