Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond • Hacker News Board

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#31

Post by uticus » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 3:44 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #29

Zero BASIC feels quite close to Casio's programming language. Now apparently MicroPython has replaced BASIC in most calculators, the issue is that apparently always lags a bit behind, this one appears to still use Python 2.7.

From teardown [0] at 3:50 you can see an ARM7 Cortex M4 @ 240MHz, so BASIC or MicroPython should both be speedy enough for most tasks.

But from both the teardown and from another review [1] there are some concerns about the bugs and lack of features in Zero's BASIC and MicroPython. The firmware is updatable, so hopefully Zero irons things out, but still not a good look to have this present in a release.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRf_cVGDhYs

[1] https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20941&start=0

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#32

Post by uticus » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

andyfilms1 wrote: post #9

Another calculator with no backlit keypad. Am I the only one that wants to use a calculator after the sun goes down?

Are there any with backlit keypads (that are truly purpose-built calculators)?

I see this as a nice feature but not a must-have. Not sure if the industry agrees, or if the industry just doesn't know how many people would spring for backlit keypads because none have existed so far.

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#33

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 7:52 AM UTC

uticus wrote: post #31

pjmlp wrote: post #29

Zero BASIC feels quite close to Casio's programming language. Now apparently MicroPython has replaced BASIC in most calculators, the issue is that apparently always lags a bit behind, this one appears to still use Python 2.7.

From teardown [0] at 3:50 you can see an ARM7 Cortex M4 @ 240MHz, so BASIC or MicroPython should both be speedy enough for most tasks. But from both the teardown and from another review [1] there are some concerns about the bugs and lack of features in Zero's BASIC and MicroPython. The firmware is updatable, so hopefully Zero irons things out, but still not a good look to have this present in a release. [0] https://w…

Thanks!