Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Other Calculators => Topic started by: simplethinker on March 22, 2009, 08:22:38 pm
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How did everyone get started with programming for calculators?
For me, someone who sat near me in my geometry class was working on a tictacto game. That's when I figured out that they could be programmed. I proceeded to read the manual, figured out I could improve his game, then went from there.
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Got bored in class.
Fiddled with the calculator and found out that they could be programmed.
Fiddled with the commands until I understood them. (helps that I knew some other languages at the time)
Made a real crappy game or two.
Found out that other people have made games too. (didn't know that there was any other games for the calculator)
Learned more programming skillz from miscellaneous sites.
???
Profit!
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I was reading my algebra book in 10th grade and it showed a program you could make to do a certain equation, and thats when i learned you could program your calc. Then I proceeded to program amazing games. lol
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In 2000 when I was in grade 3 of hi school, I started hearing about graphing calcs from my bro (who was in grade 4) and he mentionned something about games being playable on them (unfortunately he didn't have a graphing calc, he simply borrowed one of the math teacher ones and couldn't take them out of the classroom), so one day I saw a friend in english class who was in grade 4 (but in 3rd grade english, having failed this class) playing Nibbles (homescreen snake for the TI-82 but played on TI-83+) and another day ZTetris. I asked him if he downloaded these games from gameboy sites or something and he told me somebody programmed them for the calculator. Altough I didn't realised ZTetris was programmed on the computer, I saw the PRGM editor and just the fact we could make games on calculators made me buy one the summer afterward, and this is where I started BASIC programming, learning from the huge 600-800(?) page manual that came with my first TI-83+. After a messing around for a while and getting pissed a few times, I finally discovered about getkey and other possibilities and started making Labyrinth of Illusions in August 2001, which would eventually evolve into the Illusiat game, which I finished on September 22th 2001. Then a few months later I discovered that there was an online TI calculator game community
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I read the manual.
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I read the manual.
What the hell kind of person rtfm?
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I knew the calculators could be programmed but I didn't exactly know how. The "manual" for the calculator was on a CD and I wasn't really the kind of person that would stare at a computer screen for ages trying to figure out how a calculator worked.
When I got some of the BASIC games from someone in my 9th grade class, I found that I could go ahead and edit them. Poured over the source code and I slowly started figuring out what the thing could do. Not exactly the best way to do it, but after a while (taking about a year), I got halfway decent at the thing. I tried programming a version of Final Fantasy until I realized I needed to do ASM to make it. Got partway before I lost interest.
Half a decade passes and I'm posting right here. The whole story makes people do tl;dr.
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I learned from reading an rpg my friend made, then later through experience and reading the contents of UTI.
I read the manual at some point but by them I'd already known most of the contents.
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How i was introduced to the TI-83+
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In 6th grade my older brother was required to get a graphing calculator for algebra I.
I thought it was some freakish overpriced piece of junk.
But i wanted to piss off my brother and always "borrowed" it.
I noticed this strange thing where when you pressed the little buttons at the top, a screen came up with Y and a number beside it.
I was screwing around and put the numbers shown in the calculator besides each Y.
Then, i pressed other buttons till a screen came that drew lines and it had to finish before you could press and other buttons.
Besides enter.
That is how i created the line game.
i stopped it at the axis and found out that xres changed speed, so i wrote some rules and instructions on how to get to the "game"
How i was introduced to PROGRAMMING on the TI-83+
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While using my bro's calculator, i discovered the prgm button, and when i pressed it, a list of weird names came up under EXEC (he had games from a friend on his calc and crnchyOS)
I pressed right to EDIT and like two names came up. (basic games)
Then i pressed right and it said NEW and under it NEW
every time i had pressed enter on EDIT and err:archived came up and it did the same when i pressed it on EXEC then hit enter again.
I had no idea what that meant.
But to my amazement, when i pressed enter on NEW a prompt for a name came up.
I typed in random letters and then pressed enter.
