How To Program A Calculator Casio
Asdrubal Dagreat
Programmable calculators are calculators that can automatically carry out a sequence of operations under control of a stored program. Most are Turing complete, and, as such, are theoretically general-purpose computers. However, their user interfaces and programming environments are specifically tailored to make performing small-scale numerical computations convenient, rather than general-purpose use.
The first programmable calculators such as the IBM CPC used punched cards or other media for program storage. Hand-held electronic calculators store programs on magnetic strips, removable read-only memory cartridges, flash memory, or in battery-backed read/write memory.
Since the early 1990s, most of these flexible handheld units belong to the class of graphing calculators. Before the mass-manufacture of inexpensive dot-matrix LCDs, however, programmable calculators usually featured a one-line numeric or alphanumeric display. The Big Four manufacturers of programmable calculators are Casio, Hewlett-Packard, Sharp, and Texas Instruments. All of the above have also made pocket computers in the past, especially Casio and Sharp.
Many calculators of this type are monochrome LCD, some are four-color (red or orange, green, blue, and black), or, in the case of some machines at the top of the line as of January 2022 color similar to monitors displaying 16 or 32-bit graphics. As they are used for graphing functions, the screens of these machines are pixel-addressable. Some have a touch screen, buzzers or other sound producers, internal clocks, modems or other connectivity devices including IrDA transceivers, several types of ports for peripherals like printers, and ports for memory cards of a number of types.
The wide availability and low cost of personal computers including laptop computers, smartphones and tablets gradually made programmable calculators obsolete for most applications. Many mathematical software packages can be automated and customized through scripting languages and plug-ins in a manner similar to handheld programmable calculators. However, programmable calculators remain popular in secondary and tertiary education. Specific calculator models are often required for use in many mathematics courses. Their continued use in education is usually justified by the strictly controllable functionality available. For instance, the calculators do not typically have direct Internet access and so cannot be used for illegal assistance in exams. The remaining programmable calculator manufacturers devote much effort to encourage the continued use of these calculators in high school mathematics.[1]
Programming capability appears most commonly (although not exclusively) in graphing calculators, as the larger screen allows multiple lines of source code to be viewed simultaneously (i.e., without having to scroll to the next/previous display line). Originally, calculator programming had to be done in the calculator's own command language, but as calculator hackers discovered ways to bypass the main interface of the calculators and write assembly language programs, calculator companies (particularly Texas Instruments) began to support native-mode programming on their calculator hardware, first revealing the hooks used to enable such code to operate, and later explicitly building in facilities to handle such programs directly from the user interface.
Many programs written for calculators can be found on the internet. Users can download the programs to a personal computer, and then upload them to the calculator using a specialized link cable, infrared wireless link, or through a memory card. Sometimes these programs can also be run through emulators on the PC.
Programming these machines can be done on the machine, on the PC side and uploaded as source code, or compiled on the PC side and uploaded as with Flash and some C/C++ implementations. In addition to computer-side language packages such as tigcc, hpgcc, and others, the PC link software available for TI, HP, Casio, and Sharp calculators contain program editors; there are also SDKs, emulators, and other tools for use on the computer side, and other manufacturer and third-party tools like the TI++ editor.[2] Programs, data, and so forth can also be exchanged among similar machines via the same ports on the calculator used for PC connectivity. On-board programming tools which use non-native language implementations include the On-Board C Compiler for fx series Casio calculators and the TI-83 BBC Basic port.
One possibility arising from the above is writing interpreters, compilers, and translator programs for additional languages for programming the machines; BBC Basic has already been ported to the TI-83 and -84 series and other onboard languages and programming tools discussed by many include Fortran, awk, Pascal, Rexx, Perl, Common Lisp, Python, tcl, and various Unix shells.
