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The Beautiful TI-108

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67 pointsHooke70 comments

The HP-15c scientific calculator is a work of pure genius, beauty, and art along with its user manual. My dad has used his daily since ~1986 and demand was high enough to do a re-run in 2012 to make a few thousand more units at over $100 a pop. It uses RPN and can do matrices, calculus, statistics, and run programs. It is small, lightweight, excellent buttons, and the batteries last years. Engineers love them. No graphing, but it is amazing. TI is popular now, but at one point, only HP could be used for real math.

As much as I loved my HP-15 an HP-41, I think you have a rosy recollection of that time.

Back then, HP calculators were seen as expensive and pretty much reserved to wealthy people. Regular people stuck to TI. And for that reasons, HP calculators were rarely seen in classrooms.

And when they were seen, nobody knew how to use them (I was often asked to lend mine and when they saw it was an HP, they said "oh you have one of these weird ones,never mind").

Most of what I know comes from listening to other engineers (my father's age) talk as I went through engineering school with a TI Voyage 200. That didn't have a nice manual, but it had pretty printing and could solve large systems of complex equations with ease and was almost too powerful and even came with apps (essentially a TI-89 with more RAM and a lot more buttons). I could type out a massive equation and then adjust it slightly each time. My father was dirt poor and worked in fast food full time while taking classes, and he could somehow afford one as did most of his classmates as the RPN feature would be invaluable when a TI calculator would force you to write down output from individual calculations without an X-Y-T stack (please correct me if I'm wrong though). Another advantage to owning one was some introductory programming classes would allow you to use the HP language for homework assignments. As ridiculous as this sounds, the alternative was waiting in a massive line at the computer lab to use the Unix time-sharing system (apparently the university had one of these) to run your Fortran or Pascal code.

In college I bought an HP42S. It was a wonderful calculator that like the 15C had RPN and could do statistics and matrices. It also had a display with two lines instead of just one. According to wikipedia, it's still highly in demand with used calculators selling for ~$400 on eBay.

It makes sense. If you're a scientist who has been using yours in the lab for 30+ years and one day it is ruined by the battery leaking all over the electronics, how much would you pay for a replacement? The new calculators are faster and the screens are better, but I'm surprised at the low build quality and how little features are actually available. Like why can't I run R or APL on my handheld calculator? I don't mean that strictly as the batteries wouldn't last long, but I should be able to do a variety of graphs and functions coupled with a language better than TI-Basic.

Well, you can't expect desktop software to run on something with a few tens to hundreds of K of RAM. But basically all the TI graphing calculators can be programmed in C. I don't think anyone has bothered, but there's no reason at all you couldn't run APL on one, if you either wrote or found a lightweight enough implementation.

Yea I know there's no reason something like this doesn't exist, I just felt there would be a big enough market for something like that, but in my heart I know I'm very wrong:)

For what it's worth the version of Basic offered in the TI-89, TI-92, and Voyage 200 is probably the most interesting and powerful Basic ever released, anywhere; it supports symbolic math backed by a full CAS, declaration of pure functions, and a nifty feature that allows you to treat strings as variable names. Between that and the onboard C compiler I've never felt hog-tied, though I would love to see a practical Scheme system on one (there have been a few half-hearted attempts but "practical" is where it falls down).

Scheme would be cool. Good point bout the language too.

http://thomasokken.com/free42/

it blew my mind that you can buy an hp-15c at best buy still. it's on the shelf sort of by the cameras.

and before you start: when i feel like blowing 400 bucks on a time wasting and useless game console, you bet your ass i'm going to get shafted up close and personal whenever it tickles my fancy, i.e. at 8pm on a tuesday.

Didn't know they still had the 15c at Best Buy as that was a very limited run (yes I blew $100). Are you sure you didnt see the 12c? The 12c looks similar and is still stupidly popular in finance/accounting (it has a lot of pre-built business functions).

Yup, quite a few of us still use a HP-12c. I have one at my work desk and personal desk; what an absolute beauty of a device.

i think you're right, it was the 12c.

What?? When you feel like buying a game console, you're going to shafted at 8pm on a Tuesday? I don't understand that comment at all.

I was confused as well for a second before remembering my coworker talking about buying a Nintendo switch from best buy at opening.

i wasn't talking about the launch, but that's a valid reason, sure.

that means last tuesday at 8pm i said to myself, "i want a playstation". and best buy allows people to indulge in that kind of behavior (the reason i was there, and the reason i saw the calculator).

I assume he's talking about Best Buy

Unfortuntely I don't think that was a 15c, as it hasn't been made in a while. As GP mentioned, there was a batch made in 2012 and that sold out fast.

It was probably the 12c, the financial model, that has been continuously in production since the 80s. Unfortunately, it's much less useful for engineers than the scientific 15c.

