50 replies to this topic

[BiTwhise]

while going a google on classpad, I came across the german casio site..
http://www.casio-eur...faehigerechner/

the classpad is listed among their other calculators, meaning it should be available now (finally)

there is also an official release announcment made on the American casio site.. strangly the international (japanese) site still says "Coming Soon!"

[BiTwhise]

And here's the emulator:
http://www.classpad.de/manager/

[BiTwhise]

According to the information screen in the emulator, it has a SH7291 cpu
This is part of the Hitachi SH-3 series, but I could not find that model number in the SH Risc CPU overview on Hitachi's site. (only article I found that mentioned this cpu, was a japanese news article.. and all I was able to extract from that, was that it's in the SH3 familly)

Oh well,
it's a 32bit risc CPU, looking forward programming for it if casio lets us

[CrimsonCasio]

it better be programmable
at least in BASIC.

[BiTwhise]

It has the same basic as the old ones, only with new features
like:
- Strings
- Functions
- Paramaters
and more


download the emulator and try it..

[Killer83Z]

Well, maybe it will be cool again to program in basic on this thing. I wonder how much it will cost...

[CrimsonCasio]

about $300

[AlephMobius]

Where can I get specs and functionality in English?

[CrimsonCasio]

use www.freetranslation.com to translate it, thats what I did.
just paste the link in the web translator.

[BiTwhise]

You could also download the English manual and the emulator from http://www.classpad.de

direct link, english manual: http://www.classpad....s/manualeng.pdf

[Simprobe]

http://casio.com/cor...m?act=2&pr=5989

[CrimsonCasio]

Im reading the manual and I'm already drooling ... looks like casio finally took a hint from TI.

[CrimsonCasio]

I'm just happy they finally updated the BASIC laguage.

[AlephMobius]

I am loading the manual now but it is taking forever on dial up. Maybe yall can answer some questions for me since I wont be able to read the manual any time soon.

Can you type with the keypad or only with the on-screen keyboard with the stylus?

How fast is the processer? Not just the number of mhz but what other machines has this been used in so we can have a comparison. Do you know how this CPU compares to other calc CPUs?

What OS? A Casio OS or is it WinCE based like the canceled HP Xpander which seems to be pretty similar.

Can individual files be stored (TI style) or must everything be in Add-ins like the AFX?

How similar is BASIC to what Casios have now? Is it still like Casios and TI-Z80s where each command acts as a character and must be accessed from a menu or can you type in the commands from the keyboard?

Does it have an onboard assembler? ::drools:: ::doesnt hold breath::

What can we use on the PC to write machine code programs for it?

Does it have a speaker?

Does it support gray scale?

It seems interesting to me but things like on-screen only keyboards and GUIs seem to lean more towards PDAs than calcs. I dont like the idea of mixing them together. Graphing calcs are graphing calcs. PDAs arent. If you like them that much get a Palm with Mathematica.

[CrimsonCasio]

How similar is BASIC to what Casios have now? Is it still like Casios and TI-Z80s where each command acts as a character and must be accessed from a menu or can you type in the commands from the keyboard?

not to sure about that, but it seems that it puts commands in bold (like some compilers), for some reason this lead me to believe you could type commands out youself.

[BiTwhise]

The Basic is very much the same as before.

It's no longer token based, but text based, so you type the commands yourself.

There are new functions, for strings, messageboxes, etc,

and the old '=>' arrow is back, only now, it's used for assignemnt..

You still have two windows, text and graphic
The text window is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and the graph window above it..
Text mode is a bit different though.. now characters are alligned pixel by pixel, and as you type more and more, the window grows (you can scroll up)

[CrimsonCasio]

yeah, but now programs can accept parameters.

[CrimsonCasio]

plus this feature, makes me think the programs will run faster.

To change an editable file to an edit prohibited file
(1) Open the program file you want to make edit prohibited.
(2) Tap [Edit] and then [Compress].
? This displays a dialog box for inputting the backup file name. The backup file is a
copy of the original (editable) file, which you can keep on hand if you have trouble
changing an edit prohibited file back to an editable file.
(3) Enter the backup file name and then tap [OK].
? This saves two copies of the file. One is an edit-prohibited file under the name of the
original (editable) file. The other is an editable backup file, which is created under the name
you specify in step (3), above.
Original File (editable): sample
Specified File Name: sample2
Resulting Files: sample (edit prohibited)
sample2 (editable)
? An edit prohibited program file cannot be opened from the Program Editor window.
? Edit prohibited files are displayed in the Variable Manager as ?EXE? type files.
? Tapping [Cancel] instead of [OK] in step (3) quits the procedure without changing the file
type.

