Re: Look at TI-83+/SE -- Status Report Message #41 Posted by Paul Brogger on 24 Sept 2002, 8:00 p.m., in response to message #34 by Paul Brogger
If anyone is interested . . .
I've been playing with "TI-Basic" on my TI-83+ Silver Edition. I figure I'll play with the calculator at that level before diving into Assembly language programming.
I decided to create an RPN user interface as well as I could using Basic, and use that as the UI model for an ASM effort (if it ever gets that far).
All in all, it's not a half-bad calculator with which to work. If Hewlett-Packard hadn't made anything since the HP-35, I might even say it's my favorite. (Of course, if they hadn't made the -6S, -30S and -49G, I might not be looking elsewhere . . . )
The Basic is a little quirky, and doesn't seem to have error trapping (I'm still pretty new to it), but I have been able to implement a simultaneously-visible "five-level stack" (X, Y, Z & T, as well as Last X) interface and RPN behavior for all the numeric functions available (directly and shifted) on the keyboard. It's quick enough, and is actually useful, though incomplete.
It operates as a program that must be started (with one or three keystrokes) after the unit is turned ON, and must be stopped in order to turn the unit OFF. (The calculator's automatic shutdown doesn't seem to work when a program is running.)
All keystrokes but one may be intercepted and put to use by such a program. I suppose menus would be possible too, but I'm not going to get carried away.
As of now, I can enter positive & negative real numbers (but not yet exponents), perform stack operations (ENTER, SWAP, ROLL UP, ROLL DOWN, DROP & LAST X), and calculate arithmetic, logarithmic and trigonometric functions. (This in something like 3K of the ~24K RAM available.)
No exponents (just yet), imaginary numbers, programming, or anything else, except outside of the RPN interface, via the calculator's native features. There's no storage arithmetic or base conversions either way! I'm next going to experiment with an idea for a hex/decimal mode that displays both integer and hexadecimal representations of the stack entries side-by-side, and supports input in either format.
So, it seems to be a good testbed for UI questions, despite the already-decided-upon keyboard legends. If nothing else, going to a foreign environment and implementing a simple RPN interface has given a fair appreciation of certain complexities, such as stack drop and Last X updating.
The Silver Edition is TRULY ugly, but I chose it for its expanded Flash ROM. Apparently, a regular TI-83+ gives you otherwise equivalent functionality. The manual is actually very complete, and the language can be picked up real quickly.
After a bit more UI experimentation, I'll be moving into Z-80 Assembly programming, and will update this with my impressions when appropriate.
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