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Free, Open Source OS For TI Calculators
nicklaszlo writes "TICalc.org announced yesterday that Patrick Pelisier has released a new beta OS, called PedroM, for the TI-89 and TI-92+ under the General Public License. Here is the source and binary. This is the first time a TI calculator has been free of proprietary software. The OS has 32 commands and backward compatibility for assembly programs. You can get a Windows/PC emulator of both calculators, for those who don't have either calculator, or don't want to risk their real system."
but can you still calculate stuff with it?
I'll probably get modded down for this, but honestly, what's the point?
Sure the OS on TI calculators is proprietary, but it does what it does quite well and I've never had issues with it.
I think making OSS just for the sake of having OSS is stupid. Do something useful with your time. If you have such a great understanding, contribute packages to Linux or something.
- Sherman
It means that math class will never be the same.
We'll have progressed from playing single player tetris through Zshell to playing multiplayer doom over a WiFi nwetwork. (in the back of Algebra class, of course).
...when can i expect it for my TI 99/4A?
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
I think the true "caclulating" functions of the calculator have been lost to the geek crowd. I, for one, bought my 89 solely to do integrals for calculus. There is no way that I tricked my mom into buying it for me so I could play first person shooters, sweet greyscale games, run non-proprietary OS's, and make some awesome assembly progs. No way at all. Come on guys, really. Do some math...
The other TI calculators with flash memory are the TI-73 and the TI-83 Plus. Personally, I've released the source for a rudimentary proof-of-concept OS (warning: knowledge of how to compile and send it required) for those just to demonstrate that a similar method exists. In fact, on the 83+ one can write to the flash memory with an assembly language program as well.
To those who ask what the point is, it's exciting. Writing your own operating system is quite possibly the hardest thing that a programmer can do. On the computer, it's unmanageable because of complexity, but you can still balance complexity with functionality on a graphing calculator. The TI-83 Plus uses a Z80 chip, and the 89/92+/Voyage 200 a 68000k, so assembly isn't too bad. Most 89/92+/Voyage 200 programs are written in C though.
I don't use my Ti-92+ in school as a calculator any more anyway (not many calculus teachers want you using any electronic devices at all) so this gives me something to do with it. 2mb rom, m68k 10mhz processor, link port: If we could get a graphical tool kit and a C toolchain it might be possible to make something roughly as capable as one of the original Mac or Lisa. Not powerful, but useful for note taking, tetris, and doing some simple calculations on the side - and has even more geek-factor than taking notes on a palm pilot + fold out keyboard or pocketpc running linux.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
As someone who works at one of the large community sites about TI calculators, I'm in a position to comment on this.
:)
The OS attempts to be compatible in a lot of ways with the AMS (TI's OS for the 68k calcs) but it really isn't. A lot of the OS such as the math functionality is missing. A lot of assembly programs also rely on hacks to take advantage of the internals of the AMS. These won't work, also.
Another thing is that the majority of assembly programs now are written for AMS 2.0x, but this software only allows for assembly programs written for the old AMS 1.0x. It's somewhat compatible, but is lacking in a lot of ways, too.
The reasons that the compatibility is lacking are that we still haven't documented a lot of functions in the AMS and some features have intentionally been left out for the sake of using less Flash ROM and leaving more of it for the archives. In other places, some speed has been sacrificed for making the OS a lot smaller than the AMS.
It's an interesting project, but at this point, it's more of a proof-of-concept thing than a real replacement for the AMS software. The future of this project, hopefully, will include most of the functionality of the TI-89, including math, but will provide significant advantages over the AMS. For example, the AMS makes a lot of restrictions on the size of assembly language programs and what they can do. These restrictions are gone in PedroM. Also, as I understand, this OS is written in assembly instead of compiled from C like the AMS is. Hopefully this means we can implement the same functionality of the AMS but that runs faster and at a smaller size.
Good luck to PpHd. It's a good start.
Such a troll.... Anyways:
1. the zshell he was referring to was not the linux shell, but rather a hack for the TI-85 allowing it to run ASM programs... the first big release of such a thing on TI calculators...
2. WTH did any of that have to do with gentoo?
3. troll... no comment...
4. There is already a project porting Wolf3D to the calculator using TICT's FAT engine
Actio personalis moritur cum persona. (Dead men don't sue)
Stop generalizing posts with 'insensitive clod' in it, you insensitive clod!
In case it gets Slashdotted, here's a copy of the article:
Free, Open Source OS For TI Calculators
Operating Systems
Posted by timothy on Sunday December 14, @04:53PM
from the smallness dept.
nicklaszlo writes "TICalc.org announced yesterday that Patrick Pelisier has released a new beta OS, called PedroM, for the TI-89 and TI-92+ under the General Public License. Here is the source and binary. This is the first time a TI calculator has been free of proprietary software. The OS has 32 commands and backward compatibility for assembly programs. You can get a Windows/PC emulator of both calculators, for those who don't have either calculator, or don't want to risk their real system."
