Slashdot Mirror
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."
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).
An open source alternative can help keep the heat on TI to make a better product. Also, in the future, this OSS can even become a better alternative than the TI software. It also gives an oportunity for developers to enhance the O/S they use when the please.
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.
The pressure won't be there until the OSS alternative actually is better than the TI software.
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.
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.
"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."