Re: A86: Ti-86 Demo Program
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Re: A86: Ti-86 Demo Program
> What is the demo program about?
TI wrote a demonstration program in assembly for the 86 and put it on
calculators that were intended to become display units. When you turn
on a calculator with the program installed, you get something like this:
Texas Instruments
TI-86 (I have no idea what's centered,
this isn't a mono-spaced font)
1. Start demo
2. Skip demo
Pressing [1] will bring up another menu listing 7 features and "8. all".
Pressing [2] will return you to the OS.
When you choose a feature (or all), the program loads a TSR (interrupt),
turns off the keyboard port, and returns to the OS. Once in the OS, the
interrupt program will write to the keyboard scancode address, "fooling"
the OS into thinking specific keys are being pressed. The entire demo
is about 5 minutes long and is very interesting. I learned some stuff.
An interesting thing about the demo program: when it's installed, the cal-
culator will not let you delete or reset (in order to preserve the demo).
The only way to get rid of it would be another backup, the self test, an
asm program, removal of all batteries for a while, or a large hammer (the
latter may cause undesired oeration, or maybe no operation at all).
Another interesting thing about the demo program: right after choosing
option #1 (start demo), all assembly programs other than the demo prog
are deleted.
A third interesting thing about the demo program: pressing [ON] while the
calculator is doing something (demonstrating the solver or the graph or
something) will still get you "Error ?? Break" and return you to the home
screen.
A fourth interesting thing about the demo program: I HAVE IT and will send
it to anyone who e-mails me _PERSONALLY_ (not to a list). Because I still
haven't figured out how to send backups from the calculator to the computer
(it does not appear to be supported by the graphlink beta software), it's in
a
group file and must be installed. Send the group to your calculator and run
the assemby programs with the "asm(" command. Then turn your calculator
off and on again. The demo will automatically load. Contrary to a post a
while
ago, I was the one to get the program and am the original source of any
internet copies.
Please write to me _PERSONALLY_ for more information or a copy.