Then a screen said:
PRGM:*random letters*
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and i could type stuff in but had no idea what to do.
How i was introduced to ACTUAL PROGRAMMING on the TI-83+
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When i came to eighth grade i was in need of this special calculator.
I had no idea why but appartently it was amazing.
So i read the manual and all of my past confusion and questions about the calculator were answered
The Y= screen was to graph (i never linked the two in pre-algebra)
The PRGM menus were for PROGRAMS!!!!
The edit was for EDITING THEM and the NEW was for NEW ones!!!!!
and the err: came from them being archived in the memory!!!!!
so when the sample program came up, i decided to copy it, but i didnt know where anything was to enter for it, suchas the If Then = and so on were (except the catalog)
so i searched it on google and a yahooanswers came up and i was enlightened on programming.
to be continued....
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I read the manual.
What the hell kind of person rtfm?
Yeah, seriously. He must be a loser.
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My friend had a TI-85 and showed me that he could program it (so then I got my first graphing calculator, the TI-86, because I wanted a calculator similar to the TI-85).
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I found a TI-83+ outside school and took it home. While playing with it, I saw PRGM. Upon pressing it, went to NEW and figured it was going to let me make something nifty. typed in a name ("A"), and entered the editor. Clicked PRGM again and discovered commands. Went to Disp and hit enter, then typed in HI after it, exited, found the program to run it, but found it didnt work. So I got online and figured out why, and went from there.
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I was in 9th grade when I received a graphing calc. After reading the manual (the regular ti-83) I found the Sierpinski's triangle program and was instantly in awe at the capabilities of the calc. I began creating little programs, mostly from sourcecode I found online. However, it wasn't after a certain incident that I began seriously programming.
One day I was in my seminar when another kid who programmed for the calculator saw me programming. I showed him what I was working on and he told me my program was a piece of shit (which it might have been at the time). I think it was at that moment I decided that I was going to learn to program better than anyone I knew at school. Whether it was through revenge or dedication (I'm not really sure myself), I finally became the "calc guru" at my school. I adopted "disciples" and showed them the way of the calc :P. Although I have never held a grudge against kid who tried to deter me, I still have the mindset to continue growing, always reaching for the next level. It is sort of ironic though, in my last year of highschool near the end of the year, the kid approached me to ask about a problem he was having with a program he was working on. In the end, I guess we reconciled our differences, even if it was subconscious. I have to thank him though. Without his inadvertent inspiration, I would not be where I am today. I would not be able to reach as far without the inspiration to remain courageous and determined, steadfast in my goals.
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Strange enough the calculator was given at my birthday exactly 2 years plus 1 day ago. :P
I looked not too much enthusiastic, found On button then pressed. Calculator On made some operations, a simple graph, stumbled in menus and shuttled off.
Months later...
First year using calculator, I started to search math programs and found ticalc.
While that I started to found all the menus with plot commands and I coded a program (without knowing that was coding) to draw rectangles and such in the screen. Also stored values into variables and made operations with it.
When I arrived at BASIC tutorials I wanted to learn functions to make good math programs. Eventually got interested and made crappy games. Yet I alone discovered the technique of tile mapping with a matrix!
And assembly was to understand how all works and make a BASIC lib like great CelticIII it is. I only knew of xLib and I though could be surpassed ^^
This is the quick story.
lol nitacku. Maybe I react something like that sometimes. But my angry passes quickly... And so 95% of my motivation.
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I was about 12 and had a old laptop my dad gave me. I was always on it and was told by my dad that if I loved it that much I should learn how to program it.
I asked him how to do it and he told me to order some books about basic from the library. I ordered them and then Just before they came in was at my freinds hows and he had a book on html for dummies. He typed out the web page program and couldn't figure it out. So he inlisted my to help... I got it working for him. (thus the first Time I actually programed.)
I got the books found qbasic on the laptop and played with it for until the books had to be returned. I then tought myself from the help.
