Troubling, and I am motivated to look for ways to preserve it. The precedent of effectively destroying the work of community members is
#Ti 84 emulator web series#
While the 84+ CE is a young platform relative to the TI-83+ series as a whole (and is incompatible with earlier software), it already has a rich library of programs created by users that will effectively be lost when they can no longer be run on the hardware they are designed for.Ī small selection of the games that are available for the TI-84+ CE today:
#Ti 84 emulator web code#
In addition to the loss of a way to introduce people to programming, removing support for native code also effectively throws away a large existing library of programs that stretches back more than 20 years (nicely embodied in, which first came online in 1996). In much the same way that I believe Scratch is a decent introduction to programming but completely hides interesting details and is not seriously used by anybody but those using it a learning tool, I also believe removal of support for running native code will ultimately mean people will no longer have calculators (which are often required school equipment!) as a useful entrypoint to serious programming. The future users will be limited to only those capabilities provided by TI’s Somewhat, but they lack in depth- where a user could spend time and effortĭeveloping native programs constrained only by the hardware they run on before, in Programs written in the calculators' dialect of BASICĬontinue to be accessible and a new Python implementation fills the void Term it seems to spell doom for calculators as an inroad to developing embedded While this doesn’t necessarily affect older calculators or programs, in the long About a month ago, the news came out that new versions of the OS for the TI-84+ CE (the most recent variant of the 83+ featuring a color screen and improved eZ80 processor) will remove support for running native code. Unfortunately, the future of programming for TI calculators seems to be in peril. Looks like it could contain any embedded engineer's prototype.
I fully credit getting started with programming calculators for having ended up programming embedded systems profesionally. I think calculators are an excellent way to introduce people to programming, since they are readily available devices and not too complex to get started on, while still having enough capability to support experienced developers in doing interesting things (because they are readily accessible embedded systems). These days I play more of an advisory than active role in writing programs, by running much of Cemetech behind the scenes and providing the occasional input to others. I’ve long been involved in the community of people who program for the TI-83+ series of graphing calculators it was on that platform that I got started programming in the first place.
Might prefer to listen to rather than read these 7000 words. I’ve also recorded an audio version of this writing, embedded here, which you
Read on for that discussion, or jump straight to the projectĭemo that runs in your web browser and other resources including
The design and initial development process. Motivation for a new emulator and the state of There’s rather a lot to say about it, but here I will discuss the Targeting TI graphing calculators (currently only the 83+, but maybe others Today I’m publishing tihle, a new emulator Tihle: a unique TI calculator emulator 29 July, 2020