The ticalc.org Newsletter
http://www.ticalc.org/
December 2000 - Volume 3, Issue 12
IN THIS ISSUE
Letter from the Editor
Calculator News
Ask ticalc.org
Bug of the Month
Interview with Olivier Miclo
Miscellany
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Hi, and thanks for reading the ticalc.org Newsletter! Things have been pretty uneventful this month; the only earth-shattering news was the release of the long-anticipated Beta TI-89/92+ SDK. Read the Calculator News section of this newsletter to find out more. This month our screenshot staff succeeded in screenshotting over 50% of the programs in the archives. The percentage increases every day as it tries to reach its goal of screenshotting every program in our archive.
Eric Sun
CALCULATOR NEWS
This month it's seemed like TI itself has been the most active of all. Early in the month, it released new Graph Link software for the TI-89 and 92+ (well, at least this is the first time that someone's noticed, since TI has an annoying habit of releasing things with dates of months before). Anyway. As I mentioned in the Letter from the Editor, the TI FLASH Studio was also released, to the relief of many. A new FLASH app, the Symbolic Math Guide, was also announced. In the wonderful world of calculator software, notable releases include Tezxas v2.2, MirageOS v1.1, Assembly Studio 8x v4.0, Advanced Text Editor v0.9, TCP/IP Suite for the TI-89, and others. Visit ticalc.org for the whole scoop.
Eric Sun
ASK TICALC.ORG
At ticalc.org, we often receive many of the same questions. In this column, we hope to address some of these questions for a broader audience. If you'd like to submit a question, please email it to ask@ticalc.org. Q: Can I contribute to the newsletter? A: Yes! Feel free to send over editorials, interesting hidden features of your calculator, math tips, and anything else you think is worthy of being in the ticalc.org newsletter. You can email all submissions to newsletter@ticalc.org. Thanks!
Eric Sun
BUG OF THE MONTH
Warning: This will crash your calculator! This month's bug is for the TI-89. Press F5, [diamond], CLEAR. Then press CATALOG and quit the CATALOG by pressing ESC or ENTER. After the catalog window closes, you'll see that you have an address error.
Alex Cheng
INTERVIEW WITH OLIVIER MICLO
Email: o-miclo@ticalc.org
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Interview Log
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Eric
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How old are you and what do you do for a living?
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Olivier
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I'm 24 years old, and I live in France. Right now I'm working as a programmer in the industry, but I'll be receiving a university diploma to become a developer.
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Eric
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What's ti-cas.org about and why did you decide to develop it?
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Olivier
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ti-cas.org is a mathematical & teaching site. Users of the TI-89 and TI-92+ can find programs with extensive on-line documentation, methods of resolutions, examples with CABRI, and programming articles. Today, ti-cas has more than 600 pages. We have a "Programming school" where you'll find invaluable information for creating your own algorithms, among other useful sections. I decided to create ti-cas.org to offer a real support to the users, because I know the TI-89 and TI-92+ very well. There are several hundreds of sites dedicated TI-89 on the Internet, but ti-cas.org is different! Since 1998, the site has been updated several times per week, and the programs suggested are of quality (they function within the general framework). To my knowledge, ti-cas.org is the only site with this many mathematical articles.
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Eric
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What do you use your calculator for most?
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Olivier
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I use the calculators for ti-cas.org-related activities!
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Eric
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What was the first program you ever wrote?
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Olivier
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I wrote a program for the TI-85 that made it possible to handle Taylor Expansions.
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Eric
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What are your feelings about the SDK from TI?
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Olivier
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I have a very good impression of TI's FLASH Studio. I should point out that the SDK interests me for the mathematical applications, and not for games. For the first time, Texas Instruments is making it possible to use all the power of the machine. Thanks to tiasm.h, one can use all the mathematical functions without automatic simplification (Symbolic Math Guide). Programmers have been asking for this for a long time.
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Eric
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What projects are you working on now?
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Olivier
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I'm working on a program that will do integration by parts, step by step.
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Eric
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What projects would you like to work on in the future?
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Olivier
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Why not a FLASH app?
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Eric
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What else do you do in the community besides work on ti-cas.org?
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Olivier
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I'm an editor of a French magazine, TIMag. A few weeks ago, I formed a group of students who sell TI calculators in stores. |
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MISCELLANY
There are two versions of the ticalc.org Newsletter, a plain text version and an HTML version. To subscribe, send an email to majordomo@lists.ticalc.org with either "subscribe newsletter" (for plain text) or "subscribe newsletter-html" (for HTML) in the body of the message. To unsubscribe, simply do the same thing except replace "subscribe" with "unsubscribe". You can find all issues of the ticalc.org Newsletter in our Community section under Newsletter. The exact URL is http://www.ticalc.org/community/newsletter/. Any opinions expressed in this newsletter are the opinions of the newsletter editor and/or published authors. By no means are the opinions heretofore expressed to be considered representative of ticalc.org as a whole. Texas Instruments in no way endorses or is affiliated with ticalc.org. Any trademarks are hereby acknowledged as the property of their respective owners.
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