Survey posted 2000-11-19 03:21 by Andy Selle.

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I've written tons of TI-86 programs to cheat for me on math tests, but the programs work and prove very helpful. Logically, I was able to write those programs, so I must know the math, which means I deserve an A, right?

Every one of my math teachers since Algebra 1 have said "If you can make it you can use it."

I'll admit it, I've used my calculator to cheat on a test. In fact, I wrote a program (TxtView) specifically to help me do just that </shameless plug>. What I did was type up all my physics vocabulary words and definitions (or other notes) into a text file, convert it into a program, and send it to my calc so I could view it during tests with TxtView (Sorry Mr. Jordan). Sure, I saved some time by not having to memorize vocab, but I invested many, many more times that amount of work in order to write the program. I'd say it was well worth it though, because I got to do something that was not only more interesting (to me), but it's helped me for other stuff as well. This doesn't justify my cheating, I'm just saying that I don't regret what I did because it was the right trade-off for me.

Why cheat? What will you ever accomplish that way? And besides your not learning, which could hurt you in future classes. Just think of these questions the next time you feel the urge to cheat by programming something into your calculator.

Young Kouri I ashamed of you! I thought I had you understood pretty well. Oh well, just don't do the same thing at Davis!

I do not know why many of you use special programs (TxtView) or the Graph screen for storing text. Are there TIs where you cannot store plain text into a prgm variable (83, 83+, 85, 86, 89, 92, 92+ can)? And it saves space and can be exited faster.

I've used ATE on my 86 to take notes and use those on tests. Although my teacher says "No notes" she never said "no calculator", so is it cheating or not?

I have to show my work, so I do the problem, then use the equation solver on my 86 to check. Also, do you really think Mr. Bean is cool? I thought I was alone. My internet names used to be:

Bean
Mr.Bean
Mr_Bean
Bean_Smart
Bean_Einstein
etc.

I love Bean.

Of course! This is my name on all sites. I'm also bean and beany on ti-galexy.

I do a lot that might be considered cheating, it is just that I do not ask the teachers if they think it is cheating.

Also, my father is a college prof and he had no idea about the memory and cheating capablilities of modern calcs till I told him.

And here is a question: Are periodic table programs mainly cheating programs?

I am interested because I am writing one for the ti89 called yapt. I feel guilty because this will be taken as a plug but anyways I still want to know.


-Samuel Stearley

Periodic Table Programs are NOT cheating. I use them all the time. Periodic tables are supposed to be a huge crib sheet to be used on homework, quizzes, and tests.

Usually my chem teacher hands out a periodic table on a sheet of paper every time we take a test and I use the periodic table on the 86 to find elements and the oxydation no. But sometimes he makes us use the ti30x because he wants us to actually know some stuff.

Since I got the Periodic Table Flash APP, sold by
TI, Inorganic Chem. has been so much easier. My teacher doesn't mind at all. In fact, she loves it. Since I can directly paste the atomic mass to the home screen, this helps out in grams-to-?????. But that doing the math, I don't Feel that it's right to store definitions and things like in strings

Has anyone else noticed how the screenshotters aren't doing that good of a job? Click the URL link for this post and see the screenshots of a Spanish program. I also have found many other incidents of useless screenshots.

Some of those Spanish programs were not working. I may not be in Spanish, but i know if i look into the program and look up a word in there and fine it. Then type it in like he says, and it doen'st give a answer.. then something is wrong. So maybe by posting a screenshot that shows the user what happens when you give certain words, like uno..didn't work.. so they might want to consider a different program. Or for the maker of the program to revise his text so people understand how to use it, and or to fix the problem.

Lol, yes I have noticed how some of them aren't (saying some because I have seen some good ones, so I don't want to generalize them). There was a thread about this at http://www.ticalc.org/archives/ news/articles/4/42/42143.html (the 8th thread).

For some examples of this, taken from the thread:

http://www.ticalc.org/archives/ files/fileinfo/133/13312.html (says Daniel Bishop about it "I agree that some of the screenshots need to be changed, unless one of the screenshotters really is an obese midget," lol)

http://www.ticalc.org/archives/ files/fileinfo/129/12935.html (one of my programs, a blank screenshot of it and it isn't even an Asm program)

http://www.ticalc.org/archives/ files/fileinfo/135/13541.html (a pie chart with incorrect input and no picture of the pie chart)

http://www.ticalc.org/archives/ files/fileinfo/140/14044.html (wrong program, as this isn't a game)

http://www.ticalc.org/archives/ files/fileinfo/125/12508.html (should be a game)

And many, many more...

If anyone has any more documented examples feel free to respond to this post with them.

And I think what ticalc.org should do to solve this problem is let people change their screenshots *without* having to upload a new version. Calc.org lets you do this, only it doesn't have as many programs as ticalc.org. This would also make it so that people couldn't really complain about bad screenshots since they would have a way to stop them.

"I agree that some of the screenshots need to be changed, unless one of the screenshotters really is an obese midget" haha :)

Very obese. I think he weighed 67 pounds. He's 5 inches tall, so he should weigh only 1 pound.

Also, I think that the screenshotters are accidentally eleting my programs. Two of my programs which have been in ticalc.org for many months have disappeared. The last time I went to their file information page, they didn't have screenshots. It looks to me like a screenshotter messed up badly.

What program was it? The SS staff doesn't directly have the power to delete programs - though if we find a bad one we report it the the file archiver.

P.S. Does anybod else find it interesting that ticalc has its own "SS"?

Turbo83+ was deleted and so was Spanish Helper v3.5.

To clarify:

Typically when a file is deleted, it is because it crashes horribly when it is run. All programs are run on clean emulated calcs with defaults set. The only other programs on the calculator would be the assembly shell used and, in the case of levels files, the program that uses those level files. When I screenshot a file, I transfer the file, then I run what would be the most logical program, to me, to run. If it doesn't work, I reset the calc and retransfer the file(s). I read the readme.txt or similar, and attempt to run the program again. If I get another ERR:Invalid or ERR:Data Type or another error, or the program crashes the calculator, or does nothing, then it is submitted to ticalc.org for further evaluation. If a file crashes my emulator immediately when it is executed, chances are it will crash a physical calculator, too. Sometimes, with BASIC programs, and Asm programs that include multiple calculator versions, I will try the program on a different emulated calculator.

About the issue of irrelevant screenshots, we do not have the time to figure out a whole program, especially if it is very complex - 15 min/program will NOT keep up with the flow of programs in. There are only a few people on the staff (15 or so) who do things other than screenshot files. Each file takes about 3 minutes to screenshot (some take much longer, and some take a tad more than a minute), and there is only 1 person over 20 screenshots/day. The volume of files that come into ticalc.org is enormous, and slowly the screenshots staff is capturing the archive. We just passed 50% a couple days ago, as a matter of fact. Once we have shot the whole archive, we can go back and take better, and eventually animated shots of the archive where it is underrepresented. But first, we must capture the whole archive. If we have clarified the purpose of 90% of the files on ticalc.org, than that must surely at least cancel out the damage done by taking screenshots of malignant/misrepresentative data from the other 10%. If you do not like the performance of the screenshots staff, then, by all means, submit an application. However, we try as hard as we can to give you a better idea of what is in /pub.

David Brigada
Proudly taking screenshots of [mostly] good software