So like any good programmer, I decided to stop looking and start doing.
No, I was looking for something much more simple and efficient. OK, so maybe I could find a BASIC compiler somewhere if I really looked hard, but who the devil wants to write programs in BASIC anyway? But an interpreted language is inherently inefficient, and, well, requires the interpreter to run. How about BASIC? Well, if you're lucky and you can find your old floppy disks, you may be able to locate an old copy of GWBASIC or some other "lean-and-mean" text-based BASIC interpreter.
Apart from the fact that this machine doesn't run Windows, it also lacks the substantial number of MIPS and megabytes that this development system requires in order to run. That is not to say that you cannot write code for these HP handhelds using any compiler that can produce DOS programs, such as Microsoft's Visual C++ 1.52c (the last 16-bit version of that development system.) But you'll never actually install Visual C++ on an HP-95LX. (HP keyboard quality helps.) And both lack a decent programming language. Both teeny DOS-based machines are surprisingly useful, to the extent that even their little keyboards are eminently practical. You see, recently I got my hands on two vintage Hewlett-Packard handheld computers, an HP-95LX and an HP-200LX, and I promptly fell in love with both.
So why would anyone in his right mind would create a whole new programming language? Isn't BASIC or C++ good enough already?
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