Most graphic calculators have rectangular graphic items usable on their own interpreted programming language.

Those items are called Picture on TI-z80. The new TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition color calculator for back to school 2013 even adds a second specific graphic item, the Background type.

However those items often have some limitations with the official programming language:

• their numbers is limited
• they are bound by the screen size
• they can not be created on-calc and thus need an ASM program or a specific software on a computer
• if they can be created on-calc, the only way is to store the content of the screen (screenshot)
  
• they can not be modified but only overwritten through the creation of a new object
• it is not possible to show a part of those items
• those items can only be displaying by starting at the top left of the screen

Of course, there are ASM programs going through these limitations. However, they often use for this purpose their own grapahic item format which is thus incompatible.



The official programming language of the HP-Prime supplies us with a lot of surprises about this, as it is possible to create graphic items with the content and dimensions you want, to display them wherever you want, and even to modify them like you want! ;D

Thus here we see two DJ_O and Gilles59's programs using the official programming language to test the scaling and scrolling of a graphic item:



It shows exceptional performances for an interpreted language, which are currently impossible to achieve on other calculator models without ASM.

Even if those performances may not be enough for games which massively redraw the whole screen (for instance, action games with scrolling, or even 3D FPS games), it remains a honorable performance. ;D



Source of the programs:
http://ourl.ca/19358/357590

Crossposted from:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12830&lang=en