Most of the classic pocket computers are primarily programmed in BASIC. Machine-language is possible through the use of PEEK, POKE, and CALL. Newer pocket computers, which are targeted more for the educational market, added C and Assembly, although in at least some cases the C was a bytecode language instead of a true compiler. All of mine are old enough that they are limited to BASIC and machine language.
Sharp BASIC came in two main variants. The PC-1500 family had its own unique variant tailored around that machine's unique architecture and its 8-bit LH5801 CPU. The rest of Sharp's many pocket computers were based on the SC61860 and the later SC62015 CPUs (all are 8-bit), and used the other variant of BASIC (S-BASIC). This variant had at least three major revisions, with each revision adding new commands and significant changes to the tokenization of them.
My current collection consists of:
Radio Shack TRS-80 PC-2 | |
Sharp PC-1262 | |
Sharp PC-1360 | |
Sharp PC-1500A |
Web Resources
Here are some good resources for information and software for pocket computers on the web. Most of them are European, but have at least some English. In some cases, an automated translator like Google Translate might be useful.