I have a recently made 35s sitting on my desk, but I'm really itching to replace with a SwissMicros DM-15L

Ah, thank you for reminding me about those lol. I hear they're nice!

Don't know about the 15 but I bought the 41-cv as an app for my iphone. Wicked cool. I dreamt about having one when I was a kid, and now I do.

As ytcracker said:

`HP-48G. The G is for Gangster.`

The author thinks the uglier design is lamentable, but it might have actually been done on purpose to discourage (accidental) theft, similar to how bowling shoes are hideous for the same reason.

When I was in school, we used the TI-84s in classes. The classroom versions we had were these ugly yellow ones that were very easy to notice and very easy to distinguish from the regular gray/black ones.

I loved programming so much in high school that I would routinely hack in TI-BASIC on these things as much as I could. It was an excellent language to cut your teeth on.

TI-BASIC and z80 assembly (TI-86) helped me get my programming fix during the day in high school since we had no programming classes.

Sounds similar to my experience. My first exposure to programming was automating repetitive homework assignments and building simple games on the TI-83 Plus.

Typing code using calculator buttons was pretty tedious.

I first learned how to program by reading - nearly cover to cover - the TI-83 instruction manual. Fantastic.

Inverting the display of "5318008" on your seven-segment display was a rite of passage as a teenage boy in America in the 80's.

For examples in other languages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator_spelling#Other_lang...

We used to routinely describe our school with 37047734.

Then I got my HP graphing calculator in university and lesser (non-RPN) calculators have now been ruined for me.

Its nice, but for a programmer I loved the http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/TI-34.htm which was also solar powered and has lasted quite a long time since its still with me from my high school days.

If you're looking for an upgrade and/or do low-level stuff, the TI-36X Solar handles binary, hexadecimal, and octal quite nicely (though you do start running out of digits if you're trying to convert big numbers to binary). It also has a number of logic functions that you may or may not find useful.

Lately, I've been delighted by the equally competent fraction input/display system. I've been doing a lot of woodworking in US customary units, and the 36X beats the pants off of any other calculator I've owned[0].

Truly, it's a well thought-out little tool. So much so that when the display on mine pooped out, I went on eBay and found another one for 10 USD shipped.

[0] If somebody wants to recommend a dedicated builder's calculator that handles fractional inches handily, I'm all ears, but I haven't owned one to this point. Calculating board-feet would be a nice plus.

I'll ask for sure but I remember the folks in the vocational program (finish carpentry) using one they bought at Home Depot.

I loved my TI-34 as well, recently bought one off eBay for old times sake.

I love my TI-34. I still prefer to use it over an on-screen calculator when I'm doing reverse engineering or assembler programming. I got mine in 92 or 93 and it's still going strong.

Oh man, I didn't know that existed and now I want one.

Saved me a heck of a lot of time in assembler class with the decimal -> hex -> oct -> binary conversions and direct hexadecimal entry.

[edit: forgot about entering fractions directly - pretty good for a solar powered calculator]

Yeah, only downside is that with 64-bit numbers these days things could get a bit painful to enter.

All we need is someone to add bluetooth and let you send your clipboard over to it :).

I couldn't resist, just grabbed one off of ebay for $16, curse you for posting it!

A charming article. A Texas Instruments calculator (scientific, non-programmable) was practically my best friend at school in the 1980s, though I don't even know what model it was now. I'm not sure how to find out, as it seems that most model numbers were reused in a long series of different cases.

I've always associated American brands with terrible ergonomics, but TI calculators had unusually pleasing buttons and layout.

[Edit: Ah, uh, OK -- a few more minutes searching and I find "This calculator was developed and produced in Japan... A big advantage of the Toshiba design was the smooth and flawless keyboard." This is definitely the one, a TI-30SLR mkII: http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/TI-30SLR_2.htm. Oh well. But it was much nicer to use than Casios of the time and the pleasant form carried over to the Galaxy series.]

> What are the top dogs you’ve met? What are the best streets in your town? Who are the worst people you love? What are the ten best instructional videos in your discipline? What are the worst colors? What are the five best musical instruments?

top best worst best worst best: what's with all this obsession with ranking??

I don't love many people but it would be impossible for me to rank them from "best" to "worst".

I don't even know what it would mean to rank musical instruments. According to what criteria? If the best instrument is the piano, or the clarinet, can you have an orchestra of 100 pianos? Or 100 clarinets?

And colors...? Ok maybe it's a joke and I don't get it.

The problem with ranking from "worst" to "best" is it's uni-dimensional; as you add more axes it makes less and less sense.

It takes a very narrow mind to even ask such a question.

what's with all this obsession with ranking??