[BiTwhise]

yup, parameters good

there are lots of nifty new features,
for example, you can have functions, local variables, text files (which can be printed to the screen), folders, etc

basically, they've taken most of the stuff you find in 68k ti calcs.

the cas is also updated with some functions I miss on the afx, ie. dSolve

you can shift and rotate lists and strings (but not vars )


it still doesn't have all the functionality of the ti calcs, so I hope they make use of that OS update choice in the communication panel
(want more advanced 3d graphs, ie with Implicit plot, hidden surface removal, spherical coordinate functions, cylindrical functions, etc)

[AlephMobius]

Can you type text with the keyboard or just with the stylus?

[Killer83Z]

Well, you use the stylus to "touch" the keyboard. If ya know what I mean.

[X-thunder28]

Right Clik and 'About ClassPad Manager ...'

About ClassPad Manager

Version 1.0

Copyright © 2003

Casio Computer Co. Ltd

Demo version expires in 89 days or
997 uses

[BiTwhise]

and..?
(it says demo version when you download it.., I guess the emu will be bundled with the calc)

[X-thunder28]

Demo version expires in 89 days or
997 uses

90 day or 1000 uses after the first execution, the demo will no launch more !

[BiTwhise]

Yeah.. it says 90 day trial, when you download it..

(just reinstall windows )

[AlephMobius]

Do any of you plan on buying one? It is too PDA like for me.

Not that it has anything at all to do with this thread but im looking at the manual for the Sharp EL-9900C. You can change the functionality from Basic to Advanced math by removing the keypad and turning it over. Each side has different functions and commands. This has nothing to do with the CLassPad, I just think its really cool.

[2072]

Yeah.. it says 90 day trial, when you download it..

(just reinstall windows  )

simpler: uninstall the prog, search for its registry key into windows registry and delete it then re-install the prog.

[BiTwhise]

Some progs have more eloborate protection..

Haven't tried it though (no need for it yet)

[huhn_m]

I've some good news!

I found the Class Pad in a german shop for 160 Euros!
Nothing with 300$

Web:

Dyna-Tech

[BiTwhise]

I wonder, if I order from there, would I get the english manual?

[huhn_m]

I think no but you can probably download it (support size of casio -> manuals)

[BiTwhise]

Got my classpad today

Even got it cheaper than I was suppose to.. the delivery guy converted euros to pounds with the rate 1.6 (which is dollar to pound), instead of 1.4 (which is the real rate)

Overall I'm happy with it

A bit disappointed with the contrast of the screen though.. it's quite reflective (mostly due to the protective film preventing it from being scratched by the stylus)

Now I'm only waiting for Casio to release some add-ins, so I can explore the format of their flash files, and start making my own

[CrimsonCasio]

hows the BASIC language?

[XYZ]

Where's the emulator gone? I can't find it at http://www.classpad.de/manager/
but downloaded it a week ago

[CrimsonCasio]

Bitwise, could you send the emulator to me and XYZ plz?

[BiTwhise]

Basic
The basic language is improved. The whole structure of memory is changed, so now you can create variables by name, put them in folders, create local variables, and so on
String support is also very good, and you have a HUGE character set
All of this can be seen in the emulator ofcourse..

Emulator
There's not much difference between the emulator that comes with the classpad, and that which you can download from www.classpad.de/files/setup.exe
There's a file transfer/management tool in the new emulator, but it's not of much use unless you have a classpad to transfer to
(and for now, there are no add-ins available anyway)

[Brazzucko]

What is the vantage to have this new calc in comparison whit the AFX

[BiTwhise]

The CAS is improved alot, and seems more mature, and has some new features

There are new applications, specially the geometry app is nice

The screen size gives you great overview of calculations, and the drag-and-drop between (and within) apps is really nice (for ex, to drag vectors onto the the geometry app, or the other way around)

It's faster than the afx

Basic language is improved, and supports strings, real variables (local and globa), functions and parameters ++

Probably more, but that's what comes off the top of my head

-- EDIT --

Another nice feature: When you change something higher up in history, it scrambles through all the following calculations that might have been affected, thus correcting the final result of what you were working on