I saw my first graphing caculator back in 2006 and well I started programing them once I got mine a few months later.
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wow nitacku you are a loser... a calc guru with calc disciples? um.... no offense but that is really nerdy.
then again we all are on a forum about programming calculators... uh... nevermind nitacku we all are nerds.
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Wow lordofthegeeks it has been a long while, where have you been? Did you resumed Animal Crossing yet?
And Skuller972 if this forum had a comment rating system like Youtube your post would break negative rating records for sure. Instead I will just say to be careful to what you say about us nerds because you'll get the entire userbase against yourself :P (or maybe the entire TI community since everyone around were nerds at least at one point)
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no But I will one of these days... I just need a motivator.
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ok sorry we arent nerds we are the BEASTS the mighty BEASTS and our motto is as follows:
EVERYWHERE WE GO, PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW, WHO WE ARE, SO WE TELL THEM, WE ARE THE BEASTS, THE BEASTLYBEASTLYBEASTS!!! BEASTS ON THREE!! ONE!!! TWO!!! THREE!! BBBBEEEEEEEEEAAAAAASSSSTTTSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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how long have has skuller972 been around here?
And in other news I am working on converting my little bro to programing calcs... :)
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how long have has skuller972 been around here?
And in other news I am working on converting my little bro to programing calcs... :)
Not long...
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that was sure a quite random post :P
(that reminds me my posts on the french TI-z80 forum back in 2003)
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i really havent been here long.
congrats on poisoning... er.. i mean enlightening another calculator prodige into programming
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He is the youngest ;)
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I had seen the program button:
New... wait, whats this? A semicolon! Ah!! What do I do!?!?! ...Um X=2?... Execute.... Done? Aaahhh! What does this mean!?!?!
Then some time later, I saw a basic trig program in My math book, and finally I knew what it was all about. I think it helped that I was unaware how to use getKey for a very long time, so I was forced to expand my knowledge of tBasic without expending it on frivolous games ;)
I finally looked up getKey on the internet, and created a slow breakout as my first game.
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I am so happy my first calc came with a complete instruction manual, else I would probably not have been as good at TI-BASIC, as I would have got extremly limited knowledge, due to having extremly limited access to a computer and internet (about 2 hours a week, only 15 minutes in it free to do anything I want) and no access to a printer back then
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In grade 9.. like 4months ago I got a Ti-84!!! XD so I was like PRGM how do i program STUFF? I had no knowledge of any other languages so i messed around with it, and COULD NOT FIGURE IT OUT!.. I tried Disp Hello.. I did not know you had to quote..
So I went on the internet(i saw the manual but I was like.. I don't think it can tell me how to program.. so I just skipped it) and then searched up games on calculators.. and finally found one with coding on it.. and I was amazed.. like almost the happiest day of my life(I know.. lame) and ever since I've been a fan of Arcane Wizard and Nitacku lawls(the website I went to was. United TI lololol XD)
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Hiya and welcome here :)
I hope you enjoy your stay and showcase your new grayscale raycasting engine :)
erm... I mean... program :D
(btw, for the TI-83+SE and TI-84+ owners who never bought anything older before, the TI manual that comes with these calcs is really bad compared to the old TI-83+ manual. Texas Instruments tried to save on paper by doing this but on another hand just with the old TI manual that came with the TI-83+ regular edition was enough to start making calculator games, even if unoptimized and simple. In fact this is how I started. Back then I had no computer at home so if I was stuck with a TI-83+SE/84+ manual I don't think I would have started programming in 2001
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I got a calc last year (83+) and I got some games, but I picked up programming mainly by playing around with code and stuff, then I found ticalc and started to do more. I then found DCS6 and I was drawn to Cemetech, then recently I started to go to other forums. I only got kind of competent at programming when I joined Cemetech and finished Grey.Fox+
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hmm. I guess the manual didn't explain a lot...I didn't know what Syntax was... I didn't know what Conditional's were... I didn't know a lot! until I saw the Guessing Game Arcane Wizard posted up.. and even then it took me like 30 minutes to type it all down. *I'm surprised on how fast i can type on the calc.
