Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!husc6!ukma!mailrus!eecae!conklin
From: conklin@eecae.UUCP (Terry Conklin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy
Subject: Re: Are there any Tandy specific magazines left?
Keywords: PC-2, uses, news
Message-ID: <12725@eecae.UUCP>
Date: 25 Oct 88 06:52:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: eecae.12725
References: <8497@mhuxu.UUCP>
Reply-To: conklin@eecae.UUCP (Terry Conklin)
Organization: Michigan State University, ERDL
Lines: 43


I have a PC-2 that has been my travelling companion for years. It's been 
mostly a calculator for me, though it is sort of the ultimate calculator. 
In college days, it saved me from several classes, remembering generally 
worthless constants and the like with great accuracy.
 
In calculus, I used to take in the printer too. On a test, I'd solve the 
equation, and then run the graph on the machine. If I was wrong, it showed. 
You have to show all your work anyhow, but it was an edge over 99% of the
people with no way to cross check their work.
 
I've recently started flight school, which begs for some special software.
The PC-2 is also very entertaining in boring situations. I used to have 
whole libraries of animated characters that I did in it's hi-res bit mapped
mode. You could print characters in states of animation, adding them together
to build cartoons.

 
Somewhere here I have the only known (to us!) documentation to the PC-2
assembly language. There was only 1 routine that I am aware of, a routine 
that inverses the screen, which was in one of the spiral bound handbooks that
came with the machine.
 
I have not been able to use my printer in quite some time, as one of the 
internal gears broke.
 
I have many routines stored on little scrolled rolls of paper. I generally
wrote little routines as the need arose. I have only replaced the AA cells 
once in the 4 or 5 years that I have had it. I always wanted the extended 
memory but never managed to find any (along with money.)
 
A friend of mine recently came across the Sharp version of the same machine,
and bought himself a Radio Shack math software library. I dont know the 
catalog number, but he was very happy with it.
 
Sorry about the "spew" nature of this message. When was the last time you 
saw PC-2 info anyhow?
 
Terry Conklin
conklin@egr.msu.edu
!{frith|msudoc}!conklin
The Club (517) 372-3131
The Club II (313) 334-8877