Pocket Computer

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. A pocket computer is a small calculator-sized handheld programmable computer. This specific category of computers existed primarily in the 1980s. Manufacturers included Casio, Hewlett-Packard, Sharp, Tandy/Radio Shack (Selling Casio and Sharp models under their own TRS line) and many more. The programming language was usually BASIC, but some devices offered alternatives. For example the Casio PB-2000 could be programmed in C, BASIC, Assembler and Lisp. An important feature of pocket computers was that all programming languages were available for the device itself, not dowloaded from a cross-compiler on a larger computer. Though not identical in principle, personal digital assistants, handheld PCs, and programmable calculators serve many of the same functions as the old pocket computers, generally with significantly more computing power in a package the same size or smaller.