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I myself used to type incredibly fast on calc. Until I started Illusiat 13 I was pretty rusty, tho and typed 3x slower than on the PC. However my speed picked up again since the past few months
On a side note I realised it will be soon 8 years since I got my first calc (July 4th) o.o
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nice... ive realized it will almost be a week since i uhh.. joined omnimaga.. *i think.. We can both have an Anniversary/weekliversary
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I might be able to type faster on-calc than on the computer :)
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srsly? thats crazy... How fast can u typeon the comp? i can type about an avg of... 50-80wpm
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lolz yeah, I creep out my friends when I type in programs because of how fast I am
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lolz yeah, I creep out my friends when I type in programs because of how fast I am
Haha, that's the same here. They find it surprising that I can type without even looking at the keyboard. It's fun to amaze people with something that I personally find unamazing.
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Actually, not to brag too much, but I was tempted one day to attempt to write a small RPG on calc that is a bit similar to Illusiat 6, but as fast as possible. If I had something to hold my digital camera while doing so, I could even film myself coding it :P
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A decent skill show off is to use one hand on the keyboard and another on the mouse simultaneously.
In some MMORPG, you can chat while killing monsters. xD I have a friend that does that and if I played more, I would too.
And Dvorak keyboard is cheating. ::)
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split offtopic discussion to another topic
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i haven't started programming yet but im...
never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!
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Gah TextRoll'D :P
But yeah, I programmed for almost 8 years now, but I'm still not gonna give you up (even if I would take a 2 years break between Illusiat 13 and my next software)
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lol, wow, I hate getting TextRoll'd....I'm thinking of taking a break too after finishing my platformer...
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At the start of eigth grade (3/4 of a year ago), my friend showed me his 83+. He demonstrated how he was amazing because he could make a very simple program. I thought Wow, he's good!, and was in awe. Then, he showed me the code. It all changed. I instantly recognized 85% of the code as simple things in all languages (I already knew VB6 and partly C+). I took his calculator and within a couple class periods, I had completely re-vamped his program so it was amazingly better. Within a week I had completely figured out all comands (I borrowed it as often as possible) and redid his program again so it was so amazing, it didn't even resemble the original. A couple weeks later, for my birthday, I got a 84+ (No kidding, I wanted one so bad that I asked for one for my birthday) and laughed in his face. And if you read through this, I congragulate you...
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Hi Five! TI-84+ FTW!!
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Yep. In every aspect, better than an 83/+/SE
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no, 83+ SE is faster then a 84+/SE because it has no clock
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I rate the addition of the date/time over the slight increase in speed
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but why do you need a clock on your calculator, it's hardly ever used...
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i agree with Eeems, altough it can be useful in games that has time limit or RPGs showing amount of gameplay. However, this cause these games to no longer run on 83+.
My only gripe with the TI-83+ Silver Edition is that it seems to break faster
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I guess that's because they stopped producing them, so they didn't really do much to make it a really good calc....I still consider it the best of them...I want to get my hands on one so bad, but that probably wont happen because of how rare they are
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Well, actually, most calc breaking reports I heard were from calc from 2001-2002 (2001 being the year they started being produced). Iambian is one of the person who got a SE calc to break (the LCD started displaying garbage). Someone else who had a calc that old had the same thing happening to him. I did heard other people saying their calc stopped working after like 3 years and they had SEs and I myself went through 2 SE calcs, one that lasted about 3 weeks until it died completly with only the os reinstall screen (even reinstalling the OS didn't fix fix the problem) and another one that lasted 6 years. I did heard a few people say their 84+SE broke, but much less often, plus a lot of the problems were fixable problems (OS reinstalling or ALCDFix).
