Author Topic: Best calc for programming?  (Read 8066 times)

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Offline TheNlightenedOne

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Best calc for programming?
« on: January 06, 2013, 07:41:34 pm »
What's the best calc for programming (especially on-calc)? ??? I already have a TI-84+SE, Nspire Touchpad Non-CAS, and Nspire CX CAS. I'm open to any brand of calc.
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Offline tr1p1ea

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2013, 07:43:49 pm »
The TI-84+SE is pretty decent for on calc programming, especially given ASM libs and the Axe Parser project.
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Offline Sorunome

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2013, 07:46:55 pm »
Yeah, defenetley the TI-83+/84+ series, as the support nativley assembly code a lot of stuff has been made for them, like axe parser, awesome basic libs (xlib, anyone? or batlib :P) other languages (grammer) and there are also on-calc assemblers for that calculator :D

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Offline epic7

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2013, 07:47:28 pm »
z80 has the most support, programs, and programmers, but I prefer nspire, myself. With ndless of course. :P

Offline Ranman

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2013, 08:37:16 pm »
TI-89/92+ of course!!  ;)

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Offline Deep Toaster

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2013, 08:43:15 pm »
Depends what you're looking for.

If you want to have a big (relatively speaking—we're still a niche community in any case) audience, go for the TI-83 Plus series. I'm not sure if that color model coming out might change this though, since we already know programs won't be compatible between the color and non-color models.

If you want good specs and experience in a language you might use in the future (on other platforms), go for the TI-Nspires. They've got the best hardware by far of any calculator series, but more importantly the language you'll be using are Lua and C, which are both desktop-computer languages. If you choose to do that, I'd suggest making games for the CX and keeping them compatible with the non-CX models instead of just making games with the non-CXes, since color Lua games work fine without color anyway (the colors being automatically mapped to grayscale).

And if you want to appease the wrath of Ranman and help revive the 68K scene, go for the TI-89s! And you can use C too, so see points above ^
« Last Edit: January 06, 2013, 09:05:39 pm by Deep Thought »




Offline Ranman

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2013, 09:01:14 pm »
And if you want to appease the wrath of Ranman and help revive the 68K scene, go for the TI-89s!

Well... You got some good points Deep.

I personally love the 68K calcs. 188Kb RAM available to user -- no page swapping, native support of 32 bit integers, 68K BASIC is very powerful (still slow), 68K assembly is easy, and powerful C support. And you get decenct LCD specs (160x100 TI89, 240x128 92+/V200)

For Z80 calcs: their BASIC is powerful but slow as well, Z80 assembly is not as straightforward, limited RAM requiring page swaps. These limitations can be fun to work with though. And now you have... Axe which is pretty darn cool!

For nSpires: not too sure about these bad boys. Great LCD resolution. LUA programming language -- since I am a C/C++ guy, I dont care for Lua.

You could go for a Casio 9860 or Casio Prizm. 9860s have good LCDs specs, 64Kb RAM, BASIC and C languages available. Prizms sound like a middle ground between 84/89 series and the nSpire.

My next calc may indeed be a Prizm.

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« Last Edit: January 07, 2013, 05:34:20 am by Ranman »
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Offline Sorunome

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2013, 09:37:31 pm »
...Or make a program that connects to the internet and have on the internet a C or lua program running that interacts with the calc, that way you still get the languages that'll give you a bonus later on

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2013, 10:48:49 pm »
It depends of your standards IMHO. I love my TI-84+ but if the line at which you start considering game graphics decent is Crysis 2 instead of Super Mario Bros, then you might as well go for a TI-Nspire or a Casio PRIZM.  (and no, calculators can't run Crysis, unless it both came out on OnLive and that OnLive was ported to the TI-Nspire)

-The TI-84+ has by far the largest amount of ways to program it (Grammer, Axe, TI-BASIC, ASM libs + TI-BASIC, ASM and the less popular C, RPL, EzASM and TI-Power) and is quite easy to program in certain languages, but it has the lowest hardware specs.

-The TI-89 is the same way, but almost nobody program for it anymore.

-The TI-Nspire only has Lua, ASM and C for game programming, TI-Nspire BASIC being extremely limited for most games), but it's the most powerful platform (it even has a Game Boy Advance emulator and can run Doom). It's also pretty locked down so if you have the latest OS it is very hard to use ASM and C programs.

-The Casio PRIZM can do Lua, ASM and C, along with TI-BASIC, but non-ASCII graphics in Casio BASIC are slow on it. It's not as popular on Omnimaga for programming but a bunch of members got one and it has quite a lot of potential.

-The FX-9860G is also quite good, but about 90% of the programming community is French, so barely anybody use it on Omnimaga. It has the same languages as the PRIZM if I remember.

Personally I prefer the TI-84 Plus, because it has the largest audience and library of programming. Also it can be quite entertaining to push the small hardware to its limits.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2013, 10:50:26 pm by DJ_O »

Offline epic7

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2013, 10:51:53 pm »
For nSpires: not too sure and these bad boys. Great LCD resolution. LUA programming language -- since I am a C/C++ guy, I dont care for Lua.
Hey, those have C too :P
« Last Edit: January 06, 2013, 10:52:11 pm by epic7 »

Offline TIfanx1999

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #10 on: January 07, 2013, 12:27:10 am »
Just wanted to remind you guys that in his original post he asked which was best for programming on calc. I think hands down you have to say that it's the ti-83+ series(ti-83+/se ti-84+/se. You have basic,asm,axe,grammer, plus tons of libs to use(xlib, celtic 3,batlib etc). It's also the platform people are most familiar with.

Offline TheNlightenedOne

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2013, 08:57:53 pm »
Just curious, which is better? Casio Prizm or fx-9860GII (or fx-9860GII SD)?
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Offline blue_bear_94

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #12 on: January 15, 2013, 09:41:41 pm »
Just curious, which is better? Casio Prizm or fx-9860GII (or fx-9860GII SD)?
The Prizm by far. But I also like the 68k. If you buy one, then I'll be happy.
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Offline TheNlightenedOne

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Re: Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #13 on: January 15, 2013, 10:25:15 pm »
I'm actually considering an 89Ti atm... suggestions?
"Eris" (Ndless 3.1)
"Keto" (Ndless 3.1)
"Luna" (AMS 3.10, HW4)
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Offline Sorunome

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Re: Best calc for programming?
« Reply #14 on: January 15, 2013, 10:26:51 pm »
The thing with the 86k is that the community is rather dead, I just got one for calculus and want to know now how to program it aside of BASIC :P

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