Thanks for the manual. It was a blast looking through it. My second programming job involved the SR-60. Bear with me a few moments here.
For a few months in 1976 I worked for an office equipment dealer here on Long Island. They sold (among other things) TI calculators. I was 18, between high school and college and very naive, meaning that I worked cheap but didn't realize *how* cheap. (I think I was making about $150/week part time.)
I lusted after HP calculators, but I had a brand-new SR-52, still not too shabby. So I had a head start on the SR-60.
I worked on three programs during my time there. Two were payroll programs, one for the small-memory SR-60, one for the large memory version.
The third program waas the most interesting. It was done for a swimming pool store. The idea was that the customer would test his pool, come into the store, and the calculator would tell him what chemicals to use to fix his problems. The program would ask things like: What is the pH of the pool? What is the chlorine reading? Is there algae in the pool? (I suppose the volume of the pool also had to be entered.) The program would then figure out how much of what chemicals were needed. This would be printed out on the little 20-column printer, complete with brand names, so as to leave nothing to doubt. Of course, all of the named chemicals were what the dealer was stocking.
The interesting part of the calculation was that using one chemical might change the amount of the others, so the interactions had to be taken into account. All of the formulas were supplied by the dealer. I wish I had a listing of the program, but unfortunately thermal paper isn't an archival medium :( All my SR-60 printouts faded to nothing in a couple of years.
The one thing I remember about working with the SR-60 was how sensitive to static it was. Just walking across the carpeted room and touching the calculator could generate a spark that could blow out circuitry. In particular, the $700 memory expansion boards were very susceptable to static damage! We soon learned to "de-zap" ourselves by touching the metal desk leg before touching the calculator.
This is a bit long but I hope you enjoyed hearing about using the SR-60.