Nspire OS 3.0.2 Blocks Downgrading, Removes 3rd Party Lua - DO NOT UPGRADE!

[DJ Omnimaga]

TI has confirmed once again their stance against hobbyist calculator programmers.

A month ago, OS 3.0.1 was released, adding many new features, but then, a nasty bug was found in OS 3.0.1, along with two others, and after some people's calculators were bricked, TI removed the OS update from their website and replaced it with OS 2.1.1. Also, it was not possible to natively downgrade from OS 3.0.1 after installing it, unless you removed Boot2 with TNOC.

Today, they have released OS 3.0.2, supposedly fixing the Boot2 issue, along with the two other bugs. However, I worry that the removal of OS 3.0.1 and the delayed release of OS 3.0.2 was not just because of those bugs...

OS 3.0.1 added Lua programming support so TI can produce better-looking applications for students, such as a periodic table. It was not possible for the TI community to use Lua until someone made the tools to do so.

In that OS, you might remember that documents generated by third-party tools for older OSes would no longer work on it, due to some encryption protection. Well guess what? OS 3.0.2 adds this protection against Lua files made by the TI community too!

From now on, as reported by Goplat, to get a Lua game to run under OS 3.0.2, you'll need to load it on an OS 3.0.1 calculator first, send it back to your computer then load it under OS 3.0.2. According to Goplat's post and Critor on TI-BANK, it is still not possible (it seems TI has added a double protection, TNOC cannot downgrade 3.0.2) to downgrade to an older OS with TNOC, though.

If, for any reason, you want to sacrify your TI-Nspire or upgrade anyway, OS 3.0.2 is available for both the regular TI-Nspire and CAS models on TI website. However, it doesn't appear to be listed there for the CX CAS.

Hopefully the TI community can fight back, else maybe there could also be a CX boycott of some kind, where students from here and other calc forums encourage teachers to switch to the Casio PRIZM. KermMartian has published an article about his concerns on this subject a few months ago here.

Due to the nature of the Internet, we hope that TI doesn't go to the extent of taking people who creates jailbreaking tools to court, because I am sure many of you know what recently happened to Sony after they did similar things.

Now you can understand why the OS 2.71MP april fools prank was so easy to believe by many people.

[Juju]

Is it a joke or something? D'aw, no colored text and it's not April 1st... Oh well, hope we get around the limitation like we did in the past

[DJ Omnimaga]

Well it's not a prank, although I really felt like calling the news article "Another step towards 2.71MP?"

[JosJuice]

Is it a joke or something? D'aw, no colored text and it's not April 1st... Oh well, hope we get around the limitation like we did in the past

Well, Lua on 3.0.2 is possible! It's quite complex for the developer, though...

[Juju]

You can tell us how?
EDIT: Oh yeah, crypt them with OS 3.0.1.

[DJ Omnimaga]

Yeah send them to 3.0.1, upgrade again then resend to your calc. It's a major hassle if you only have one calc, though.

[critor]

Yeah send them to 3.0.1, upgrade again then resend to your calc. It's a major hassle if you only have one calc, though.

And if you have to do all this each time you want to test the latest modifications to your script...

[DJ Omnimaga]

Indeed. When I sent OS 3.0.1 to my clickpad, it took like 6-7 minutes

I wonder if it's possible to transfer tns documents from a TI-Nspire OS 3.0.1 to another running 3.0.2? Not that everyone have two TI-Nspires, though.

[shrear]

you can also open an "unencrypted" tns file whit the software if you have a 3.0.1 version of it, then re-save the document and you have a lua file who works on 3.0.2

[critor]

you can also open an "unencrypted" tns file whit the software if you have a 3.0.1 version of it, then re-save the document and you have a lua file who works on 3.0.2

Which also slows down the development of your program... It's quite annoying.

[DJ Omnimaga]

Yeah that's the issue. Not everyone wants to wait 10 minutes everytime you debug something. X,x

[shrear]

sure it's in every case something that is...
but its a faster alternative than using two nspires (it takes about 15 seconds)as long as we have no other "possibilities"

[Juju]

Is there an emulator for OS 3.0.1? There's one released by TI, right?

[Dingus]

I wonder if it's possible to transfer tns documents from a TI-Nspire OS 3.0.1 to another running 3.0.2? Not that everyone have two TI-Nspires, though.

Perhaps it is better to buy one Prizm than two TI-Nspires

[DJ Omnimaga]

That too. Now if only we could convince all teachers to switch, although I'm sure this would never happen on a worldwide scale . It would be nice to see more schools promoting the Prizm, though. Maybe once someone here wrote a math suite including everything the Prizm lacks that is needed.