It said so right in the article: you learn what you care about. Best musical instrument? Easy, mandolin. Maybe the violin. Both are tuned in fifths, so scale and chord patterns are transferable up and down, and across the fretboard/fingerboard. Far better than that bastardized tuning of the guitar. Play a melody, play rhythm (on the mandolin) if you have to, though not as good a choice as a guitar. And don't get me started on all the keys of a piano.

But that's what I care about in a musical instrument, mainly because I play one. YMMV, and it likely will if you don't play anything.

> And don't get me started on all the keys of a piano.

Have you come across the Jankó keyboard? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jank%C3%B3_keyboard

piano keys layout delayed my musical epiphany by 20 years, for better or worse

You're answering the question "what instruments do you like to play the most", which is different from "what are the 'best' instruments".

The last question implies some kind of absolute value system, not just your own personal taste (even if you're the one making the ranking).

I think you're reading objectiveness into the question. If it makes you feel better, replace "best" or "worst" with "most favorite" and "least favorite". The essence behind the question is still there, but it removes any interpretation of objectiveness.

However, I would argue that it also loses some impact. It removes the idea of a person having to decide what "best" or "worst" actually means. Instead, you would need a follow-up question of "why?" to clarify that particular point.

For instance, I would have answered French horn. That instrument can single-handedly cut through an entire orchestra, and there is no mistaking it when you hear it. The harpsichord would be a close runner-up. So I'm probably looking for unique sounds that are easy to pick out of a crowd.

You're answering the question "what instruments do you like to play the most", which is different from "what are the 'best' instruments".

The best instrument is the one I like to play the most, duh. Yeah, "that's just my opinion, man". Which was kinda the point.

I don't know what else to tell you. You ask "what the obsession with ranking" was, I gave you the answer straight from the article. Is it "best" for you? Probably not. Again, duh, that's not what the answer said.

I think you're thinking about this too hard. It's a subjective question, and will be colored by your experience.

Or it takes someone reading things far too literally to think a narrow mind is asking these questions.

A teardown of the components and why it's so reliable might be interesting.

A teardown wouldn't be too interesting; it looks like the calculator is basically just one chip inside: http://www.datamath.org/BASIC/LCD_Modern/JPEG_TI-108.htm Of course, it might be interesting to look inside the chip...

Now you're thinking what I'm thinking. :) Although, I was interested in the PCB, too, since I figured it might be extra simple. That's a way to reduce cost and improve reliability vs overcomplicated components used in many modern designs. Really, really simple indeed.

Even a modern "advanced" calculator like this 2-line model[^] is just a blob chip and keypad matrix. Calculators are all extremely simple until you get to the graphing ones that have external RAM or even flash memory.

[^] http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/JPEG_TI-30X-IIS_SWH2016.htm

Oh god the cute nostalgia. Shape, buttons, plastic, colors.

I sniped a Canon KS 100 desk calculator at a battery recycle bin, solar, with large buttons too. Couldn't resist. http://imgur.com/a/6wWUO

ps: I also found full on desk calculator (powered, with printout) from Triump-Adler.. funny.

pps: HP RPN forever (twice) dup dup add

I just found my old TI-86, TI-89, and HP-48G+ calculators. All of which were great, when I needed them.

What I want to find is my old TI-30X Solar. Basic, bulletproof, and does everything I want a calculator to do without getting in it's own way. Anything more complicated than what it will do I'm likely to use other tools anyway.

the T-30s' two-line display is just so perfect. You can always see your last result as you are punching in your next calculation.

How coincidental — I wrote a visual analysis of the TI-84 just a few weeks ago for my AP English class: https://nathanapenglish.blogspot.com/2017/02/tow-20-ti-84-vi...

How do you clear the memory? You'd think a fourth memory key is needed. Maybe you turn it off and on. Or maybe you go MRC then M-. I think if I was designing this I'd sacrifice the notoriously unnecessary and confusing % key.

Hit the On key a couple of times. There is no real off unless you hold your finger on the solar panels. It says On / C for a button to awaken it.

First press of "MRC" recalls the memory value. Second press, immediately following the first, clears the memory.

You press MRC twice.

I love my TI-84 SE and my TI-89. So much so, in fact, that I have a TI-89 on my phone. I always get fascinated looks when I pull it out and type out a complicated expression.

I often use HP 48 emulators too, with great joy.

This is a great piece of writing. I will seek to emulate.

I prefer the TI-92, the last of the 'big' calculators.

I still have my TI-89 from high school. It wasn't quite the TI-92, but I could still use it on most of the exams which the 92 was banned from. Love that calculator.

I wrote so much code on that damned thing that I didn't get schoolwork done.

Was very sad when a classmate stole it from me.

Must. not. search on eBay.

eBay? They're only $9 on Amazon..

$5-8. I think you'll be fine.

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