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TI-Nspire Hack Enables User Programming
An anonymous reader writes "Texas Instruments' most recent, ARM-based series of graphing calculators, the TI-Nspire line, has long resisted users' efforts to run their own software. (Unlike other TI calculator models, which can be programmed either in BASIC, C, or assembly language, the Nspire only supports an extremely limited form of BASIC.) A bug in the Nspire's OS was recently discovered, however, which can be exploited to execute arbitrary machine code. Now the first version of a tool called Ndless has been released, enabling users, for the first time, to write and run their own C and assembly programs on the device. This opens up exciting new possibilities for these devices, which are extremely powerful compared to TI's other calculator offerings, but (thanks to the built-in software's limitations) have hitherto been largely ignored by the calculator programming community."
It fixes some battery reporting issues and other minor bugs. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade.
WHY do they do that? I could see if they had either some expensive dev tool you had to use to make your own powerful apps, or if they were selling a much more expensive calculator that had all the programming options unlocked, but in this case I don't see any profit in it for TI to not let people program them?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
The TI83 and TI86 had an ASM command for running assembly-language code without requiring a hacked memory backup. (on the original TI83, the ASM command was 'Send(9', but later models used an actual 'Asm(' command.)
What's more, TI actually released assembly programs that would install new features on the calculator. I have a TI-86 from years ago and just recently installed a TI-provided statistics package that gives me the various distributions, test, etc.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
It's the fact that it is such a limited piece of hardware that makes it interesting. These people are hackers in the most flattering sense of the term, they take resources that they have and make something more. They get their kicks by seeing what different things they can make calculators do that they were never supposed to, and by besting TI in all things calculators. If you can't see the value or fun in any of that, then quite simply you just lack a proper hacker mindset and I feel sorry for you.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Seems the developers have had some projects stored away until Ndless was released:
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/426/42630.html
From the program description: "gbc4nspire is a Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator for the TI-Nspire and TI-Nspire CAS, written from scratch in ARM assembly"
Pretty impressive, if you ask me.
High schools and colleges need to get together and encourage industry to make a much-cheaper calculator that is "good" through college math courses that non-technical majors typically take AND good through AB/AP/etc. high school courses as well as all common college entrance exams.
In practice, this would mean 2nd or 3rd semester Calculus.
Think "one laptop per child" but a calculator. This shouldn't run over $40 in America.
Of course, the whole idea of a hand-held dedicated student calculator that students have to spend $80+ on will be moot in a few years. Schools and testing centers will provide calculators for on-site use and students will have "calculator apps" on their cell phones for homework.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
It's not the concept I have a problem understanding, it's the target. Compare this with, say, Nintendo DS, iPhone, or XBox hacking. Once you crack the security on these devices, you get access to:
DS - 3D accellerator hardware, cool touchscreen stuff, NES style controller,
iPhone - too much cool stuff to list (though not as appealing now that there's an officially supported SDK),
XBox - a powerful (at the time) console that can handle network functionality and play video, or
Calculator - a bunch of buttons and 100 or so monochrome pixels.
No doubt it was fun for the guy who cracked it to allow it to run custom code.. But I can't think of anything you could do with a handheld calculator that would really improve upon the capabilitie it had when it left the factory. So basically what I'm saying here is that it's cool someone cracked it, but I'm having a hard time understanding why there would actually be a home brew community rallying to this platform.
Plus there is STILL no good method for entering equations on computers
I recommend LyX, a front-end to latex. When I was in college I was able to take equation-heavy notes real-time in class. My notes usually looked much better than the professor's official class notes as well. LyX does have a learning curve, but you can always remap the keys to whatever you are used to.
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The thing with the nspires is they are completely worthless. Complete crap, sure they do arithmetic fine, but besides that they do nothing. What this crack does is allow people to program it, without it there wasn't even the possibility of any sort of "homebrew" community for this calculator.
I still don't think you are getting the concept here though. Unlike programming on other platforms, programming on calculators isn't so much a means to an end, it is the end. People don't program them because they want to do fun things with them (though that often is a side effect), they program them because the very act of doing so is fun. The platform provides a very limited set of resources and very tight constraints on things that you want to do, it's this challenge that makes it so popular.
You point at the crappy hardware and say, "Why?". We point at the crappy hardware and say, "That's why."
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Mine has: http://fx-602p.krischik.com/index.php/Simulator/SymbianOS