I need some "helping hands" on the Linux support of the TIGCC Tools Suite. A first version of a script which builds the Suite on Linux systems can be downloaded from the TICT HQ Website at http://tict.ticalc.org.
Please read the news item on our website for more details on how you can help.

Wow! This was almost as good a post as Nick did!

Thanks! Glad you're happy with it. I think the key is to be really excited about what you're posting about. I've been tearing my hair out waiting for the eBook generator for a good two months! :)

In fact, it was too much like a Nick post. I'm not criticizing Nick's news posting style, in fact I enjoyed it, most of the time. But it's his personal style, not ticalc's, and Nathan shouldn't imitate it. He should work on finding his own sytle that he's comfortable with instead.

Actually, I wasn't imitating him. Except for the "creamy goodness" remark, which I am prone to anyhow, it was all my own style. You can check some of the older articles I did and they should match up. At the least, I just made Nick add the Tools Suite to the archives and then let the news article flow....

Of course, I did teach Nick about news when he started doing that, so you should probably expect some similarities, although I'd like to think I have my own style. It's been a while since I've posted news, so just give me a little time to get back into the swing of things. I'm not copying anyone. This is just how I do it. :)

YEA! I've been waiting for this...

I have a suggestion for the operators of the ticalc web site though. With all of those ebooks in the misc assembly section - you could make a new section within the section for them. That would make it easier to find an ebook when you want one and also make less clutter for the misc programs section also. Just an idea!

this is great...thanks to all the people who put so much time into this. It looks great.

I also agree with this, though. It would create less clutter in the programs section if all of the ebooks were given their own folder (especially since more are being added daily). Maybe to further reduce clutter, those programs that are no longer compatible with the calculator should be taken off, too. Maybe they already have been, and I just don't know what I'm talking about. If they have been, don't mind this comment.

Yay- now we get to see lots of ebooks being made by people trying sneak themselves into the busiest Authors list.

But to be fair I have uploaded asm source of simple programs separately and that counts as well. But big authors do the same so I do not feel guilty.

Does anybody take the busiest author thing seriously?

/me puts on <AsbestosUnderwear QUALITY=80%>:

The busiest author thing isn't needed. There are a lot of newbies who create some stuff for a BASIC platform (83(+)) and upload to as many catagories as possible. Then there are the ones who upload each file of source code seperate. And there has been one maniac who REALLY TRASHED the windows directory by making 'icons for all TI-program files'. I hate this sort of crap. It messes up the 'most d/l-ed author this week', too.

<secret hint>
Couldn't we make a new filesystem in which only the most 31337 programs are stored? That would definitely improve this situation. I mean: who needs to know about 'my first ASM guess the number' games? Quality programs deserve more attention IMHO.
</secret hint>

Correct me if I'm wrong, but keep it fair!

Frank

I think the featured programs list is already a kind of "Best Of" list IMHO.

Additionally: If I would take care about the busiest authors list I would release the TIGCC Tools separately. This way I would get about 30 files more ;-)
Or if Zeljko would take care about this list, you would get each header file and each documentation file of the TIGCC library separately.

I think releasing ebooks separately even if they are "similar" to each other (like the Sherlock Holmes stories) is nevertheless a good idea, because not all users have fast internet access to get large ZIPs from the file archives.

That would be nice, but who would decide what's 31337 and what isn't? Whoever decides that would have a problem with people hating them (some of those basic programming groups can be pretty militant :) )

The downloaders! The downloading process should be as follows: Download, install, and then vote. If we were able to vote on each program with immediate effect, and then the programs were sorted by the mean value of all of the votes (as soon as a certain lower limit on the number of votes has been passed), this would be a fair system where good programs get attention.

But then you would have to have some kind of anti person-voting-for-their-own-programs protection.

That's a good idea. It would balance the fact that tiny, crap programs also get a huge amount of downloads because they're so poorly-documented that nobody can tell what they are. People voting for their own programs could be a problem, but I don't think that one single vote could screw up the ratings. There would be another problem where people make large number of accounts to give their program lots of votes, but that could be detected somehow.

Its not that hard to have a "anti person-voting-for-their-own-programs protection." have the ppl log in and vote.......not that difficult......

PsySpy the Chosen

Still, there would be the problem of making multiple accounts. I think that if you verify account signup by email (don't know if this is done now), this would be made up for.

Anyway, real programmers program mainly just to program, not to get votes. I think such a system would need time to be developed, and everybody should be somewhat patient. If not, let me get my fire extinguisher. :-)

There should be Macintosh tools =)

Something sorta died on this site after Nick left... Nick: stop chasing this crazy "Diploma" dream at college and come back to news editor.

First, im just joking, second, I DON'T mean to belittle this exelent post! Just kinda wishing Nick were here

Would it make you feel better if I told you I had him proofread my article (no one else was around at the time)?

yes