Thanks tev, I definitely didn't expect a feature right now :)

It would seem that I'm the first person to release a somewhat generic and extensible patcher program for TI-68k OS (and hopefully TI-Z80 OS in the future, if it makes sense to support both TI-68k OS and TI-Z80 OS in the same program)... and frankly, I still wonder why.
It's not that it's a very time-consuming coding or design task: I spent less than 10 man-days on it, and there are currently less than 1500 lines of raw source code.
It's not that it was hard to run non-default OS on TI-68k calculators: it has been possible for about ten years, with TIB-Receiver and later FSign+FreeFlash.
It's not that the number of patches is so low that it's not worth the trouble: the current version of amspatch contains 15 patches of five different kinds (6 for unlocking, 4 for optimizing, 3 for fixing, 1 for shrinking and 1 for expanding).

Final note: I probably won't be the one adding TI-Z80 OS support, because, as everybody knows, I'm no experienced TI-Z80 programmer :)

I guess most of us are scared of legal threats.

Speak for yourself on that one. Personally, it's because of lack of time.

Well right now there are already various z80 patches available, mostly for OS 2.53 MP but also 2.43. They mostly fix some glitches. At one point maybe someone will put all of them into one then release them.

That said it is still a great release you got there. Congrats for the feature. :)

Thanks DJ ;)

Yeah, patching TI's OS to fix their bugs (as you say, that's what most existing TI-Z80 OS patches do) or kill their artificial limitations (that's what most existing TI-68k OS patches do) has been done by multiple persons for a long time, long before the signing keys' factorization, which eases the job from the _user_'s POV.

IMO, the TI-Z80 community should do more in the way of optimizing TI's OS. TI's programmers are notorious for stupid, slow (and insecure) code, so there _has_ to be something to do on TI-Z80 as well, e.g. in the graphics stack :)

Now I wish patches for the TI-84+ mode on the TI-Nspire were permanent. Hence why we need the TI-Nspire keys. X.x

Good luck factoring those 1024-bit integers...

That's what they said about 512-bit integers just a handful of years ago. It'll happen sometime, it'll just take several years.

I ever wondered what we could do to about the TI-OSes and this seems the best solution. Making a 3rd party OS is too difficult and students should keep the TI-OS for not having trouble in exams.

In my opinion this is one of the best calculator program idea ever.
I hope a z80 version is done to patch some bugs already corrected by Brandon Wilson, optimize the space usage, make use of all RAM Pages in older models (hint hint) and who knows the interface (do a simple shell like for ASM programs) and optimize TI-BASIC interpreter itself with CelticIII included. (ok asking too much already, but is maybe easier than a full blow 3rd party OS)

I hope this gets enough exposure and attention to many "advanced" calculators' users and even others.

The best, long term, and least legally ambiguous solution is to create a third party operating system with full backwards compatibility with the TI-OS and containing the other things we want to see out of the OS (such as full use of all the RAM pages for variable storage that you alluded to, which is something that can't be easily patched into the TI-OS), and that remains the goal for at least myself and possibly others.

A shorter term solution, though, is exactly this: a generic patching application that allows users to pick and choose what they want to do to their OS, and the legal ambiguity and responsibility is shifted to them instead (and the writers of the patches themselves).

I've had a very specific idea on how this would be done for the Z80 series for quite some time, so if I were to find the time to work on it, I'm not sure I would put it in this same application.

Hopefully somebody else will do it so I don't have to worry about it. :)