RPN83P: RPN calculator for TI-83+ TI-84+ inspired by HP-42S

[spiff72]

(11-21-2023 08:50 PM)bxparks Wrote:  

(11-21-2023 07:38 PM)spiff72 Wrote:  I don't have an 83 or an 84, but I do have an 89 Titanium laying in a drawer. Is there any possibility that this could be ported to that platform? I think there was an RPN app of some kind for the non-Titanium version of the 89, but it doesn't work on the Titanium.

I guess the important questions are:

* What is the state of the development tools for those calculators? How well are they supported and documented?
* How much time and energy do I have?

The TI-89, TI-89 Titanium, TI-92, TI-92+, and the TI Voyage 200 calculators use the Motorola 68000 processor, not the Z80. Basically nothing of the RPN83P code base would be reusable. The development tools of the 89/92/200 are completely different as far as I know, and I have not done any research on those tools. I don't know if TI ever published an SDK for those calculators, similar to their 83 Plus SDK. I know that those calculators can be programmed in C instead of assembly language, which would increase productivity.

On the question of time and energy, I have so many projects in my backlog, I'm not sure what would cause the RPN89T/RPN92P project to rise above the others. By the time I get to v1.0 on this RPN83P project (in a couple of month hopefully), I will have spent 2-3X longer on it than I had expected. The 83+ and 84+ calculators were attractive targets, because there are millions of them out there, and they are dirt cheap on eBay. You can pick one up for $15-$35 on eBay including shipping. I get the impression that the 89, 92, and 200 calculators are far less popular. It seems like a LOT of work, for not many potential users.

I tell you what. If you want to increase the chances of seeing a port to the 89T, 92+, and 200, I request that you scout ahead on the development tools for the TI-89T. Figure out how to download and setup the C compiler on Ubuntu 22.04 (my dev environment). Figure out if there is an SDK, figure out where the docs are located, figure out how to create a "hello world" program for the 89T, how to transfer the executable to the calculator, how to read the keyboard, how to print to the screen, how to read and store variables. There is so much more, but I guess that would be a start. That's probably a month or two of effort. If you come back and tell me that the dev environment for the 89/92/200 is easy to set up, and the OS routines are well-documented, then I would be more likely to be persuaded to do a port. Or, you will have learned enough to do the port yourself. :-)

Sorry - I didn't realize they ran different processors and "porting" wasn't that simple. (I'm more of a hardware/sticker guy (see my signature)...

Maybe I will look into picking up an 83+ or 84+ to add to the collection. Is there a preferred one for this project? I'm guessing the 84+ silver is the better option?