The following excerpt is taken from page 7 of the July 1980 "HP-85 Owner's Manual and Programming Guide" :

Meet the HP-85 Personal Computing System
Your Hewlett-Packard 85 Personal Computer is a versatile, self-contained, personal computing device which enables you to perform a wide variety of useful and interesting functions. To mention just a few of the special features of your HP-85, you have the ability to:

• Perform calculations in a simple, straightforward manner - as if you had a calculator with dozens of mathematical and scientific functions.



• Compose programs in BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language. The HP-85 exceeds the latest American National Standard for Minimal Basic. In many areas, the HP-85 includes enhancements to this standard.



• Execute BASIC programs. After you have written your programs, they may be executed, often at the touch of one key. The HP-85 offers several typing aids to your program execution and control.



• Load and store programs and data on a magnetic tape cartridge with the built-in tape drive. Thus you may permanently store your programs to be retrieved again, whenever you wish.



• List programs and data with the built-in thermal printer. Not only can you list programs, but you can copy anything that appears on the display onto the printer, to record and review your results.



• Perform graphics. The graphics capabilities of the HP-85 are sophisticated, yet easy to use. And again, anything that you can "draw" on the display can be transformed to hardcopy with a single command: COPY.



• Edit, correct, and modify anything that appears on the display with tremendous ease. In fact, the HP-85 allows you to access and review 64 lines of characters on the display, and to edit them at your convenience.

Now let's take a closer look at the HP-85 system to see how easy it is to use, whether we solve a problem manually, use one of the sophisticated prerecorded programs from the Standard Pac, or even write our own program. --back--