For my current SE, what happens is that when the tr1p1ea batteries are inside, their power is drained even when the calc is turned OFF, after OS reinstall and with a brand new lithium battery tried as well. For some reasons, the batteries power is drained several times faster when the calc is turned off than when it's turned ON. If I was coding on the calc for entire days or playing games, the calc would last several days, but if I didn't use it for 2 days, the batteries were completly dead, dead enough to not even let it turn ON. This is a calculator bought around March 2002 in exchange of the other SE I got trouble with. Both were manufacturated in March 2001, though. They came with a black serial TI-Graph Link cable and with the TI-Graph Link software, before USB and TI-Connect even existed. They didn't have a Ticalc.org CD with them, though, like some calcs released in 2001
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ah, well that's too bad... did anybody complain to TI about the breaks?
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I wouldn't be surprised. Back then they would happily send you a new calc if you tried hard enough, from what I heard, but I don't know if it's the case anymore.
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ah, well I hope that the one I get (if I get one) doesn't break for a long time
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I don't own any z80-based calculator, so... don't feel bad.
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no, 83+ SE is faster then a 84+/SE because it has no clock
Has this ever been confirmed? I find it doubtful, because the clock is independent of the CPU.
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Tifreak8x confirmed it many times before. The first time was when he e-mailed me about The Reign Of Legends 3 v0.70 in May 2004. He tried the game on a TI-83+SE and on a TI-84+SE and it ran slightly faster on the 83+SE. He also re-stated that many times afterward, altough showed no screenshots proving it. The speed change must not be very great, though, maybe like 4%
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Wel.. *sorry Eeems but i actually use the Clock on my calculator*
I like my watch alot.. so i don'tbring it to school XDD and sometimes some classes i go to don't have clocks.. so i use theclock on my calculator..
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Well I always have ram resets so my clock is never right.
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Well I always have ram resets so my clock is never right.
me too.
And I only set when I connect to pc. (TI-COnnect and Tilp have a nice utility to synch to pc)
It is strange though. Putting the clock off in TI-OS make the calc faster? <.<
Oh, why this entire page is offtopic? Better why I am contributing to it? xD
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Tifreak8x confirmed it many times before. The first time was when he e-mailed me about The Reign Of Legends 3 v0.70 in May 2004. He tried the game on a TI-83+SE and on a TI-84+SE and it ran slightly faster on the 83+SE. He also re-stated that many times afterward, altough showed no screenshots proving it. The speed change must not be very great, though, maybe like 4%
Well yes, I have heard that the TI-84+ is slower, but I don't think it's because of the clock. It could quite possibly be because of this (http://wikiti.brandonw.net/index.php?title=83Plus:Ports:2E).
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mhmm could be that too
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I saw other people with games on their calcs, so I read the manual and made a simple ascii boxing game (it really sucked) then a stop the pointer game and such
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I think the clock feature on the calcs can be extremely useful. I was excited when it was first added to the TI-89 in the form of an AMS upgrade. You can program a lot of highly-customized, advanced time-related programs that a standard clock or watch can't do. Another nice thing you can do is date/time-stamping. I released a BASIC Yahtzee game for the TI-89 a long time ago that did this for the high-score list, because I found it nice to be able to see how long ago I made each score. If they had added an alarm feature, it would have been even more useful (the HPs have alarms, and you can set them to run whatever program code you want when they trigger).
To answer the original topic, I'm another of those really strange people who learned programming by actually reading the manual (naturally, since I've always been addicted to reading manuals for some reason ;D) and developing my skills by doing it for many years. Not that there was much of a choice, though, since this was in 1994, long before I had any kind of Internet access, and I didn't have any friends who did programming.
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I couldn't use the manual to learn programming, because I got the ridiculously thin one with my 84+SE. :(
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I had to get my dad to enter his password every time I wanted to read mine (CD version) so I never got around to it...
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Ugh I understand your situation Travis, altough with me the difference is that I had some sort of internet access (still very limited, though). My only source was the manual, the reason why I progressed so slowly in programming in my early days of TI-BASIC compared to certain other people on this forum and United-TI.)
