Sharp has released another new organizer in this OZ/ZQ Series, the OZ-770PC, that, in addition to keeping track of names and addresses, telephone number, schedules, and so forth, have the ability to be programmed in BASIC.  See Description of BASIC Add-on Programs.

The new OZ-770PC is the same machine as the OZ-750PC but has the new Day-Timer® Organizer® 2000 Sharp Edition Software, and has an optional program to synchronize with Microsoft® Outlook™.  (This program can be downloaded at no cost from Sharp's www.mywizard.com web site.)

The OZ-730PC/OZ750PC machines are now discontinued in the U.S., although they may still be available for sale for some time.

The OZ Series is sold in the US, and the ZQ Series in other countries.  The OZ-730PC is identical to the ZQ-700PC, and the OZ-750PC is identical to the ZQ-750PC.  (There are some differences in the labels printed on the keyboard, but the key functions are identical.  For example, the Euro symbol is printed on the ZQ keyboards whereas it is not in the U.S. OZ versions.)  See the OZ-730/750 User's Guide (581K PDF File).

Sharp Organizers can be purchased at most office supply stores (Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot, etc.) and at Underwood Distributing Co.

There are also ZQ-700M/ZQ-750M models which are similar to the "PC" models.  These also have the ability to be programmed in BASIC and are sold in Germany, Italy, and other European countries.

They are multi-lingual and the appointment scheduling software is somewhat different than the Day-Timer® software included with the "PC" models.

Visit www.organizerlink.com for details on organizer software for the "M" models.

The units come blister-packed and include a connecting cable so the it can be connected to a 9-pin serial port on a PC.  Data can then be saved on a PC, and can be transferred from one machine to another.

See How to Develop a BASIC Program, BASIC Programming Considerations and BASIC Programming Specifications if you are interested in writing BASIC programs for this new machine.

For detailed information on the machine language used within these Organizers, see the www.ozdev.com site.  This site has much detailed technical information and is aimed at software developers who are familiar with assembly language programming.

[The following is directly from Chapter 11 of the Operation Manual, How to use the Add-on.]

Add-on software programs add functionality to your Organizer.  They are specially designed for your Organizer, named My Programs.

• Once installed, you can access and run these programs from the My Programs screen.  To display the My Programs screen, press the [My Programs] button.

• You cannot run PC software on your Organizer.

• Using the AUTORUN feature, you can run an add-on program when the Organizer is turned on.

Installing My Programs application

Additional software for your Organizer can be found on the included Software CD-ROM, as well as on the internet (Sharp's homepage).

1. Connect Docking Module to Organizer and PC.

2. Insert the included CD.  If using Windows 95 / 98 or Windows NT the CD should start automatically.  If not, double click the My computer icon on your PC, click your CD-ROM drive then navigate to Customize folder.

3. Click the [Customize] button and double click the file you want to install.

4. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Using the program

1. Press the [My Programs] button to view list of installed programs.

2. Launch the application by pressing the [1] - [0] key that corresponds to the application.

Deleting a selected My Program

1. Press the [My Programs] button to view list of installed programs.

2. Use the cursor keys (up, down, left, &  right) to select the application to remove.

3. Press [Menu] to open the application menu.

4. Select DELETE SELECTED MY PROGRAM.

5. Press [Enter] to confirm (or [Esc] to abort).

The selected program is deleted from My Programs application.

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BASIC programs are developed on a PC, compiled, converted to a Wizard (.wzd) file, and then downloaded to the Organizer through the provided serial cable.

A Software Development Kit and Supplement are available at no charge from Sharp (Japan) on their website for Organizers, www.sharp-world.com. 

For complete instructions, see the Instruction Manual provided with the Software Development Kit.  There are also some sample programs at this site.

The BASIC is a variation of Sharp BASIC using mostly conventional keywords and functions.

For the complete language specifications and instructions, see the Language Reference Manual provided with the software development kit.

See also BASIC Programming Considerations and BASIC Program Specifications for details on some of the programming-related items.