...for my slide rule.
Help end the use of Sigs. Tomorrow
I am deeply disappointed in your attitude.
As a 15-18 year-old, coding asm applications (this was before anyone had put together adequate C compilers for these calculator platforms) for my TI calculators was what introduced me to programming, gave me a creative outlet, and drove me to pursue and complete a CS degree.
My high school didn't offer any CS or programming classes, and I didn't have any friends - much less any friends who would take the time from drinking and partying to learn to code z80 and m68k assembler. My interests in coding were how I defined and measured myself as a worthwhile human being, despite what anyone else thought about me.
If someone like you would have come down all high and mighty and mocked my creative outlet, trivialized my many long hours working on what absolutely fascinated me, and told me I was wasting my time, I might not be where I am today. And judging by your tone, you could only dream of being in my shoes today.
You know, I have a more interesting question:
What have YOU done? What gives you the RIGHT to come in here and mock this young man's work?
Get a life, really.
They are also working on a TI Calculator emulator for the new O/S. It will allow you to emulate a TI calculator right on your own calculator!
It might be bad for Open Source, but its definitely good for the consumer. I'm all for Apple and Microsoft raising the bar - I use their products every day. If that means I have to hack together the occasional bit of 'user experience' on Linux or whatever, sounds like an excellent deal.
Your argument basically says, "Don't be good at anything, or the big guys will turn around and be even better." I think that sounds like a very desirable state of affairs instead of just persisting in mediocrity.
YLFIOne god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
Actually, I'm just bored and wanted something to do...
Actio personalis moritur cum persona. (Dead men don't sue)
"Can I borrow your calculator?"
"Oh, its not a calculator. Its now a portable computer."
"Can it minimize this equation for me?"
"No"
"What can it do?"
"Well....it has a console...and it can add/subtract/multiply....."
"Nevermind."
Although netbsd has been ported to m68k, it won't work with the ti89 without any virtualizer (quite a pain to code), since the 89 does not have an MMU.
Furthermore, the 2mb are too small to do anything useful, except boot the kernel. (bash alone takes more than 1mb). However, it could be fun to try.
But back in grade 10 high school, a close friend of mine actually wrote a GUI Windows-like interface for the TI-83 calculator. It included start-menu style popup menus, Notepad application, etc. Super-crazy.
These TI's have Z80 processors in them, anyone who knows Z80 assember can pull off some pretty amazing shit.
While I think the idea is cool as far as an open source theme goes...
I see this as potentially a bad idea, as this might provide a segue into Spam...
So now when I sit in my PDE's class, my calculator will be bugging me about getting my penis size enlarged.
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
If you install it, the calculator no longer does math.
Kinda defeats the purpose of having a calculator, no?
Now if someone ported the yacas engine to it, and made it similar to the original interface, that would be something!
I'm not going to put an alternative OS on my calculator that just plays games, when I can have a gameboy advance for $100 and get color too!
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
Someone else posted this elsewhere on this story.
I was reading through the documentation and it's pretty good, too.
RPN for TI-89
I've had my Ti85 for over 7 years now and the latest and greatest Ti calculator (in the same form factor) doesn't seem to have progressed much in the all the time. Next to phones, computers, MP3 players etc... the pocket calculator that started it all off hasn't changed at all! Are PDA's the new calculators? Are the any hardcore graphing calculator applications for PocketPC?
IT'S A FREAKING CALCULATOR. Do you REALLY need an open source operating system for a calculator? Was it's proprietary operating system ever really in question? Why, I remember the days, when I said to myself, "DAMNED BE TEXAS INSTRUMENTS! They'll rue the day! Their calculator hardware only runs their own operating system! It's a monopoly, I say!"
Since I burned my mod points this morning I'll burn some karma... Amen Brother
There's always been 2 sides to the TI vs. HP debate but IMO real geeks have always used HP calculators. We know they are superior to the TI riff raff. Always have been. (Here is where I was going to write "Always will be", but I don't know if that's necessarily true since HP seems to have largely given up). No one who knows their way around an RPN HP ever lost a competition involving speed, clarity of thought or lapses of logic to a TI nerd. That was the key difference. HP guys were Geeks but the TI boys were only nerds. Parenthesis. Yikes. Might as well program in Visual Basic.
Yes, you can. The main subject of the article is a ROM that didn't come from a calculator, and is thus legal to use without owning the calculator.
Sure it can!
Unfortunately, you won't be available to see it, because the calculator will print this;
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this screen is too small to contain.