Author Topic: Lua on the Nspire?  (Read 28088 times)

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Offline apcalc

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Lua on the Nspire?
« on: April 12, 2011, 10:12:56 pm »
Earlier today, Texas Instruments introduced a seemingly innocent Periodic Table TNS Document for the Nspire.



At first usage of the "Periodic Table" page of this document, it is clear that it certainly could not be created with any of the existing Applications for the TI-Nspire.  After more investigations by members of TI-BANK it has become evident that TI used a new, mysterious application, "TI.ScriptApp", to develop this Periodic Table.  Furthermore, more searching into this tns file has shown that this language very well may be Lua.

Sadly, Texas Instruments has released no indication of allowing public users of the Nspire to develop using the "ScriptApp" application.  It is probably safe to assume that special SDK software is needed for easy development of these documents.  Nevertheless, having the ability to program in Lua on the Nspire offers many possibilities for Nspire developers.  Although it might be difficult to make an emulator in Lua, games such as simple Card Games (solitaire) and puzzle games (Block Dude) might be easily developed in this language!

Offline ralphdspam

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2011, 10:21:36 pm »
Hmm.  Very interesting.  Maybe TI will give us programming capabilities on the new Nspire.  I sure hope so. 
Unfortunately, it will probably be like programming with a cinderblock on our backs.

I also wonder who on Omni knows Lua.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2011, 10:22:26 pm by ralphdspam »
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2011, 10:23:41 pm »
If It is Lua it isn't the fastest or the best language but it is a useful portable language. We should be able to get quite a few good programs written with it if/when TI releases the SDK for it. The only question is how much they're going to expect us to pay for it.
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Offline ralphdspam

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2011, 10:27:33 pm »
Is Lua interpreted?  I wonder if TI would let us edit it on calc.  If they release the SDK for free, I will be even more tempted to buy a CX.
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Offline jnesselr

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2011, 10:28:32 pm »
Is Lua interpreted?  I wonder if TI would let us edit it on calc.  If they release the SDK for free, I will be even more tempted to buy a CX.
Yes, it's an interpreted scripting language.

Offline ruler501

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2011, 10:29:45 pm »
If Lua is what I think it is. It is a programming language much like python just slower and less powerful(I do not mean to be putting down the language this is just what I have heard). I hope for an on calc editor maybe with a debugger also. I doubt very much that they will release the SDK for free though. There is too much interest in it for them not to try to market it. They are TI after all
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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2011, 10:32:33 pm »
In case no ones knows the syntax of Lua, I can tell you firsthand that any BASIC users would be able to pick it up fast -- it does have powerful features such as tables and methods, but these are implemented so that anyone can use them comfortably and with ease.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2011, 10:32:54 pm by Ashbad »

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #7 on: April 12, 2011, 10:33:23 pm »
Hmm interesting. If only TI would make it available to public instead of just the limited TI-BASIC...

In any case, if it's really Lua, do you think a third-party Lua IDE could be written by the community, like SimonLothar and others are doing with the Prizm?

By the way Lua is available on the Casio Classpad 300 and I think there was a project about porting it to the FX-9860G too (which would obviously mean Prizm later too).

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #8 on: April 12, 2011, 10:35:29 pm »
I think lua is actually an extremely simple thing t port -- and its really lightweight :)

Offline jnesselr

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #9 on: April 12, 2011, 10:35:51 pm »
It could definitely (and I would stake $100 on it, but not for reals) and will be written if TI doesn't make one.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2011, 10:36:01 pm by graphmastur »

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #10 on: April 12, 2011, 10:38:03 pm »
Do you think TI could purposely limit its features, though, to discourage game development? I wouldn't be surprised, for example, if they totally got rid of any getkey or pixel/line drawing command...

Also I wonder if it will be any faster than TI-Nspire BASIC...

Offline jnesselr

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #11 on: April 12, 2011, 10:40:05 pm »
Do you think TI could purposely limit its features, though, to discourage game development? I wouldn't be surprised, for example, if they totally got rid of any getkey or pixel/line drawing command...

Also I wonder if it will be any faster than TI-Nspire BASIC...
Yes, they could limit it in their IDE by simply not allowing certain commands, and I'm sure they would to a point.  But not entirely as well.  The problem will be if these have an RSA signature or something.

And I think it'll be faster than TI-Nspire BASIC.

Offline ruler501

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #12 on: April 12, 2011, 10:40:42 pm »
how can anything be slower than Nspire BASIC?
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-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCM/CS/M/S d- s++: a---- C++ UL++ P+ L++ E---- W++ N o? K- w-- o? !M V?
PS+ PE+ Y+ PGP++ t 5? X R tv-- b+++ DI+ D+ G++ e- h! !r y

Offline jnesselr

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #13 on: April 12, 2011, 10:41:31 pm »
how can anything be slower than Nspire BASIC?
True.  A three-toed sloth going across the US from east coast to west coast would finish before the NSpire could count to 999.

Offline ruler501

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Re: Lua on the Nspire?
« Reply #14 on: April 12, 2011, 10:43:05 pm »
My calculator crashed(took to long so I turned it off by taking the keypad out) when I tried to run a factoring program on it
I was only trying to factor 10000 as a test
I currently don't do much, but I am a developer for a game you should totally try out called AssaultCube Reloaded download here https://assaultcuber.codeplex.com/
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCM/CS/M/S d- s++: a---- C++ UL++ P+ L++ E---- W++ N o? K- w-- o? !M V?
PS+ PE+ Y+ PGP++ t 5? X R tv-- b+++ DI+ D+ G++ e- h! !r y