Survey posted 2004-05-09 19:58 by Morgan.

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When it's not about a beta or port from an RBP2 member then it's always for help (illiterate newbs!).

I've gotten email from someone needing help with a non-TI calculator program once. It was a stupid unfinished program, and I didn't expect anyone to actually try to USE it. :-)

Ironically, no one has emailed me about programs I DO intend people to use. Oh well. Maybe my programs are just written _so_well_ that nobody needs help with them (or not).

I write mostly assembly routines and utilities and stuff, so they're not exactly for n00bs who are known for asking stupid questions. OR nobody even uses them. Who knows?

By the way, IF YOU USE MY STUFF, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME! I would really like some feedback on my programs.

Most other authors probably feel the same way, so apply this advice to them too.

clink clink (just my two cents :)

Fly 3D seems nice, but you need to use more of the screen.

Well, thanks for the feedback.

Fly3D doesn't use more screen space because each pixel takes several multiplies, and so more pixels take longer to draw. I found that 32x24 was an acceptable compromise between screen size and framerate, at least for me.

Besides, I somehow lost the source code to it long ago. :-(

You should back up your stuff. It's the only good application of a 3.5 floppy anymore anyways (although I have a CD Burner I never use it to back up because they are easily scratched).

Actually, I was burning to a CD-RW all the files (including my fly3d source code) I created on my notebook when I still had WinXP on it, because I was going to install Slackware Linux 8.1 on it.

To make a long story short, I didn't check the CD before I installed Linux. It didn't burn correctly. I managed to salvage some files (yay for "cat /dev/cdrom"!) from the partial CD image, but I couldn't save the fly3d source. It's gone. Forever. Fortunately, though, I didn't use WinXP very long, so I didn't have many files.

I have a very early version of fly3d, actually, that renders the whole screen at about 1 frame per second. I could try to rebuild it from that if I cared to, but frankly, I don't care that much now. If I get any requests for it I would upload it, though.

Like I said, floppys are nice (even if they are relics).

I forgot to add the line "And now I've learned my lesson". :)

I'm now using floppies much more regularly, but they can hold only 1.44M, so not many of my files can fit on a floppy. That kind of sucks because I have only a sneakernet connection between my computer (a Pentium 233) and the other computers in my house. I *really* want to get a NIC.

I told a friend of mine that i was going to build myself a new computer soon, and listed a general idea of what im going to put in it. He was surprised and didnt agree with me on the inclusion of a floppy drive. They dont have much room, but theyre great for quickly and easily transferring files between computers not connected on a network, and theyre really durable. Besides, a floppy drive costs about 10 bucks these days, and the disks barely cost anything, although you could even continually reuse them. I like floppies!

I think they're handy, but they seem to break easily in my bookbag. But I'm using one right now to store my AP Comp Sci Final Project on it, so I'd better hope it doesn't break now!

Only problem is, they're kinda slow. And 1.44MB isn't a lot, these days.

I keep them in my pockets since they are small unlike CDs

I think that lack of good feedback is because most users of ticalc are programmers themselves. They just look what and how other people program. (And most users / programmers here are in for school programs; helping to pass the exam or pass the time in classroom)

The feed back I got was often; can you use it on a Ti 85 (or 86) also?

Feedback with real questions and suggestions are rare, although I get some because other (non calculator)sites mentioned my programs. Those people are never teenagers!

I got some nice feedback today! (from Switzerland)

Navigate will be translated to the Ti 86 codes.

I do like this survey ... gives people the guts to do something beautiful!

Probably the most interesting e-mail I got was from somebody who had just learned z80 ASM and was reading through one of my crappy TI-82 ASM games (lol). In the code for one of the programs (can't remember which), I had

inc a
dec a

And they wanted to know why I did that. It was really just to set the zero/nonzero flag for register a. I didn't know about the "or a" statement then. Pretty funny. I never thought anybody would read through the source code line by line.

Another e-mail I got contained an attachment of a "Bomb Bin Laden" game that they had written for the TI-89. The graphics were in grayscale and they were really great.

Actually, "or a" clears the carry flag. "cp a", which I just starting using, sets the zero flag.

I don't know any good ways to clear the zero flag. It's rarely needed anyway, so that's good.

Oops, I guess I stated that wrong. It's kinda hard to explain what I was doing since I haven't done z80 in so long.

But you know how after you "ld" something into a, you can't compare it to something (like CP 1) without something being set (flags, probably)? "OR a" would set that, if I remember correctly. Blah, I forget. It's been too long.

I have never uploaded any of my programs, but somehow someone managed to contact me about a Star Fox game I had tried to make in 83 BASIC and had long since abandoned. I guess I had mentioned it in the Upcoming Games board. He wanted to have to code so he could finish it. It was kinda funny, anyway, to get an e-mail for a program I never released or even completed.

i had a similar experience recently. After working on a game, i sent a beta to only a few people, my closest associates in the ti community, and then a few days later Lionel Debroux emailed me to offer a ton of suggestions about it! I was completely confused at this point, so i googled it and found it featured on yaronet, a french forum. apparently vincent corfdir, one of the people i had given it to, had posted it there and tons of people in europe, including friends from his school were playing and testing and reporting bugs and stuff, it was kind of creepy...

That would be great!

that does sound creepy

By the way I'd just like to take the time to say that I'm graduating from college with an Associates in Science Friday! Top student in the whole business section! I'm so happy :)
Now I'm off to a Bachelor’s in finance.

congratulations