Omnimaga
Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: KermMartian on September 17, 2013, 02:35:53 pm
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Despite having been released a few years after the ubiquitous Mirage OS calculator shell, Doors CS (http://dcs.cemetech.net) has gained quite a strong following among TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus users. Doors CS offers features like a desktop, mouse, the ability to run almost all TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus programs and games, a HomeRun feature that lets you run any program (archived or in RAM, BASIC or assembly) from the desktop, and many other features (http://dcs.cemetech.net/index.php/Features). With the release of Doors CS 7.2 and end of new black-and-white Doors CS versions (http://www.cemetech.net/news.php?id=606), though, I was not sure I wanted to create a color Doors CS for the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, TI's new color-screen graphing calculator discovered last November by Cemetech and available in stores now. Having devoted thousands of hours over more than a decade to creating Doors CS, making it the most stable shell around, and marketing it as the best shell for students, teachers, and professionals, I wasn't sure that a color version would be worth my effort.
However, with the marked success of the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, as evidenced by Cemetech and ticalc.org download statistics for the past month, I decided that a new color Doors CS was indeed necessary. For about three weeks, I have been working tirelessly on a version of Doors CS for the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, to be called Doors CSE 8 (for "Color Screen Edition", "C Silver Edition", or "Calculator Shell Enhanced"; take your pick). Doors CSE 8 is already surprisingly complete, including the following features:
- Run BASIC, TI-OS ASM, and Doors CS ASM programs, whether Archived or in RAM.
- Recognize and display icons and other information embedded in programs
- Copy, rename, lock, archive, delete, edit, cut, and paste programs, and create and rename folders
- Display in-shell help and information, and change Doors CSE options
In fact, there's not much left to add in the way of features before I start releasing beta version of Doors CSE 8. I will be initially providing betas only to specific users in a closed beta program, as I don't want an early beta with bugs or missing features to start spreading virally among students' calculators. The missing features include a desktop clock, the InfoPop feature from Doors CS 7.x, a version of xLIB from the venerable tr1p1ea, optimized sprite routines from Runer112, and a number of minor bugs. You can take a look at my project up to now in the Doors CSE 8 Brainstorming topic (http://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8694), or continue reading this topic (http://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9490) for new details. Be sure to indicate your interest if you want to beta-test Doors CSE 8, and tell your color-calculator-owning friends that Doors CSE 8 is coming soon!
(http://www.cemetech.net/img/dcs/dcs8/dcse8_announce1.gif) (http://www.cemetech.net/img/dcs/dcs8/dcse8_announce2.gif)
Source:
Announcing Doors CS for the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition (http://www.cemetech.net/news.php?id=624) via Cemetech (http://www.cemetech.net)
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Lol I had my hopes up when I saw the new post link in OmnomIRC and prepared my link cable for the download :P. That said I'm glad this is coming along nicely, and like I said in the Cemetech thread, I love the design. :)
However Apple might sue you for using rounded buttons and gray/white/black color in the interface. :P
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However Apple might sue you for using rounded buttons and gray/white/black color in the interface. :P
Screw Apple :P
So yeah, looking awesome so far!
I find i awesome that it already exists since quite some time now and is still in-dev, great job kerm! :D
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It looks quite pretty with the color and the higher resolution.
Will there be some form of backwards-compatibility for b&w programs that use only the routines provided by the shell for drawing and/or programs that use the DCS gui engine for it's graphics?
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It looks quite pretty with the color and the higher resolution.
Will there be some form of backwards-compatibility for b&w programs that use only the routines provided by the shell for drawing and/or programs that use the DCS gui engine for it's graphics?
Sadly, no. I've stripped the shell down to its core features in the interest of fast development as well as spending time on features that a large number of programmers will regularly use. Indeed, I forecast 2 pages for DCSE8: the core shell fits on one page, and the second page will probably contain xLIBc.
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Yeah, as discussed on Cemetech, there was a discussion about the worthiness of re-adding DCS features that very few people used, such as the mouse, for example. The non-important stuff would be kept for later I guess. Maybe extensions? Back in the days, DCS used to have extensions support, but the problem is that when a RAM clear occured, they were lost.
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Well, I have to say without a doubt; the interface looks great updated and in color. Very nice Kerm. :)