Survey posted 2006-01-19 04:04 by Jon.

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One of the things I do is cross compile everything for all calculators and shells. I think ticalc.org needs a better way to handle such things, because the Z80 TI8x's are all the same thing, just with different amounts of memory or different screen sizes.

No, believe me, they're NOT all the same thing!!! They all have significant hardware and software differences that can make porting hard, though usually not impossible. It involves a lot more than just changing a few memory addresses...

Well, you can request file links. You can upload the file into one directory, and then we setup symbolic links in other directories that link back to the main one. This way on updates you only have one file to upload, and also all downloads are counted in one file (which is either a good or bad thing, your choice.)

Add support in the search option for "illegal symbols" and shorter strings.

i think that the search should be improved in that on the searches it should search within a certain calc.

i have the most trouble trying to find an 83 plus file among all the 68k files

I hate that too. I'm surprised that there haven't been any other comments of this nature yet.. There should be at least some sort of filtration system.. there is one on the Author listings if I'm not mistaken, so what happened with file archives?

Its the only thing we need to focus on. If you doubt that just take a look at the last page of 83 Plus Upcoming Games.

You didn't put an all of the above choice. I vote for all the choices. The archives need improving, it should become easier to find tutorials, specific game genres, etc, and we should get a forum. You know, sort of revive ticalc.org. Then we could be higher up on the google queue, in other words we would be on the first page of results.

-Edit-
I just googles it again and it was like the third result down. I guess when I first found this site, I went to a link to calc.org, then calc.org had a link here.

There NEEDS to be a ticalc forum, hands down. Of all the ticalc members, such as me, out there, I'm sure that they've wanted to post something on ticalc at least ONCE in their life.
Also, making a forum would be relatively simple to make. Just format it off this one :)

I certainly think that would be good. It isn't so much limiting people, but for a year two it would establish that this site wants good programs. It would probably discourage all the guess the number programs. I do think the test should be rather simple though. Cover all the major commands, menu(, goto, if, input, things like that. Sure one could make a good program without using a goto command, but I couldn't imagine a good program comming from anyone who doesn't know how if then else statements go, menus. I don't think it should be extremely difficult, as there are some basic commands that can be confusing at times. I still don't have for statements figured out yet. I think it is because of laziness not lack of ability. Anyway I think a test would be a good idea.

actually most of the better ones don't use Goto and rarely Menu or Lbl

yes. No mean to brag, but i only use loops (while/for/repeat). The only time when i do use the lbl/goto is if my prog is huge (eg my 10k prog), and the loop endings would just be too messy to handle.
Actually, i also use loops to get out of fors that count your time. It wouldn't take that long anyways, considering all those are 300-400 bytes (contrastive eh?)

Don't use Goto to jump out of For loops! That causes a memory leak (unused End statement). Instead, just set the counter to the maximum value of the loop. Well, I guess it's not bad if it only happens once or twice, but if you can avoid it, then avoid it.

ahh good point... but my fors are score keepers, and always have the end at 9E99. Also, there are part in my programs where code after i set it to 9e99 would still go off, causing what once would be a game over to go on.

There already are some nice calculator forums, such as United-TI and MaxCoderz. But I suppose a ticalc forum could be helpful if it is done right. How can we prevent it from ending up like the Upcoming Programs and Program Ideas forums here on ticalc? They are bloated and at the same time deserted, echoing with the empty calls of lone newcomers. One problem is that they are hard to find. If we are going to have a forum, it has to be only one click away from the homepage! Also, the existing forums are very separate from each other and at the same time not differentiated enough. You can't tell where the new posts are without looking through dozens of pages. This does not work, especially for users with dialup internet access. There is no way to create new topics either, so all become mashed together in a stinking heap, painful to wade through.

I just thought of a good idea :)
What if, to put you're programs into the archives, you're account had to be verified as BASIC or ASSEMBLY knowledgable, like a virtual card.
Eg. You want to submit you're prog to TICALC and had never done it be4. Well, in order to submit the program, you'd first have to pass a "test" on basic or assembly to prove that you're program will work and isn't some n00bish effigy of coding :D
this would work very well. Also to keep from retaking again and again, give all failers a restriction, like once a week.

Another posibility is that there are two archive sections for each category, one that are for the 1337 programs, which would only get in if you had passed the above test i mentioned, and another one which is just full off !#$&.

I meant to comment to this one, not the one above.

Interesting idea; however the assembly test could prove to be a trick. How advanced of knowledge do you test? ASM is so broad that somebody like me who knows a lot about TI-OS internals wouldn't be as familiar with writing, say, a grayscale engine.

Interesting idea though...

Yeah, that is a problem...

Maybe it could be done better by reviewing a few of the author's most recent programs, instead of testing them on their knowledge of the language? That way it would be a lot easier to see if they write good programs.

That's a very good idea - they'd just have to make sure that there were enough different test questions that someone couldn't just take it over and over (even with the spacing that you suggested) to find the right answers.

I think it would be more fair and more effective to improve the rating system rather than imposing more bureaucracy by giving out standardized tests! We don't want to turn off new contributors, we just want to help people find the files they want more easily.

I think that it would be effective to track which files registered users download and then display reminders to rate those files whenever they log in. And it should display links to the info pages for those files too, so they don't have to search through the archives to rate them.