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HP-71B back up and running again
05-25-2017, 06:50 PM
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HP-71B back up and running again
After taking some time off from hand-held computers, I recently found myself becoming interested in a Sharp PC-1500 on TAS. It was complete with the printer / cassette interface, and was advertised as working well (!). While the days went by and I pondered the situation, I found myself thinking, "I have that HP-71B, and with my PIL-Box I can backup my programs, so why not use that instead of spending more money?"

So, yesterday I pulled the old boy out of storage and set off to get it up and running again. Of course there was no problem with the HP-71B, but I had a bit of a time remembering how to get the PIL-Box attached to my virtual PC running in my Macintosh. Setting the proper speed and getting it to go took a bit of effort, but I was able to prevail. Then came the inevitable confusion about how to talk to the mass storage (oh, yeah! the COPY command) and then figuring out how to designate that I meant to save a file off to the mass storage, and finally figuring out if the file was actually there on the mass storage.

But, I am happy to report that I have successfully typed in my DOLLAR program in BASIC (How many ways can you make $1 from change?) and I've also successfully typed in the MAKELEX program. Both now reside in my HP-71B, and also on my TEST.DAT file on my "PC", backed up via ILPER via the PIL-Box.

Now, I wonder about the whole new world of virtual ILPER devices and such. Using the printer on the ILPER program as the display is OK, but I'd like to play around with a virtual video device.

Has anyone managed to get the newest version of Py-ILPER working on a Mac? Are there instructions around for a bonehead like me who knows nothing of what it takes to instantiate Python on a Mac and get this all going?

Thanks very much, in advance, for your patience and advice.

smp
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HP-71B back up and running again - smp - 05-25-2017 06:50 PM
RE: HP-71B back up and running again - smp - 05-25-2017, 10:32 PM



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