Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Other Calculators => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on October 15, 2014, 02:19:34 am
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I just saw this now and it's a third-party calculator prototype: http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=15345&p=170930&hilit=omnimaga#p170930
Some of you probably remember Ubercalc and OTCalc and how they never got past planning stages (although Ubercalc had a prototype, the author then started rebooting the project from scratch non-stop until he finally vanished). Unlike past projects, Librecalc seems to have gotten past planning stages it seems because there's a physical prototype out. It's kinda an emulator, though, inside a custom calc case.
I am curious if it will get further into development? It would be interesting to see how such community calculator get manufactured, seeing how much of a PITA it seems to be to mass-produce stuff for small companies or groups of individuals (just see how long it takes for Pier Solar (Sega Genesis) pre-orders to be shipped). I also hope that it doesn't just remain an emulator so that it can take advantage of its full processing power and doesn't run into copyright problems (but again, if people from China are involved then with China standards this would be pretty standard). The HP 50g is basically a Saturn CPU emulator running a modded HP 48g ROM and it's a shame to see this much processing power go to waste. D:
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It's pretty neat to see something like this in a working state. However, I'd be really surprised if they didn't get hit with a C&D order from TI. Running TI-OS on such a device is probably a really bad idea for them.
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Actually that's a TI-82 simulator, not an emulator, so no copyrighted ROMs. And yeah, nice to see such a project with a working prototype.
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Yup, that is looking awesome so far, and it'd be nice to see it getting somewhere.
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Oh right I didn't realize it was a simulator. I guess TI might not like if it works pretty much exactly as the TI-82, although it's still interesting to see this come to fruition. Let's hope it goes further.
With mass producing, sometimes they require you to sell like 10000 copies before they finally mass produce the item, so that costs are lower. But if it takes like 4 months to get 1000 pre-orders then you're in for years of wait. With the Sega Genesis reprint version of Pier Solar and the Great Architect, it has been three years since the 3rd print run was supposed to be manufactured and now it has yet to be done.
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Actually that's a TI-82 simulator, not an emulator, so no copyrighted ROMs. And yeah, nice to see such a project with a working prototype.
Well on their site it was talking about them having 83p files running and such. Naturally I assumed it was an emulator.
*edit* Also, Google translate says it's running an emulator, so I guess that's another reason I thought it was running emulation.
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Also for some reasons, I thought this was from China until I checked the official website, which was in French. I guess I got confused with Arithmax and the fact many of those projects seems to originate from China lately. Also if it would have been a 82 emulator for real that comes pre-loaded with a ROM then being from China would have been very plausible, since piracy is rampant in that country.
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*edit* Also, Google translate says it's running an emulator, so I guess that's another reason I thought it was running emulation.
On their site, it may (still ?) say that but it's really a simulator - they've confirmed it on tiplanet (and we've also updated our news article). It may seem like a small difference for a majority of people, but it's not that small when you know what both really mean :P
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Yeah the main problem really comes when somebody makes an emulator himself but in fact it's a simulator or vice-versa, which can confuse people and those who talk about the software. Although emulation would be nice for the sake of Z80 compatibility :P (but then there's a massive speed loss)
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They explain it in one of their blog posts (http://www.librecalc.com/?p=15) how it's not an emulator (but they still call it an emulator). They say they will write an interface to a CAS software though, so it will probably be comparable to the Nspire (with a 83 emulator) or the HP Prime (without a touch screen).
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So, a simulator?
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A new software would definitively be nice, providing it doesn't miss important features and that when released it's stable. If the price is lower than the TI-Nspire CX but it offers more in terms of power, interface and important features, then it could be a very good alternative and perhaps even competitor to TI/Casio products. They would just need to make sure that they implement an exam mode that doesn't suck so that the teacher can disable any ASM/C/BASIC/whatever program and a select few features without the company blocking third-party development.
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Well, what is nice is that everything on this calc is free software, so if you're hardcore enough you can build your own from your bare hands.
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Indeed. I truly want to see this calc come out to fruition and with some nice cases for each sample of the calculator. Those projects always failed in the past and I would like to finally see one completed. I might buy one if it's not too expensive, although it depends when it would come out.
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It's progressing!
Some electronic circuit issues delayed the 2nd prototype but it's still alive and well:
Something I hope is changes to the d-pad, though. But it has 128 MB of RAM :D.
Source (all in French):
http://www.librecalc.com/blog/apercu-du-second-prototype/
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=173986&sid=66d79eef6cf2409299636659ab1f5ae9#p173986
http://www.planet-casio.com/Fr/forums/topic13405-1-Le-projet-LibreCalc-avance-bien.html
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This is awesome! I seriously hope it'll go places :)
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It won't have a QWERTY keyboard...
SAT?
Just maybe?
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I study this interessing project since it make several parts of my utopic open-source calculator...
However congratulations to the proud french teachers that not only manage to launch this ambitious project, but also publish the specs, the PCB diagrams and a prototype of software.
I like the fact the Maxima will be the main CAS Engine, but also they manage to choose a tiny display driver framework that even I fail to notice ;D (I knew that a full X11 server would be overkill, so I try to search the viability of Wayland but also had the same problem :-[).
In fact, they choose the DirectFB and SDL combo to enable a basic graphic stack that would be nice to a low power machine, but also ease the portability of several homebrew and major programs.
Once I get some time (due to my PhD thesis), I will try build my own LibreCalc software once they publish the remaining main programs.