Re: ZShell and ASM Help needed
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Re: ZShell and ASM Help needed
On Wed, Aug 13, 1997 9:56 AM, Tate Jackson
<mailto:104440.3120@COMPUSERVE.COM> wrote:
> I am a complete TI Graphing Calculator rookie. I need a very basic
> explaination of ZShell is, what ASM is and what Assembly language
> programing is.
ZShell is a memory hack for the TI-85 which allows the TI-85 to do
something that it was never intended to do - run programs in assembly
language. It does little other than that.
ASM is more or less an abbreviation for assembly language.
Assembly language is the "native" code used by the CPU of a calculator or
computer. At the core is the "binary" code, which is made up of the numbers
0 and 1. (Everything with CPUs is always this way or that way, there is no
"maybe.") Assembly language code is written in a special format, but an
assembler program (such as TASM) is needed to "assemble" the commands in a
way that the CPU can understand them.
All of the TI-80 series of calculators (except for the TI-80 itself) use a
Zilog Z80 CPU, which is a very old 8-bit CPU that's still popular in
handheld computer systems like graphing calculators and Nintendo Game Boys.
> I have some programming experience with basic and pascal.
ASM programming is not for the faint of heart, or for people who have too
much to do with their time. <8*) You have no real "variables" to deal with
(only temporary "registers") and you need to tell the calculator exactly
how to do anything. Displaying a line of text on screen takes a few lines
of code, for instance.
> I want to see if I can use the TI Calculators as a low cost computer
> alternative for data collection.
You'd be better off with a PDA.
Nick Zitzmann No WWW page at this time.
(Resident Macintosh Tweaker)
Windows 95:
From the people who brought you
EDLIN!