Omnimaga
Calculator Community => TI Calculators => TI-BASIC => Topic started by: Radical Pi on March 10, 2010, 11:14:14 pm
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All I know of is xLib, but I'm sure there are others, so what are they and which ones are the best/most used/still frequently updated?
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My absolute favorite is Celtic III and it's what I use for most of the coding I do these days. It has everything xLIB does and more. Most xLIB games work perfectly fine with Celtic III as well so it's a nice Lib to use. Not just that, but I heard xLIB is having issues on the new OS anyway.
Well, here's a link to the most up-to-date version of Celtic III (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=479) and if you need any help with it, just ask me. The documentation should be enough, but if it's not just let me know.
As for any other Libs... I have no idea. I'll let someone else take that. =)
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Well to list all of them would be a large task indeed, but there are only a few worth mentioning in my Opinion:
xLib APP: But you already knew this :P
XCOPY PROGRAM: Can copy archived programs to RAM and delete them. Very very usefull and very very small
CelticII PROGRAM: Usefull for manipulating appvar/program data. Can (un)archive both and access/write data. ABout 2000 bytes if i remember correctly
Omnicalc APP: Has basic sprite routines, but differs mostly in its advanced linking routines.
CelticIII APP: Has all of xLib's features implemented the same way (with the same syntax) but not only is faster, but also has all the capabilities of CelticII and a lot more. The elite of Basic Libs.
My personal favorites are CelticIII and XCOPY for Basic games. CelticIII because it allows me to play xLib games as well (for which there are a surprising number O.O) and has a LOT more features! XCOPY because it gives a lot more memory to BASIC games while being incredibly small itself.
EDIT: Ninja'd :P
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That was hardly a ninja. You got way more than I bothered to remember. xP
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There is also Omnicalc, which is more limited in game commands, but has sound commands and inline assembly support (like Axe). Unlike Asm( command, inline asm is much faster. Omnicalc has some issues on the new OS, though.
Finally, for those who prefer smaller libs, even if it means it will waste several bytes of RAM, there is a program version of Celtic called Celtic II, there is CODEX, which does a lot of stuff xLIB does, but much slower (see ROL3 for an example of how slow), Xcopy, which does the same thing as real(10 in xLIB, Resource, a more complex but larger version of Xcopy, Zcopy, another one, slightly smaller, but it only runs on OS 1.12 through 1.14, Flash Gordon, which is similar, but works a bit differently and was pretty much obsoleted by Xcopy, Zapi, which does some funky stuff such as scrolling parts of the screen and some CODEX stuff and finally BASIC Tools, which does some of the CODEX stuff plus more, but each programs are separate so it can save memory if you don't need all small routines. Another nice lib is Zpic, which allows you to recall pics from archive including the hacked pics that can be created with ZSTO or Devpic8x, and I heard of Xtravar, which apparently grants access to all normally innaccessible but possible pic, string and other variables.
There is also two program versions of xLIB. Both has tilemaps and sprite supports but are much more limited and slower. I keep them in case people might not want to have a massive 16 KB APP
Btw, it is possible to have grayscale like in Pyoro using xLIB, Celtic III or Omnicalc (the later being slower, though, as seen in Reuben Quest series). There are a bunch of tutorials avaliable for this in the downloads section as well as a tool by Nitacku. I don't recommend grayscale unless you are pretty good at BASIC and alerady made large games before, though.
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Seeing how all the libs I've used have been mentioned (XCOPY and Celtic III are my favorites), I'll talk on XTRAVAR.
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/391/39138.html
XTRAVAR allows you to write basic programs using the extra "hacked" pic, matrix, string, GDB, lists (do you need more lists?), etc. It's really nice. I'd highly recommend it. Also, it's not really a lib, because once you've put these tokens in a basic program you never need XTRAVAR again. You can then have a pure basic program, though Asm was needed to get there. :)
I still count it as pure basic though, because you don't ever run a Asm program, one is just used for editing the program. ;D
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Yeah true, it's like enabling the Français or Español application, giving access to special characters in the CATALOG. You use ASM to access these chars but your game still remains pure BASIC, as it can still run without any pure ASM program
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ZTrumpet, I think the extra lists are useful, because they're only 2 bytes, where as any list you make is at least two bytes. :P BTW, how would you use those hacked Pics and GDB, since the basic commands use numbers?
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ZTrumpet, I think the extra lists are useful, because they're only 2 bytes, where as any list you make is at least two bytes. :P BTW, how would you use those hacked Pics and GDB, since the basic commands use numbers?
You can use tokens as arguments to the Store and Recall commands. Try it with Pic1 :)
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Really? That's awesome! I never knew that! CoolioJazz goes off to try it :)
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I've always wondered if there is overlap between xLib's extra PICS and XTRAVAR's Pics... I'm guessing that they do.
Some others:
FlashGordon, though it sounds remarkably similar to XCOPY
VARASM, which checks if a variable exists/archived
GBA, for platform games, but it's in French
TLib, random things that you really ought to use CODEX for, and it's in Spanish
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I think Xtravar pics can be used with xLIB/Celtic. They are the same token in the memory menu. Also, with xLIB I believe you can do a bit like with Axe Parser: when using sprites, if a sprite ID is high enough to be beyond a pic limit, it will start displaying sprites from the next pic, then the next one, up to ID 256 (or was it 65536?)
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XTRAVAR, xLib, and Celtic III all give you access to all of the 256 Pic vars, and they are the same. So yes, xLib pics are the same as XTRAVAR if you have the same Pic number. :)
(It's worth noting that xLib and Celtic II are required when the program is run, but XTRAVAR is not. This is why XTRAVAR is "pure" basic. :) )
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Celtic III is a great FlashAPP but it doesn't fully replace xLIB due to various display bugs. Most games written for xLIB will work fine under Celtic III but you need to be warned that the compatibility isn't perfect. You can go to UnitedTI to read up on some of its compatibility problems. The FlashAPP has its own subforum here: http://www.unitedti.org/forum/index.php?s=4ff01c228c1faee28bd9026b500a76ea&showforum=62
I've also written Xcopy, which many before me has posted about. It was designed to be as minimalistic as possible while still providing a great function. A copy of it can be found here: http://ourl.ca/4025/74169
EDIT: IIRC, Celtic II weighed in at a little under 1000 bytes. It was the Celtic III program version that got a bit heavier.
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I think I'll add this to download section soon, it migth be easier to find in the future.