24 Jun
2025
24 Jun
'25
10:57 p.m.
Ah yes, it was the MAT features that the stock 9830 lacked (without an
expansion ROM slotted into the side), likewise with STRING support.
As for the Apple II being a first boot-to-BASIC microcomputer... Maybe.
Story goes that Chuck Peddle pulled all nighters getting the earliest PET
ready for CES in January 1977 (the one with a wooden case), which included
a boot-to-BASIC ROM - and per a VCF presentation by Leonard Tramiel (IIRC),
this (now archived into a vault) prototype went on tour over to Europe
also. Apple followed suit by mid-year (around May or June), but with
INTEGER (only) BASIC. So while the PET had technically made sales earlier
(at the CES show in January), from what I've read Apple II's were first to
actually get delivered into customer hands.
And good find of the HP9830 HP journal, I do recall coming across that in
the past, and the price sheet near the end settles it for me (although
that's the very end Dec 1972, so might be a little unclear exactly when
deliveries happened -- I believe it was the same for the Altair? the Jan
article was actually available Dec 1974, but orders still didn't arrive
till a few months later into 1975?). The Wang 2200 was around mid-1973 (as
a desktop boot to BASIC system, initially with that clunky external CPU and
external PSU -- but a decent multi-row screen).
There was a BASIC for one of the Intel 8008 systems in 1974, but I don't
think any of them were boot-to-BASIC.
On Tue, Jun 24, 2025 at 2:50 AM Tony Duell <ard.p850ug1(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Jun 24, 2025 at 5:19 AM Steve Lewis via
cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
We had an operational HP9830 last year at VCF SW (with the attached
printer, it is a wonderful system). While it does "boot to BASIC", as I
recall one expansion cartridge is necessary to support some additional
keywords (like possibly the TRIG functions or some certain operations).
Trig functions (and floating point numbers/variables) are standard on
the HP9830. As a aside, the HP9810 and HP9820 calculators (related
machines in that they used the same bit-serial processor) did need an
extra ROM module for the trig functions
There are many expansion ROM modules for the HP9830, including :
String Variables. Without this you can print string constants (to
label inputs and outputs. for example) but nothing more. This ROM adds
the ability to store and manipulate character strings in variables
Extended I/O : Essential if you want to use any I/O devices other than
the printer and cassette drive, really. Allows binary I/O, use of HPIB
(with the appropriate interface), etc
Matrices : Adds the MAT statements that were present in original BASIC
and missing in most microcomputer versions. This ROM for the HP9830 is
surprising common in my experience.
-tony