Re: TIB: Will TI ever introduce a C based Calculator?

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Re: TIB: Will TI ever introduce a C based Calculator?


Wrong!  Sorry, you don't get the vacation, kitchen set, or even a cigar.  You
do, however, get a correction:

ETTamme1@aol.com wrote:
>     Umm... well, i think that making a C bsed caculator would make the code
> run A LOT faster and it would make for much easier higher graphics gaming and
> stuff like that.  

C based calculator???

> But, i am learning C++ right now and i think it is a much
> more difficult language to master than Ti Basic.  Not to metion the money
> involved in this, C is designed to run on the computer not on the calculator!

Wrong.  Completely.  C was designed to run on a microprocessor.  Guess what is
in our calculator?  Guess what TI coded a significant portion of their
calculators in?  C.  Yup.

> C involves A lot more memory too.

A lot more memory than what?  Basic?  Not.  C uses significantly less memory
than basic.  C uses the same amount of memory as an asm program would need,
assuming memory was a problem and you coded your c program to use less memory.

> In short, i think it would be virtually
> impossible to make a C based caculator withou doing one of the following.

I'm still not sure what you mean by C based calculator.  The z80 and 68k
processors are both _great_ platforms to run C.  Did you know that the 68k was
the first processor the MAC used?  Gues what the programs were programmed in
then?  C!

> 1.  Make a palmtop computer that has Ti calc functions.
> 2.  Make a kind of PC emulator to run on the Calcs then run the current C
> software
> 3.  Make a HIGHLY modified version of C that is designed to run with the
> calcs
>      hardware
> all of the above are high cost options, but i think if one of these is done
> you could have your C and your calculator too.
> so anyway, theres my thoughts on the subject.
>     ~ Eric

Besides, there exists c compilers for both types of calc now.  They're a little
rough, not having all the library functions that are included in standard C
packages, but they're getting there.

-Adam
References: