Omnimaga

Calculator Community => Other Calculators => Topic started by: TC01 on January 20, 2011, 08:13:17 am

Title: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: TC01 on January 20, 2011, 08:13:17 am
So- I was a bit surprised not to see anything about these here (instead, I saw them on an Android news site (http://www.androidcentral.com/droid-does-trigonometry)). Though I suppose I could have missed something, I haven't been that active lately.

Android developer Doug Melton has recently released emulators for the TI-83, TI-82, and TI-85. (This (http://www.appbrain.com/app/ti-86/net.supware.ti86) is the 86 one). They're ports of the "AlmostReal TI emulators" according to the news article- not really sure what that means though, I'd never heard of such an emulator before.

I'd try one out on my Captivate, except the devices do require Android 2.2 (which I don't have :( ).

Has anyone else seen these or fooled around with them a bit?
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: deeph on January 20, 2011, 10:02:00 am
Ok so I just tried the 83 emu on my zte blade and it seems to work fine. However this is strange, there's no need to have a rom file to launch it, and we can't load programs...

Maybe someone could try to port wabbitemu, just like it was done for the nds (http://www.revsoft.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=34&sid=53df3717d70b778063ce0e27d955197a).
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: Munchor on January 20, 2011, 10:02:43 am
I'll download them and test them on an Android Emulator and on my phone too as soon as I can.
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: TC01 on January 20, 2011, 07:48:21 pm
The reason there's no need to have a ROM file is likely because the emulator is being distributed with the ROM embedded.

This is probably why he said he wouldn't make a TI-83+ or TI-84+ one because TI still sells those calculators.

A WabbitEmu port would be better, of course, but I think this is still pretty interesting.
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: deeph on January 21, 2011, 03:34:04 am
I don't think that distributing any of TI's roms is legal (btw the 82 stats, which is I think the commonest TI in France has an 83 rom).
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: jnesselr on January 21, 2011, 07:37:53 am
Which means that we could have a rom on the SD card.  I couldn't seem to find the app to download.  I also don't know enough of Android coding to start on this just yet.
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 21, 2011, 09:41:35 am
If the emulators got the ROMs packaged into them, then distributing the emulators is pretty much illegal.
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: jnesselr on January 21, 2011, 08:33:05 pm
If the emulators got the ROMs packaged into them, then distributing the emulators is pretty much illegal.
Pretty much.  The only way possible around this is if an emulator can run from a .8xu perfectly, and have everything set up like the normal boot page would have it set up. (Are there any other pages I'm missing, or is boot page the only one?)
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: FloppusMaximus on January 21, 2011, 09:38:06 pm
Distributing TI's 8xu files would be just as much a copyright violation as distributing full ROM images.

And it's not Android, but I do have a half-working version of TilEm II on my Neo Freerunner. :)  I put it together a few months ago, just to see if I could; it's somewhat usable, but it needs a bit more tuning in order to run at full speed (mostly due to the phone's slow graphics chip.)
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: Builderboy on January 22, 2011, 02:56:18 am
Wow, i expect its only a matter of time before TI sends the developers a Cease and Desist letter or something O.O
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: Silver Shadow on January 22, 2011, 12:16:09 pm
Unless it isn't a real emu, just something that copies the functions of the calc without actually using any of its OS code.
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: deeph on January 22, 2011, 12:55:31 pm
Well I don't think so, everything is perfectly the same as on real calc : for example the self-test is doable (mode, alpha, ln).
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: Silver Shadow on January 22, 2011, 01:41:11 pm
In that case they are clearly illegally using ROMs. I'm pretty sure this will soon get removed.
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: Builderboy on January 22, 2011, 02:52:04 pm
On a similar note though... would it be difficult you emulate all of the functions that a program could use such that we could emulate any Basic program without actually using any OS?  It probably would be incredibly tedious, but we know how every works, so it would just be a matter of implementing it.
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: jnesselr on January 22, 2011, 04:42:02 pm
On a similar note though... would it be difficult you emulate all of the functions that a program could use such that we could emulate any Basic program without actually using any OS?  It probably would be incredibly tedious, but we know how every works, so it would just be a matter of implementing it.
Probably, but side-effects of it would not be reproduced.  You would have to make it work EXACTLY how it did in all instances of the command.
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: willrandship on January 22, 2011, 04:48:07 pm
If this was accomplished, it would probably work for many different calcs as well, since the syntax is usually identical. One exception is the 85 and 86, since their commands are often shortened (outpt instead of output) and their menu function is very different as well (menu(position,name,lbl,position,name,label) whereas others are Menu(Title,Name,Lbl,name,lbl)) but otherwise very cross-compatible.

Ideally it would also be written in Java :P then we might even get it on the nspire :evillaugh:
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: jnesselr on January 22, 2011, 04:49:42 pm
If this was accomplished, it would probably work for many different calcs as well, since the syntax is usually identical. One exception is the 85 and 86, since their commands are often shortened (outpt instead of output) and their menu function is very different as well (menu(position,name,lbl,position,name,label) whereas others are Menu(Title,Name,Lbl,name,lbl)) but otherwise very cross-compatible.

Ideally it would also be written in Java :P then we might even get it on the nspire :evillaugh:
It has to be written in Java for the android, but I doubt it would be cross-compatible with the nspire.
Title: Re: A set of TI calc emulators for Android
Post by: willrandship on January 22, 2011, 05:30:26 pm
hehe yeah probably. That was a joke though. Even if it was, the nspire probably wouldn't be able to handle it using Java.