Programming Flashback

I started my development path with HTML 3.2 while in middle school. The vast majority of my development experience has been with the web. But while I was in high school I didn’t have the opportunity to carry around a laptop from which I could work. Somewhere along the way I started using Texas Instruments (TI) graphing calculators.

One of the fun things about these calculators was that you could easily write your own programs in BASIC directly from the device and run them. This was a great way to pass time during classes that were particularly un-engaging (I wonder if mom and/or dad read this blog). Today I found an archive download online for a TI-89 application I wrote and I wanted to share the “readme” file here. It’s funny.

Good Ole Pythagoras

I found the application hosted on ticalc.org right where I uploaded it in 2002. It’s quite a simple computation of the Pythagorean Theorem finding a, b or c depending on which side of the right triangle is unknown in length. Here are the contents of the README included in the download:

Erik’s Pythagorean Theorem

Thanks for downloading my first ever public TI-89 program. When I wrote this, I had had my TI-89 for about a week so I’ve got more coming soon. I plan to learn more programming in C and C++ and many other languages as well. But for now, BASIC is the only language I can use for TI models.

This program is very user-friendly. I try to make all of my programs that way. It will compute for a, b, or c in the a^2+b^2=c^2 formula. I may add new features in the future…but what else can you do with a triangle? It’s not like you can graph it or anything. :-p Anyways, I hope you enjoy the program and I hope that it meets your needs. just run pyth() and you’ve got it.

If you run across any bugs please tell me. I haven’t run across any. But you never know. I’m only in the 10th grade right now so I have 2 more years of not paying attention in class because I’m writing a program. Therefore I will most likely have many more programs coming soon. :) If you like my program PLEASE TELL ME! I need all the encouragement I can get.

[old contact info removed]

http://www.teenzion.com is my website. Although it has nothing to do with programming, check it out! :)

Bye
May, 2002

Funny how I forecasted my 11th and 12th grade yeas as being “2 more years of not paying attention in class because I’m writing a program.” That’s not too far off. I remember writing PHP with pencil and paper while learning the basics. I’d write the code then re-type it after school hoping it executed properly (it rarely did).

Regardless, this has been a flashback into my early programming days. Now I’m going to try and find my TI-89 and see what other programs I still have on it. I wrote a handful by the end of high school and it would be interesting to go back and look at the code.