I am heading toward the end of my TI programming "carreer" most likely, considering in the past 4 years the rate at which I release games keeps slowing down and when I program I spend fewer and fewer time per day doing it. Had I got the dedication I had in 2002, Illusiat 13 would probably have been finished 1 month ago.
That said, everytime I stopped for almost a year without touching a calc at all during that period, then everytime I came back afterward to release something new, so maybe in 2011 or 2012 you will see a Celtic Celtic Revolution or a Reign Of Legends 4 :P
I also want to try Casio FX-9860G BASIC
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I also have the Ti-84+ SE booklet.. I don't think it's that bad.. i just don't understand like.. 30% of the crap thats in there.. cause the explanations are like.. not existent.
And DJ. im sad to hear ur heading towards the end of ur TI programming "Carreer".. I met u not too long ago and thought u were a cool guy/teacher figure.
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Ugh I understand your situation Travis, altough with me the difference is that I had some sort of internet access (still very limited, though). My only source was the manual, the reason why I progressed so slowly in programming in my early days of TI-BASIC compared to certain other people on this forum and United-TI.)
I don't feel that I progressed slowly, as I picked up on it quite quickly. Though I have greatly improved in programming skills and practices in general (for any language) over the years through experience and reading things. Like I know how to split things up into separate pieces that I code and test separately. I still remember in my early, inexperienced days when I used to spend 2–3 weeks writing code for a whole program before testing it, then spending the next 2–3 months after that managing to get it to actually run and then weeding all the bugs out. ;D I'm glad I don't do it that way anymore!
I couldn't use the manual to learn programming, because I got the ridiculously thin one with my 84+SE. :(
That's something I forgot to mention. I really hate this trend of being cheap and using CDs instead of books for things. Luckily, this started after I finally got a decent computer (in 2001!) with a CD-ROM drive. Else, I would have been screwed (and ticked!) as far as getting the programming reference info I needed.
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That's something I forgot to mention. I really hate this trend of being cheap and using CDs instead of books for things. Luckily, this started after I finally got a decent computer (in 2001!) with a CD-ROM drive. Else, I would have been screwed (and ticked!) as far as getting the programming reference info I needed.
At least there are CDs. My mom got a new laptop recently. There was no manual, nor a CD. This meant she would have needed a working computer with a working internet connection if she had any problems setting up the computer :o
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That's something I forgot to mention. I really hate this trend of being cheap and using CDs instead of books for things. Luckily, this started after I finally got a decent computer (in 2001!) with a CD-ROM drive. Else, I would have been screwed (and ticked!) as far as getting the programming reference info I needed.
At least there are CDs. My mom got a new laptop recently. There was no manual, nor a CD. This meant she would have needed a working computer with a working internet connection if she had any problems setting up the computer :o
Whoops, you're right there. That's even worse! Before I had regular Internet access, that's another thing I used to complain about—people who assumed everybody and his dog (and cat and mice and fish...) had the Internet 24/7. >:( Well, at least I'm no longer in that situation, either. :)
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THis cheap manual + CD issue is what hinders a lot of new programmers I think. Not everyone likes to sit in front of the PC screen to read a manual or have to print everything they need. Sure, it saves paper and trees, but still quite annoying. Plus, not everyone owns a computer. Even Casio started doing that a few years ago. MY Casio FX-9860G manual is on a CD, so whenever I use it I refer to my old CFX manual and sometimes AFX one (which are quite similar, altough misses a lot of functions from the FX-9860G). Idk, but just being in CD form is actually what seems to make me less motivated to start learning to program for this model. Heck, even worse, my computer can't even run my old TI CD anymore (from 2001, which came with my SE calc). It says not enough free RAM.
@TI-Newb: you have to understand that I've been doing calc stuff for almost a decade now. Also stopping calc programming doesn't necessarly means leaving (at least, Omnimaga forums)