This after I asked for a TI-86 for my birthday... oh well. I think the TI-86 is more worth it. :-)

Don't worry, you picked the right calculator. The TI-73s don't have much going for it.

That's pretty sweet that we got ASM on them now. They really needed it. The thing is, barely anybody has a TI-73. They're pretty limited, in my opinion, but that's because they're geared toward a younger group of students. But with ASM, perhaps their popularity will increase?

86 rules :D

But honestly, this is a great achievement. I never had interest in the 73, but this is a great achievement. Nice work Micheal!

86 sucks! 92 rules!

That's like saying "TRS-80 sucks! Amiga Rules!" - it may be [and is] true, but you are comparing a z80 with a m680x0.

>>But with ASM, perhaps their popularity will increase?

No. :D

Well, at least now there is ONE reason to get them. Before there was no reason at all. I mean, have you used their keypad? It takes me about a minute to just type in my name on one of those things, whereas I can do it in less than one or two seconds on my TI-89. The TI-73 is very frustrating to use.

With assembly, they have some benefits now, and you could potentially bring back some of the "missing" functions on that calculator (via asm), as well as get some games on there. I mean, it's not going to be a popular calculator all of the sudden, but at least it has something good about it now. :-P

Hey, a calculator with fraction more sound pretty sad to me! :>

>>fraction mode

Well, it is. They have plenty of "sad" things on there, including a percent button, fraction mode, a horrible method of entering text (which makes on-calc BASIC programming very tedious), only Y= mode, and some other strange things which I can't remember at the moment. But again, it's for younger kids who are too lazy to type a+(b/c) or x/100. None of us would buy them, but I'm sure a middle schooler (or below) could get some good use out of one.

I always assumed the 73 had assembly and that 11 year olds didn't know how to make programs for them. Being much older I don't know how to make programs in assembly so I'll be quite until this message is posted.

Haha, now 11 year olds can play the same games as their big brothers! ;)

Wow... I didn't even realize that ASM on the TI-72 was impossible, though it kind of makes sense.

you mean 73 right?

Yes, I meant 73. Oops.

Funny that you caught that, but not that he said "I didn't realize [it] was impossible."

I think his point was that he did not know that before now there was no asm on the 73. However, I have been horribly wrong about these things in the past...

-W-

you were correct

I fail it :(((

It's not possible in the same way assembly isn't possible on the TI-85 (that is to say, it's not possible without hacking it). It just takes some ingenuity. :)

What I meant is that I din't know that it wasn't blatantly supported, à la the TI-83 Plus, or even the 83. Having no experience with the 73, I blithely assumed that ASM was explicitly supported because it had Flash, like the rest of the Flash calcs.

Actually you may notice than on the 83, asm is not so blatant as it may seem. The command sequence used to run an asm program is not Asm(prgmNAME) like for the 83+ or 86, however it is Send(9prgmNAME). It was a actually a secret backdoor inserted inserted in the OS by one of TI-OS programmers. This same programmer has also taken part in the development of 73's TI-OS, so it possible that such backdoor method for running asm programs exists, although it has not yet been found.

Of course these are just rumors that I have heard, and the veracity of them cannot be guaranteed, but, you think about it, sounds plausible doesn't it ?

A secret backdoor!?!?!?

I guess the programmer got fired! ;)

I doubt it:
got fired after programming a second operating system for them, which happens to be long after the other trick has been discovered? wouldn't make much sense, unless obviously they hated him, but knew he was essential for the outcome of the 73 :P

Well aren't we glad he made that backdoor?

...How did that get out anyway? I doubt somebody randomly typed Send(9prgmBLAH on their calculator and then went, "Oh my god, look at that!"

Secret backdoor? I thought ASM support on the TI-83 was an publicly advertised feature?

Well, it wasn't announced as a big deal, but TI certainly didn't keep this a secret. The information for it was found on TI's site, and back in the day I went there myself. They even provided some very limited documentation on it, more on the TI-85 and TI-86 than the TI-83. They also released ZASMLOAD. If you ask me, the 83 support was sort of a test to see what would happen to everyone if they started building this stuff into their calculators on purpose.

I know. Hence the phrase "or even the 83." It's not as obvious as the 83+.