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This new machine from Sharp is the first programmable machine they have released in some time.  It has a lovely LCD screen (photo), appears to be quite fast in terms of computational speed, and uses, sensibly, 2 "AA" batteries.

It's basically a consumer piece, aimed at those people who want to be "organized" by a machine, but it does have the capability of executing BASIC programs.

It can store up to 10 BASIC programs that accessed through the My Programs menu.  Within BASIC, you can create and read data files that are stored (as are the programs) in Flash memory.  The data files can be transferred to and from a PC.

The syntax is vintage Sharp BASIC.  If you've worked with any of the Sharp PC-E500, PC-1350/1360, PC1280/1285 machines, you'll find it very familiar.

It's different than the PC-1270 BASIC, but many of the commands are the same or very similar.  Programs for the PC1270 would have to be rewritten in order to run on these machines.  

Persistent storage (for setup and configuration data) could be achieved  by using data files which are stored in flash memory (all program variables are cleared every time a program is started).

Very similar to the PC1270, the program is compiled on a PC, the compiled file is converted to a .wzd file (a header is inserted at the start of the compiled file), and then the .wzd file is downloaded to the machine.  Once the program is in the machine, it can only be executed.  There is no programming editing capability.

The user can delete any of the BASIC programs by using menus on the machine.

If a system backup is made of a machine using the utility provided with it, the entire contents of the memory are transferred to the PC.  This includes any BASIC programs and data files, as well as all the other data.  

This backup file can be used to reinstall all the data on any machine (not just the one the backup was made from), thus there is an easy mechanism for an end-user (or others) to duplicate BASIC programs.

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The documentation reports that each BASIC program cannot exceed 32K.  Line numbers can range from 10 to 30,000.  Each line cannot exceed approximately 254 bytes. 

This machine has the capability to generate and save data files.  These are probably stored in Flash memory and thus will survive battery changes.  In the documentation for the PRINT# statement, the maximum size for a data file (using the PRINT# and INPUT# statements) is about 15K.  (It's not clear whether this is the total space available for all data files, or whether it's the limit for a single file.)  

Data files are transferred to the PC (along with the programs and all other organizer data) during a system backup.  The system backup file can then be downloaded to any other organizer, making it a clone of the original machine.

Data files can also be sent and received through the serial port.  The baud rate is 9600 (fixed -- cannot be changed) and there is no handshaking protocol available.

Sending data from a PC to the organizer via a BASIC program results in character overruns because of the slow BASIC interpreter.  Delays have to be inserted between each character and the next.

Each data file is attached to the BASIC program (numbered 0 thru 9) that created it.  If a BASIC program is deleted, all data files created by it are automatically deleted.

Every time a BASIC program is started, all array and A-Z and array variables are cleared.  If the user presses any other key on the organizer to start one of the built-in applications (schedule, telephone list, to do, etc.) while a BASIC program is executing (including waiting for input), the BASIC program is immediately terminated and any data stored in variables is lost.

There seems to be no way to chain or call one BASIC program from another, but you can pass data between programs by using a common data file.  The data files are stored in flash, so writing to them may be slower than to RAM.

Commands and statements are compiled into 2-bytes tokens (versus 1-byte tokens for the PC-1270), thus similar programs will compile to a longer file for the organizer compared to the PC-1270.  

Also, the lovely screen will require more programming steps to make applications look good on it -- well worth the effort, but it will consume space.

There doesn't seem to be any way to print the output of a program.  One may be able to send data through the serial port to a printer with a serial interface (not that common these days) to generate output, but it's not discussed in the documentation.

The serial cable has four conductors: send data, receive data, ground, and data terminal ready (DTR).  The DTR line is used to "wake up" the organizer and automatically puts it into the PC Sync mode (ready to accept data from a PC).  There is no circuitry in the serial cable -- the TTL to RS232 level conversion takes place inside the organizer.  See serial cable wiring diagram.

For more information or to contribute information about this product, email us at the address at the bottom of this page.

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