Yes, that's it. THe TI CC40 computer. And I want one. Badly. I read a lot about these things on the interwebs and they are awesome. They are about 9in*4in*1in which is small enough to fit in my backpack(I could program BASIC on the bus to/from school!). I found one online for $60 or so. I do have enough money for this.

What do you think? Would this be a good purchase for someone who loves old computers and BASIC? And here comes the big question: How can I convince my parents this would be a good purchase?

It would be an ultimate choice if you were thinking like that. I mean, I think the C64 is the pinnacle of fun BASIC and even more fun assembly, but that won't fit in your backpack.



While it's an awesome thing to have, I don't see pulling that off very easily if at all.

Well, my parents want me to continue programming as a hobby, and they want me to have a job about computer programming...and they really don't mind what I get as long as I can pay for it or pay them back and replenish the money I paid for it.

And yes it would be awesome if I could take a C64 to school ^_^ but the CC40 is good enough.

Well, you *could* convince them this would help you improve your programming skills, but I think everyone here will agree that the best thing to improve your skills and become professional on is an actual modern computer. However, you can make the argument for learning about computing's history and roots, and learning an old version of one of *the* classic languages to expand yourself.

Right. Can't argue with that.

Correct again. I'll take your ideas and try to reason with them sometime.

Another thing that just crossed my mind RE: price; What does this $60 bundle include? Many of these old computers usually were packed with the bare minimum of software (usually just the OS itself, if you can really call most of them actual OSes, and even then there were computers that shipped without that) and no data tapes (You'll likely need those to program anything non-volatile; in fact, with many old computers, you had to buy them to program at all). If the $60 includes some actual software and some data tapes, that's a decent deal. If not, consider looking around more.

Well, it's still factory sealed, never opened. I wonder what that includes...apparently it can be used out of the box.

I'm fairly sure classic BASIC has been ported to modern PCs and if not, hardware emulators for most of the popular old computers exist.

If you want to learn simple programming, an old computer might be helpful. I'm not sure it'd be any better than a TI or Casio calculator though, as both types of computers have similar constraints and hardware.

I guess it's just something about using the actual hardware...

There are emulators out there indeed, but it true that the actual hardware creates an aura of wonderful obsolescence that cannot be felt on an emulator.

How about the Cambridge Z88? It has a Z80 in there and runs BBC BASIC (amongst other things).

That's even cooler...

Hey! I got one like that too

So that's a tough decision...Cambridge Z88 or CC40...they're both awesome.

I don't know if the Cambridge Z88 is easily acquirable in the USA, being a British machine - there are a few on eBay.co.uk. It's also quite large (294mm x 210mm x 23mm) in comparison to the TI CC-40.

Ok. The CC40 it is.

Here's the datamath page for the cc40, and manual. It appears that it could program out of the box.

Remember however, that the reason it didn't do very well was because no data tape drives were ever made for it; therefore, all programs were volatile.

Huh, I didn't notice that. It seems to have everything else, though. Here's an interesting bit, though:



The topic on that calc.

Well then I don't know if I should get the TI-74 or CC40.