ClassicConnect

[europa]

I wasn't quite sure where to put this, but I guess it fits here because it definitely seems like the calculator modding community is becoming less active? Anyway, This is a thread to discuss and reminisce about current projects revolving around calculators (primarily programmable graphing calculators), and also discuss memories of such things.

I originally got into the whole calculator scene when I was around 13. I had read that you could program in BASIC on TI graphing calculators. I was able to buy a TI-85 off eBay and began programming. While it's not adherent to Microsoft BASIC, like most home computers of the 80s were, it is definitely a dialect of BASIC, and I hold a lot of fond memories with it.

Why a TI-85? I don't quite recall, I think I just liked the looks of it, and also it could be had relatively cheaply given that it, while being an advanced engineering calculator, had since been overshadowed by the TI-89 family of calculators, and the Nspires as well. Furthermore, it wasn't one of the standards that people would need for high school math classes (83+/84+ and descendants). Since then I have acquired a TI-82, TI-84 Plus CE, a TI-89, and, most recently, a TI-Nspire CX II CAS.

Very early on in my experience, I found ticalc.org, which was a great resource for all things TI calculators. I think most of the activity has moved to Cemetech now, although ticalc's file archive is still very much active, seeing uploads even from this year.

This is also how I became active on IRC, as EFNet was once the de-facto place for TI community channels to be. I don't know where they are now, because they've seemingly moved off of EFNet. I recall quite fondly though, using the Cemetech web chat while at school, or the IRC rooms when at home.

No one at my high school was really interested in calculators, other than an Italian girl who was studying abroad for a year in my hometown. I was never great at programming, so I never was able to impress her with that, but I still do want to learn the various languages that were used that weren't TI-BASIC (namely Z80 ASM targeting the TI-85).

I sort of fell out of the community as I changed and my life changed, and also because there weren't many other users of the TI-85 (or 86, for that matter), which was (and still is) my favorite calculator that TI has ever produced. I recently got back into it though, most notably because of my acquisition of my Nspire. First thing I did tonight when I got it was jailbreak it using Ndless. I also verified my 84 Plus CE was on a version of the OS below 5.5.5 (which was when they removed ASM and C capabilities from the calculator).

I look forward to doing more with these calculators, hopefully further reigniting my passion for them as well. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get around to learning assembly this time! What's everyone else's stories?
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Your System ate a SPARC! Gah!

[VCSMaster]

...There was a calculator modding community? Sounds like something I would have read about in the first issue of Byte magazine and never again. Are we talking softmods like dumping Lua files on your nSpire to emulate GBC games or is this actual circuit bending?

Having started my own calculator journey with a TI-83+ my dad found on the side of the road (I am not joking), I don't really know if I would call TI-Basic a dialect of Basic, the structure is pretty different if you ask me. No line numbers, all commands are shortened to single byte tokens that must be selected from a menu, totally different syntax, etc.

The TI-85 wasn't "overshadowed" by the TI-89 and nSpire, it was replaced by them. The series went TI-85, TI-86, TI-89, nSpire. The 85 was TI's high end engineering calculator, and the 86 was primarily a case redesign to correspond with the upgrade from the 81/82 to the 83. It got a RAM upgrade too, but so did that entire generation. The 89 was a huge deal, going to flash memory and a 68K instead of a Z80. It included a CAS as well. The nSpire was a similar leap, going to ARM.

I used to be a big graphing calculator collector, and I've retained a lot of my collection. Every revision TI-81/82/83/83+ (including ViewScreen and the Presenter) a couple of the 84s, Casio fx6300G/7000G/8000G (including the printer) and fx9850GB, and I've got an 85/86/89 and some of the weirder stuff like a TI-92, a pair of working Sears Type-O-Graph's in the box, and the Galdeano. At the time I stopped collecting, the nSpire CX was TI's newest offering. The CAS was around the corner but I never wound up getting one.

Honestly? I lost interest because I had largely run out of venues to explore. All that was really left was a couple of the real cheap things. I do want a TI-80 but never felt the need to give money for it, which is the point I realized I wasn't interested in the subject anymore.

I had Ndless on my nSpire CX in 8th grade and that sure wowed a lot of people, but I honestly do not like the nSpire CX, and during high school I relied on my Casio fx6300G for the first half and one of my better TI-81s for the second half + the one year of college I did. The extra RAM was VERY helpful, I did a lot of automation. I still have many of my programs backed up, if you are curious to see some of what I wrote.

[europa]

It's both soft and hard mods, although I'm pretty sure that hard mods are more or less a thing of the past. I've heard of a lot more hard mods for older calculators than I have newer ones. Although I'm pretty sure people still find ways to overclock their calculators at the very least.

TI-BASIC differs between the various models, as I'm sure you're aware. the 82/83(+)/84+/etc. version of the BASIC does rely on single byte tokens that you can only select from a menu, but the 85/86 version isn't tokenized until you run the program for the first time, which means that you can type in the keywords by hand if you really wanted to. I haven't explored the TI-89's version of the language as much, but I would hazard to guess it's similar in that regard. That being said, the 89's version differs wildly in terms of syntax.

I meant "overshadowed" in the eyes of collectors and enthusiasts. There's a bit of irony there, in my opinion, that it doesn't get much attention, despite being the first calculator that allowed softmodding to take place by way of custom backup files.

I'd love to see some of your programs, honestly. Most of the programs I wrote were more for my own amusement than anything else, although I did write a little text adventure for the 85 that might actually be salvageable whenever I learn more advanced programming.
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Your System ate a SPARC! Gah!

[VCSMaster]

Sure, here's the ones I've retained. I'll post the TI versions first, then the Casio versions after. There is no equivalent key on the PC keyboard for some of these commands, so things like "sto" require you to press the store key, which appears as an arrow.

"POINTS"
This performs several common Cartesian operations (Slope, distance, midpoint, and endpoint) automatically.

[europa]

Thanks! That disk geometry calculator would be useful, I could probably whip something up in TI-BASIC myself if I had the formula/formulae you used. I've considered writing something like a networking aid with things like a netmask calculator as well, especially useful for the stuff I do - I could even include something specific for calculating what the TFTP boot file names for Sun systems, as they request something specific when the system is booted over the network using RARP.
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Your System ate a SPARC! Gah!