RE: TI-H: universal calc issues

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RE: TI-H: universal calc issues

    yeah! The startup program could determine what calculator version you were using, screen size, Bios version number, clock speed, etc. and make any changes necessary for the program... 
    Programs written for this new OS, XCalc, would have to have this in mind when written, as a program that uses the ti-92's large screen would be incompatible with the ti-82's relatively small screen... you would have to have multiple screen modes, hence more space, hence less memory available for other programs...
    The only other thing I can think of is on-the-fly screen resizing and dithering (with grey scale...).  Like, if the program calls for a screen of 300x200, and the calculator has a screen of, say 238x102, the XCalc Os would shrink the pixels on the screen just enough to get it on screen... hey, yeah! (I don't mean physical stretching and shrinking, I mean software wise... do you see?).  and if It was too small, you could stretch it onto the screen... 
   It could work, in a perfect world...


"If I could be one thing in the world, I would be a tear born in your eye, living on your cheek, and dying on your lips" - Josh Collins

-----Original Message-----
From:	Jonathan Anderson [SMTP:sarlok@geocities.com]
Sent:	Friday, October 10, 1997 12:04 AM
To:	ti-hardware@lists.ticalc.org
Subject:	Re: TI-H: universal calc issues

Well, a couple of crucial elements would be graphics handling, since
this is done differently on the 8x's.  What I wonder about is the screen
size difference.  The only way I can think to handle it, is let the
program poll how large the screen is, or program for the smallest screen
size, although this would leave a lot of white space on a larger screen.

Christopher Kalos wrote:
> 
> I'm working on XCalc, an OS to run the entire link-enabled TI8x series.  It will include a universal code system that will eliminate the need for recompilation of binaries for each calc, and will hopefully be a bit smaller than usgard.  I need recommendations as to what users want, and you guys represent the largest pool of calc-savvy people.  Any recommendations will be taken quite seriously.
>         The bytecode issue involves using only z80 opcodes and library calls, and we might toss in program relocation in order to facilitate the system.  To top it all off, I would like to include an X*nder psuedo-loader with some level of intelligence.
>         Before you all laugh, there are 4 of us working on this, so it might be do-able.
> Thanks,
> Christopher Kalos
> raptorone@geocities.com
> raptor_one@hotmail.com
> Executive Director/Administrator
> Virtual Technologies Developer's Group

-- 
Jonathan Anderson
sarlok@geocities.com

"I can't be wrong - my modem is error correcting."
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