Commonly available programs for calculators include everything from math/science related problem solvers to video games, as well as so-called demos. Much of this code is user-created freeware or even open source, though commercial software, particularly for educational and science/engineering markets, is also available. Programmable calculators have major websites with information, documentation, message boards, tools for download, and other things useful for this pursuit; the main sites for each manufacturer's calculators are run by third parties with varying degrees of collaboration from the companies themselves: namely HPCalc.org, TICalc.org, and CasioCalc.org, (qqv.) with the SharpCalc.org domain being recently purchased by an organization which indicated intent to produce a site similar to the other three, plus information on Sharp pocket computers. The companies themselves also have sites such as TIEducation.com with information and tools for the machines.[3]
In the early days, most programmable calculators used a very simplified programming language, often based either on recording actual keystrokes or bytecode if the keystrokes were merged. Calculators supporting such programming were Turing-complete if they supported both conditional statements and indirect addressing of memory. Notable examples of Turing complete calculators were Casio FX-602P series, the HP-41 and the TI-59. Keystroke programming is still used in mid-range calculators like the HP 35s and HP-12C.
BASIC is a widespread programming language commonly adapted to desktop computers and pocket computers. The most common languages now used in high range calculators are proprietary BASIC-style dialects as used by Casio (Casio BASIC or BasicLike) and TI (TI-BASIC). These BASIC dialects are optimised for calculator use, combining the advantages of BASIC and keystroke programming. They have little in common with mainstream BASIC.[4][5][6] The version for the Ti-89 and subsequent is more fully featured, including the full set of string and character manipulation functions and statements in standard Basic.
Machine language programming was often discouraged on early calculator models; however, dedicated platform hackers discovered ways to bypass the built-in interpreters on some models and program the calculator directly in assembly language, a technique that was first discovered and utilized on the TI-85 due to a programming flaw in a mode-switching key.[citation needed] By the time the TI-83 came out, TI and HP had realized the need to address the support needs of homebrew programmers, and started to make assembly language libraries and documentation available for prospective developers. Software, particularly games, could now be nearly as fast and as graphical as their Game Boy counterparts, and TI, in particular, would later formalize assembly programming into support for packaged applications for future calculators such as the TI-83 Plus and TI-89; HP included some onboard support for assembler programming on the HP-50g, its then top-of-the-line calculator model.
The GCC development suite is available for several models of Casio, HP, and TI calculators, meaning that C, C++, Fortran 77, and inline assembly language can be used to develop a program on the computer side and then upload it to the calculator.
One important feature of programmable calculators is the availability of some form of persistent memory. Without persistent memory, programs have to be re-entered whenever power is lost, making the device cumbersome. Persistent memory can be internal or on a separate device. Some programmable calculators employ both schemes.
Magnetic card readers were among the first persistent memory options available.[8] The entered programs are stored on magnetic strips. Those were easy to transport, and the reader/writer was compact in size. However, the reader/writer as well as the magnetic strips were quite expensive. The last and most notable devices to use magnetic strips were the HP-41C and TI-59.
Compact cassettes offered a simple, inexpensive alternative to magnetic cards. Usually, an interface module, such as the Casio FA-1, was used to connect the calculator to an ordinary cassette recorder, and digital data were encoded as frequency-shift keyed audio signals.[10]
Sharp and Hewlett-Packard also sold dedicated micro- or mini-cassette recorders that connected directly to the calculator. These set-ups, while being more practical and reliable, were also more expensive.
As memory demands rose, it became more difficult to create true continuous memory and developers sought alternatives. With semi-continuous memory content was only preserved if specific battery-changing rules were observed. The most common rules were:
Programs and data are transferred to a personal computer for storage. The transfer is done by the following connection methods (chronological order of appearance) RS-232, IrDA and USB. This method has the advantage of being very cost-efficient and is usually faster than the cassette interface. These advantages are offset by the need for a personal computer. An early example of a PC connection is the Casio FX-603P in conjunction with the Casio FA-6 interface. In this set-up, transfer was done in plain text so the program and data could be stored and edited with a standard text editor.
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