Re: A89: Re: Re: POTM

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Re: A89: Re: Re: POTM



> The TI-89 and the TI-92+ are, thanks to the way their OS is coded, almost
> completely identical to one another. Just about any 89 game can be ported to
> the 92+, and vice versa. That is why the category is the same- the best
> program would likely be ported to both calcs, and therefore win two awards.
> And that just ain't fair.

Even though the OS is identical, nothing else is.  Porting between the
89 and
92+ is not a simple matter at all, since you have to re-design the
screen
layout to have anything resembling a good result.  On the other hand,
porting
between the TI-82, TI-83, and TI-83+ is extremely easy for most games.
Certainly much better than a proper port between TI-89 and TI-92 Plus.
That allows any program to get *three* awards for something even
simpler.

As in illustration of what it really takes to port between TI-89 and
TI-92 Plus, here's a brief comparison that I made.  This is part of an
article I originally posted on a ticalc.org message board:

Try considering some examples of actual programs:

Galaxian 1.3 is available for Ion.  A single source file, 2465 lines in
length, is used to build both the TI-83 and TI-83+ versions.  There are
a total of 58 lines of conditional code (i.e. stuff assembled for one
calculator but not the other), which is 2.35% of the total source.

Phoenix 3.9 is available for DoorsOS.  It has 15 source files, total
5804 lines in length.  The same files build both TI-89 and TI-92+
versions.  It has 919 lines of conditional code differing between
calculators, which is 15.84% of the total source.  There's this much
conditional code even though Phoenix really sidesteps the display issues
for the gameplay itself, simply having the center of the 224x120 play
area on the TI-92(+) shown on the TI-89.

In other words, as soon as 15.84% becomes greater than 2.35%, there will
be very good reason to have TI-83 and 83+ separate while not having
TI-89 and TI-92+ separate.  Until then, such a scheme doesn't make
sense.

(Note: since I wasn't terribly careful when adding up the above totals,
I can't promise that the figures I have are 100% correct.  However, I'm
sure that they're reasonably close to what I've written above; the
89/92+ certainly have a difference many times greater than that between
the 83 and 83+)
References: