Sigh...HP calculators are so cool though :/

What are they?!

Well, what ARE they?

HP stands for Hewlett-Packard (the computer company)
They have a website:
http://www.hp.com/calculators
There are also user webpages:
http://www.hpcalc.org/
http://www.area48.org/
You might also want to try your own web browser...

Are they talking about all their calculators or just graphing calculators?

ticalc.org is getting a lot of criticism right now, and i know there is a major debate over whether or not there should be any censoring, but I must say GREAT JOB WITH THE NEWS! It is great that the news is becoming more active, even if the archives aren't. So great job! to the staff. Don't let this setback send ticalc.org down!!!

On a side note, tinews.net seems to be dead, and ticalc.org archives are down. This is not the season for calculators.

To me it looks like, for TI calculators the community is dead but there are better calculators and better expectations for the future, while for HP calculators there is a very good community and a lot of software to download, while the HP calculators have no future anymore.

Maybe the time has come for Sharp or Casio to grow? If TI would be the only one producing new calculators, the quality would drop dramaticly.

ok, let's all start programming the CASIO color graphers... how fun

at least having color would make it easier to do a side scrolling routine in C... since it would be 1 pixel per 1(or 2 or 3 or 4) byte(s).. instead of 8 pixels per 1 byte... (i actually am trying to figure out how to use ROXL/ROXR in a C program.. if you can help me out PLEASE email me [i have ZERO asm experience] - andersun02@mstar2.net)

But you can bet that this would take up much, MUCH more memory.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Color? It only has 3 colors, well, at least they're real colors (not grays).

some people might not agree, but i, for one, say good riddance.

And why...? In my personal experience, HP made a high quality product. I far prefer my HP-48 and HP-49 to my TI-89 and TI-83+. The HP's featured RPN and RPL, two systems that may never find an equal in the calcuator world, ever again.

just my 0.01 0.01 + cents _

I saw one of my friends hp at school, and i just think that id much rather have an TI-8x.

but then again, it couldve been a casio

I never used the HPs, but all the Casios I used sucked ass (Maybe I was just using the wrong ones?) But I've heard that the HPs are really good.

The calculator age has died.
I foresaw that this would happen soon, but this is too early.
This is a sorta timelne of why we are where we currently are.

-Losing too many great programmers due to them getting to busy with school, work, ect...(think Alex Hismith ((Spelling)))

-The death of Ti-Files. This was the first hit to the community, and started the fall

-DimTI's new design, made the site less usable.

-Last year, we lost some of our best Programming groups (TICT and SiCode were great...)

-Ticalc stopped updating, It seemed to be at most once a week.

-Abosultly no good software being completed...noone making quality programs anymore.

-The devastating attacks on 9/11

-TI's recall of the Fun Pack, leadng to...

-What I fear may be the end of Calc.org


The top of the age was around 98, when all three of the great Calculator powers were active and in their prime...

At that tome, it was fun to make games for people, but they had to be quality, although most were basic. It was the greatist to see the newest game of program and beat it....or even make a simple game just to give to your freinds so you could beat them....but now...I guess noone cares anymore..

Parallaxx

man. that really sucks. too bad no one will go back to '98. the way you point out the events really makes it seem like the calc community IS going down.

Don't forget ACZ... their site hasn't been up(dated) in over a year. In fact, I met one of their members (up here at Michigan Tech) and he said that they basically died off because they lost interest and didn't have as much time to program assembly as they used to.

Also... one of the greatest TI-89 assembly coders *ever* (Wormhole) died in a car accident. Suck.

I don't see how you can conclude that nobody is making quality programs anymore. Unless, of course, you were not aware of Super Mario 82(/83/85/86), Crates 3D, Mega Man 86, V-Rally, R-Type, Thunder, Evasive, Wormy, Half-Life, etc.

and what about sor89?

Yes, you are right, there are still a number of good programmers out there, but a number of them (like Ahmed, Derrick, and Joe Wing.) have all but left for lack of interest.

Also, I think that Punchout is still in the works.

just wait until i release SAS... your little pheonix is NOTHING in comparison (jk... but i definately think that my release of SAS will spark something in the community) - September was the biggest month of TICalc.org usage ever... people are now downloading more games than ever... (by now i mean when the archives are up)... it's just that people are too lazy to program good games cus they don't have any new ideas. (go to my site)

It's not that most people got too lazy, they just grew up and went to college. That's at least what happened to many good coders. I hope they'll all enjoy their life and that many new good coders will emerge! Peace my friends!

Please explain what SAS is.

SAS is the FUTURE!!! (go to my site to see what it is... and while you're at it, register for my BRAND new forum thingy and write some comments in it PLEASE)

You need to be shot. That is all

How many times?

