Getting started with Lua on Nspire

[hellninjas]

Okay, I would like to learn how to code Lua on an nspire!
My OS is 3.1.0.392
I would really like to learn how to make menu's...
Also making pictures... and many moar things in Lua!
Please help!
Thanks!

[willrandship]

No menus on the nspire
XXX->Varname (up to 16 chars IIRC) and that can be literally anything from matrices to strings to ints to floats
no way to display pics directly. Plotting points can be a method that takes forever. Also, there's no output command.

The best way I've found to do any sort of proper display method was the text box, or regular disp with matrices.

You should also become VERY familiar with the string commands:

Left()
Mid()
right()
str & str
instring()

See the nspire catalog for a syntax example. Left takes a number of chars starting from the left of a string and returns that substring. same goes for right. Mid is identical to the 84+ sub(). & is the equivalent of str+str in 84+ basic. Instring finds the position of one string inside of another, and returns a particular int (0 I think) if it doesn't find any. It gives the first one then stops, so multiples are undetected.

request and requeststr are the only ways of getting in-prog input, but there are also inline args when you run the program. ex. prog(a,b,c) where a b and c are vars of any type that become vars in your program.

Local var is a great way of avoiding variable collisions between progs, it makes it so a var doesn't affect a var by the same name outside the program. Example:

Out of program:
6->a

in program:
local a
"hello"->a
end program:

disp a
 - Returns 6

No way to exit PTT from basic that's one of the many uses for ndless. besides, you can't run basic progs from within PTT anyways, unless you make them on the spot.

I probably got one or two things wrong, but that's about as far as BASIC can go while remaining inside one program. If you're not afraid of using multiple programs

[hellninjas]

No menu's eh?
Ndless it is...
Is there an Ndless for OS 3.1.0.392?

[willrandship]

not yet but there's already a closed beta, so it can't be very far off.

Have you considered Lua? It's much better, being a real language and all. Not to mention faster. AND it can be programmed on-calc if you send the right progs.

[hellninjas]

How would I do this? It sounds like a nice idea
Nice Prof Pic btw... xD

[willrandship]

hehe yeah...

TI was nice and gave us Lua to use on OSes above 2.1. I don't know much about it, but there's a ton of people on this forum who do (I stuck to 2.1 so I could keep ndless, but with ndless 3 I'll switch)

Also, you actually posted in the Lua subforum Change the title to "Getting started with Lua" or something similar and you'll be all set.

[hellninjas]

Done!
Thankx for teh reccomendation!
I can't wait for Lua!

[jwalker]

to make pictures, you can use all of the drawing commands, or you can convert a pic to a ti.image although this is realy large and re-drawing the screen will slow down
to make a menu...if you ever read the tibasicdev article on making custom menus thats basicly what you would have to do it in lua, as there isnt a
"Menu(" command
Lua is realy easy to learn everything is event/function based
Lua example:

Code: Select All | Copy To Clipboard

1 2 3 4 5

function on.paint(gc)     gc:setColorRGB(0, 0, 0)--set the color to black     gc:drawRect(3, 3, 50, 50)--draws a rectangle on the screen with black lines     gc:fillRect(100, 0, 50, 50)--makes a rectangle that is filled with the color black end

to find some tutorials go to: http://www.inspired-lua.org/
to get the official scripting tools go to: http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/nonProductSingle/nspire-scripting.html

[epic7]

I can't wait for Lua!

Why wait?

Also, can you make sprites in lua?

[jwalker]

you could make sprites, i would suggest using classes, but you would have to use one of the two methods i talked about above for drawing them

[Jim Bauwens]

There is TI.Image, no need to create your own routine for that.
You just need img=image.new(data) to create the sprite, and gc:drawImage(img,x,y) to draw it.

Edit, misunderstood your previous post. TI.Image isn't to slow if you use it wisely

[adriweb]

and it will be even faster soon

[jwalker]

well thats good to know that it will be faster and i wasnt that clear either, i should have put in my post the larger they are- the more that everything lags when its redrawing

[hellninjas]

I see alot of people coding on the computer and transfering to the calc, but how would I program ON-Calc ?

[cyanophycean314]

You can use the default notes application and then copy and paste to oclua or you can use LuaCS and copy to paste to Oclua.

For on-calc sprites, you can use Chockosta's nSpaint.

You can't really get .tns oncalc, at least I don't think so...