TI-66 double speed mod

[pauln]

(07-08-2022 07:13 AM)John Garza (3665) Wrote:  Not having a BST (backstep) is a huge flaw in the modern programming paradigm. Not so much of a flaw back then. We were just coming out of the slide-rule era. One rarely used a slide rule by itself. For almost all serious problems, it required a desk and paper and pencil. The slide-rule was not the totality of the solution as modern computers are. It was an assistant. So... when most HP-65s were put to the task, the former slide-rule user carefully laid out his program on paper first - maybe making some corrections/enhancements along the way. Then, it would be keyed into the machine from the handwritten source code. In that mode, BST had less of a significance. It was only missed during debugging - but adding a few labels helped. And the code was generally much cleaner anyway as it was 'hand groomed' before entry.

Not having line numbers is also a nuisance, but since you had the handwritten code in front of you, it was rarely a problem during program development. The only problem I remember was if you had sections of code that were similar; you could actually be in one section, when you thought you were in the other. I looked at that as an incentive to write a subroutine.

Thanks for the perspective.

I wonder if the HP-65 is the only programmable calculator ever (at least handheld) with no line numbers (even the HP-55 had them).

About the HP-65 forcing the programmer to write correct code from the start, it makes sense and I've heard similar stories from people who had to use punched cards back in the day.