Yes, but you must keep in mind that the economy is also going down, and unemployment is at an all time high. We are all in a series of bad events. Within a couple of years, this will all be behind us, and the calculator age will come back again. TI just released their Silver Edition of the 83+ and many people, me among them, are buying them. Although TI hasn't made any new calculators, they're going to bounce back, just like the economy did every time. To all of those progreammers who heve developed some of the best programs and APPS, such as Puzzlepack, and MirageOS, we congradulate you, and urge you to keep on programming. TIcalc.org will come back along with many other sites. But keep your hopes high, and learn to program so we can all have a happier and more prosperous tomorrow (metaphorically speaking).

I dunno what you are talking about, calc.org is better than ever.

Although at this point Calc.org seems 'better than ever' since the outage of ticalc.org's archive, I think it sucks really. I tried to upload so many games to that site, and i kept getting errors like crazy. It's an outright pain in the butt to upload games on that site.
Unfortunately however its the only odvious site remaning, and I still have one game left to upload that I've been working on for like a year! This really sucks!

>-Losing too many great programmers due to them getting to busy with school, work, ect...(think Alex Hismith ((Spelling)))

>-Last year, we lost some of our best Programming groups (TICT and SiCode were great...)

Instead of being dependant on others to make good programs you whould program yourself. But maybe you do already. And who is Alex Hismith?


And calc.org is better then it ever has been, the programming management tools calc.org offers is great and updates are instantaneous.

>-Abosultly no good software being completed...noone making quality programs anymore.

Again if you are not a programmer then you should not complain. This is absolutely not true. I'll be arrogant and say that I myself have made more than my fair share of software all of which is good and completed. The next releases of many of my programs can be found at my homepage(still a crude) above. (sorry for self plugging :)


-Samuel

I'm sorry, his name was Alex Highsmith. He was eisily the greatist ti-82 programmer ever...he created Dying Eyes, which with Joltima were the best games ever for the 82. He was working on an 82 Version of Dune 2, when he stopped...I saw the beta...he was on to somthing amazing.

I am a programmer...It just seemed that lost intrest when TICT died...

And I will stick to it...TICT made the last effort of completed 89 software that was good for the average calculator user...when I say no good software, I am talking about usefull programs and stuff that peopele who don't have very adveanced math of science classes, of don't do a lot of scholorly things on it...

I dont mean to smak programmers with what I say...I know how hard it is to release software that is good, but good fun software dosn't need to be complicated..ust look at the Captain Moo series! It was the funnest BASIC game I ever played, and it didn't have any graphics at all...

And I do know that there are many good programs in development right now...Such as Zenith Saga, Chrono fantasy and there was a Metroid game for 82 being developed...but lets see if any really get finished...

I played the TI85 port of Dying Eyes. D00d.I t r0xx0r3d.

Stop speaking in that l33t language. :)

public class stupid {
public static void main(String[] args){
int a;
for (a=1;a<=10;a++){
System.out.println("This is a dumb Java program.");
}
}
}

public class Response extends Stupid {
public Response() {
System.out.println("Java is fun, but weird.");
}

public static void main(string Args[]) {
Response n = new Response();
}
}

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
printf("Of course, there is always C.\n");
return 0;
}

I actually found the community the day the archives got shut down! Ahh! I've been falling in love with my
TI-83+ and have really love this site I don't think in any way the comunity is dying. I see a hunger for TI's springing up all around, I think we may just be dealing with a new group of "members" (like myself) entering the scene!

What you say is true, the TI era is dying. Now some people may think it's the programers dying or getting too buisy or the websites going down the toilet, but if you really think about it; everything is related to the calculators themselves right? I mean these web pages and people devote themselves to these calculators. The thing is, that we have done just about everything that can be done with a calculator. There of coarse is a few things left to do, but if you look at TI calc.org (here), you see at least 5 repreductions of the same idea. Maby programers are running out of ideas.
But I have one to propose. Networking. People never really think about hooking mare than one TI together to form a network. A hub would cost 4 bucks, or you could make your own. With this, you could do multitasking, multiprosessing, multi file transfer, or multiplayer games to play with your friends. Networking opens a whole new demension to the TI calculator. Now, people can make networks, or network software, or games, or advanced math programs that need the power of several cowaperating calculators. I think this would spark a new begining!

-Pascal

I don't share in your predictions. The community may be going through the dart times, but they will come out victorious. As some old programmers lose interest, new ones take their place. we are in a trasitional period, with the average programmer young and unskilled. As the years go on, and the new programers gain skill, many new programs should be around

yes but what will the new programers program? As I sail before, there is so little left to program about. It isnt that ther are not enough programers, it is that everything that can be done for the calculator, has been done for the calculator.
-read my previous reply

-Pascal

There was talk on the hardware list buliding an all together new Calc like (portable, simple) device. But it turned in to a flame and died.

But still it would be fun to try.