Tandy TRS-80 Model 100

I used one long ago: I remember that, as with the TRS-80 model 100, the keyboard was outstanding.

I learned to code when I was about 7, in BASIC on a TRS-80 Model 100 laptop. I used to lug it around along with the manual and try different things while my mom was shopping for groceries. It was like my permanent accessory. I remember when I finally grokked how to use arrays to turn on and off certain ranges of pixels... it was amazing.

One of the best keyboards I've ever used. Unique feel, loved that thing.

TRS-80 Model 100 → Telnet to a MacBook → Lynx to the web. Surfing the web at 600 baud. That's how we roll all up in here.

I still have a Model 100. It replaced the one I had in high school. It has, by far, the most comfortable keyboard I’ve ever used on a laptop. My typing speed on it approaches the speed I can reach on a Model M mechanical keyboard. There’s still a very active community around the 100, and there are a few old hardware guys who still make new expansions for it. Recently there’s even a CP/M board for it which means it can run a lot of apps like WordStar, making it very useful day-to-day. It’s a nice, distraction-free environment.

OK. My best friend had the same Apple II. We used to play Carmen Sandiego, and California Games, Oregon Trail; I had a TRS-80 Model 100 laptop that I learned BASIC on, but my first programming language was LOGO. Then Hypercard. So I figured I'd address this question if or when I had a kid. I don't have kids. But I'm glad someone asked it the way you asked it; it's very important to me that kids should learn this way, by building things rather than having structures shoveled at them. Quick side note. My dad banned RPGs in the house. My brother was a huge D&D fan but my dad said it encouraged "follower" mentality to follow a dungeon master's idea of the storyline; and he viewed all videogames with plot elements basically the same way. OK. So how would I approach it? I'd make a language that took all the basic elements of code (vars, control structures, etc) and made them come to life the way LOGO did. The rewards of doing something cool have to be tangible. When I was 10 or 11, my friends and I had our own code competitions in Hypercard to try to make cool screen savers or little games. We judged each other and ourselves; we'd spend 72 hours and see who made the coolest thing and we'd be honest with each other if someone else's thing was cooler. None of this was "cool" at the time but it was like we had magically tapped into some power that other kids didn't have, and that was what kept us addicted to learning. We learned from each other and from our own mistakes. The two frien…

Great memories programming those, but especially reading the manuals, books and mags made for them; they were much more focused on programming than for other home computers at that time and I like(d) programming! I have 2 pocket TSR-80s, 1 TSR-80 'laptop' (model 100) and a model III in my 'museum'; all working. Switching them on is an interesting change from my ipad/mbp retina tools. What I find most interesting about all 80s computers I have is that they still work and work perfectly. I really wonder if that would be the case with after '95 computers. I have a lot; they are all broken except my Sun E450, SGI O2, Sparcstation 5s and Ultra 10. Almost none of the over 50 laptops, netbooks, pads and desktops from '95 till now I have work perfectly. It depends in how far they do not work; most desktops do nothing (besides spin up the power), most laptops come on and start beeping. And I don't work in a builder yard; i'm a programmer, so I didn't expose them to the elements. Computer museums and retro collectors depend a lot on the fixability of computers; all 80s stuff you could easily solder / repair yourself and it is worth it. In the 90s you still could, but after a certain time it gets annoying and people just 'buy new'. We now moved in the everything SMT, micro, system on a chip, glued computers, which means repairing them, especially in 30 years from now, will not be so easy I recon.

Coding, learning a language, playing an instrument, and learning about what's going on in the world, aren't mutually exclusive. They're synergistic. Learning to code teaches the fundamentals of logic. I learned (Microsoft) BASIC when I was about 7, on a TRS-80 Model 100 hand-me-down. I'd recommend it as a fantastic learning tool for any kid if you can find one; it runs on AA batteries, it's got a big keyboard, small screen with large pixels, relatively indestructable by today's standards; no games, no internet, and no bells or whistles...no programs, actually, except for a text editor and an address book...you have to make your own. And you can do quite a lot with it once you get the hang of shading pixels. Plus 16k of storage! Also, it used to come with a manual that detailed how to use BASIC. That's how I learned it. I'm not sure how you can go from saying you should talk to a kid like an intelligent human being to saying that a kid is not a small adult. Either you treat them like adults or they act like children. And anyone who says teaching your child how to code is "silly" is a fool. IMO 7-year-olds should watch the nightly news (from a source outside the US that covers world events) and have detailed conversations with parents and teachers about what the stories mean.

The HP95LX [1] was introduced in 1991, ran from two AA batteries, has MS-DOS and include a ROM version of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. Eight years earlier, in 1983, the Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 [2] was remarkable: 4 line x 40 char display, 8kB RAM, powered by 4 AA batteries, all for $799. Incidentally, the May 1983 issue of Byte magazine in [2] was themed "The Electronic Office" and is full of ads for Apple, Microsoft and IBM products, amongst others. Back then, a 20MB hard drive was $3300, equivalent to $9000 in today's money. [1] http://hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=202 [2] https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-05/page/n15/m...