Your First Handheld?

[G. Cook]

My first was a Casio FX-702P Programmable Calculator with FA-2 Tape Recorder Adapter & FP-10 Printer. I still have all of the above (in working order) and use the calculator almost every day. These were purchased sometime in 1981 were used for a variety of small, repetitive programmable calculations in a engineering company. Much handier & cheaper than the IBMs of the day[/font]

[DaveBr]

The first calculator I remember using was a NS 600 4 banger. I remember it used a type of rpn, but used the + key as an entry separator. I used a Rockwell calculator in Jr. High and High School and a TI-30 in college. I remember my class mates on the G.I. bill all using HP 21s. The instructor used a HP 45. I was so envious.
Dave

[badaze]

Middle school. Canon 4 ops.
High school. TI 57 LED.
College. Casio FX 702P + Sharp PC 1500A.

[Matt Agajanian]

(05-14-2014 04:59 PM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  My first in 75 and still have it!



My replacement in 77, and still have it (sold it to purchase the next one and found the owner who graciously gave it back to me 20years later!!



What did I buy? My 79 41C as I could afford it for university having made money as a bush float pilot:



Which gave rise to the 41CX in 84 for my MSc research



The 41C above has become my CL of today:



My backup to the CL is a 32K 42s and 34 with IR and clock mods.



And the occasional 71b for back-backup:

Those calculator stands bring back good memories. I remember how they were the thing to have in the 70s.

[Sergio]

My father gave me a Casio fx 7000 g when I was 14. He was a math teacher and wanted me to have a graphing calculator. I made my first programs on it and used it all through high school. When I started studying civil engineering her capacities were quickly overrun, so my mother gave me a TI-85, which got me through college and I loved, although I wanted much more memory space to store my programs. After college I bought many other TI models (83+, 84+, 86, 92, 92+) mostly to satisfy some curiosity, but kept hearing about this wonderful hp calculators, so I got a 50g and after learning RPN I became an absolute fan of old hp models.

[Sandhri]

My first handheld was a Texas Instruments SR-51A which I drove 90 miles to get. This was the first calculator I could afford. Several years later in the early 80's I upgraded to a TI-58C and a year later to a TI-59.
In the mid 80's I purchased my first HP, an HP-15C. The keyboard after years of heavy use finally broke, but the batteries never needed replacement. After that I purchased an HP-48S, an HP-48G and in 2001 an HP-48GX instead of an HP-49 (I despise rubber keys).
I upgraded to an HP-50G when it first came out, but I still have and use my HP-48GX with a 128 kilobyte ram card and a one megabyte ram card.

[Gamo]

My first calculator but really not my own calculator just borrowed
from my step-sister.

She used it for her university classes year 1989.
At that time I was in 11 grade High School.

That calculator is the Casio fx-3900P Programmable.
This calculator is my first to learn how to program by
reading from the user manuel. At that age I'm really surprise that
somehow I want to learn on how to program just because I
wanted to cheat on the Math Test.

I'm trying so hard on programming the problem of
"Three Linear Equation of Three Variables" doing so by
using the steps shown in the School Algebra Math book using
the Matrix solver algorithm. Writing and Test for bug in program and
finally success. So I use this to take a test that I did it very fast way too fast
than other students in class, the test require to show the work on how to get
to the answer so I just show fake work on paper because I known that teacher
will not read all the work on each paper so I got "A" on this class very easily.

Later on I was thinking over this and realize that in order to make any program
one must know the Algorithm deeply to understand each and every steps.
Once you finish a program then you really understand all of it and that will even
make you remember it forever too.

About a year later my step-sister changed course to a Business School MBA classes and this time she got the HP-12C
I sneak around in her room found this HP-12C and quickly trying to play around with it but its not work as expected
so I though that this calculator is broken and never think about this calculator in a long time.

About year 2016 somehow I was refreshing my memory about HP-12C
I search the internet to learn everything about HP-12C and get the real HP-12C app for Android to learn from it.
I see many interesting stuff that HP-12 can do so I make a purchase from Amazon and I got the HP-12C+

Then got the HP-11C and HP-12C Platinum

Remark:
I end up using the HP because of the RPN programming instead of the Casio BASIC programming style.

Gamo

[Benjer]

My first calculator was a Christmas gift from my dad in 1994 when I was in 4th grade. It was a TI Hot Calc, a brightly-colored 4-function calculator which I used all the way into middle school. If memory serves, it was packaged with a drawing compass and protractor, both now long gone. I still have the calculator but it's definitely showing its age and the ON/C button is iffy. Fun times.

See a picture of one here: http://datamath.org/BASIC/LCD_Modern/ZOOM_HotCalc.htm

First calculator I bought with my own money (saved from recycling aluminum cans) was a TI-30Xa in 7th grade. Still have that one too.

[Valentin Albillo]

(07-19-2019 02:56 PM)Benjer Wrote:  My first calculator was a Christmas gift from my dad in 1994 when I was in 4th grade. It was a TI Hot Calc, a brightly-colored 4-function calculator which I used all the way into middle school.[...]I still have the calculator but it's definitely showing its age and the ON/C button is iffy. Fun times.

See a picture of one here: http://datamath.org/BASIC/LCD_Modern/ZOOM_HotCalc.htm

Nice ! The number shown in the display is 2*Sqrt(2).

V.