Spot on, programming on any of these TI calculators in either BASIC or ASM is a great way to learn programming and can really teach a programmer a lot about how computers work, and how to program efficiently. I still think that TI calculators could play an important role in computer science education. If you haven't checked it out already check out the Cosmac Elf memebership card and some of the Homebrew 1802 software and hardware, there is a lot of nice stuff.