As you can see, other authors have already picked up the rifle and are shooting for Mallard... Awesome job Michael. If anybody wants an Ion or MirageOS game ported just email me... Also, I'll soon be buying a TI-73 now that it's a bit more useful for coding :-) Currently, Mallard doesn't seem to work on the new VTI or the debugger: for me code testing is limited to making a 73 app version work and hoping it's compatible... Zelda soon to come :-D

I will be releasing debugger images soon. I also have to upload v0.2 soon and expand upon the documentation.

Essentially I'm saying that waiting a week or so would be wise so things can get more settled and stable first. At this point I would investigate but not yet port large numbers of programs.

at the moment that's good advice...testing is limited to Flash and code study...still issues with SSJ Rage, but now it's the exit that won't work. There may be an issue with _JmpCommandNoChar (spelling). I've tried bcall, bjump, and the obviously wrong jp... Every time the debugger freezes and goes blank :-)

You will have to, for a variety of reasons, use 'ret' like a normal program would :)

All issues fixed, and the _jpcomnochar (sp?) thing was for the flash test version only..That long process is now eliminated thanks to your debugger save file, thank you. Uploading...time to port FallDown.

> other authors have already picked up the rifle and are shooting for Mallard...

NOOO! Don't shoot the duckie!

:-P

I'd rather compare it to the TI-82 shells. According to the description, it is based on the same principle. ZShell used a custom menu hack, but the TI-82 and TI-73 don't have a custom menu. So what the TI-82 shells did, and what Mallard now does, is to use a hacked matrix instead.

The news couldn't be posted by Magnus if it didn't mention how wonderful ZShell is :)

LOL

Now the people who woefully chose the 73 can have their fun!

This is what I'm talking about. For so long, there has been no innovation and hacking because it has all been done. This kind of advancment is what this community is all about, and I am glad to see that there are places where it can still happen.

-W-

One word: w00t!

Seriously, great job!

My only fear is that in 4 minutes I'll reload the page and see a red border.

Nope, it's for real. They wouldn't put bogus programs into the archives, and I've personally seens Michael going on about it in #tcpa. :)

One thing: wacky fun random number generator.

It's "numbar", not number.

MV said he wouldnt port it cuz WFRNG use a romcall that the 73 doesn't have

And which romcall would that be? HMMM?

I've got to ask, why did ya pick that name? :-)

He hinted to it up above:

"Yes. I half-finished a TI-73 shell in 2002 that was an app. However since TI has not yet released the freeware signing key for the 73, it would have been a pain to update new versions.

That shell was called DuckIE (Duck Interface Environment). You may find that 'Mallard' makes more sense if you know that :)"

What's the clause in the file about "saving your precious RAM?" The TI-73's got more RAM than the 83+/84+ series! I use Ion in my RAM on my 83+, and I've got potloads to spare.

The 83+ has archive memory though. The 73 has none.

The archive's all for APPs?

Yes

No way to hack that?

Possibly (maybe Michael could clear this up) -- but at any rate it couldn't be done easily without an OS patch.

Certainly it would take major modifications to get the OS to handle archived variables in the way the 83+ does -- but on the other hand, the 83+ OS doesn't really handle archived variables properly, it merely tolerates their presence :)

It can't. The OS has no support. The VAT has no space for a variable page. You'd have to rewrite the OS.

That being what I meant by "major modifications."

But there's no real need to have archived variables in the VAT in the first place, and once you've done that you don't really qualify as a 73 anymore, since you've broken binary compatibility. If you wanted to, and didn't care about doing things that might be DMCA and/or EULA violations, you could modify the OS to allow Flash writing, and set up an archive structure, and provide functions for the user to copy files back and forth. Since no 73 program is going to know about the concept of an archive anyway, there's no need for the files to be in the VAT at all.

Well, you don't need a VAT or OS support, you only need to get the OS to leave your variables in peace when sending/removing Flash Applications, and then have Mallard (for ASM programs, or some external archiver/unarchiver tool for anything else) find the files by scanning the archive. The TI-83+ OS doesn't have that good support for archived files either, does it? AFAIK (correct me if I'm wrong, you know these calculators way better than me), you can't do anything other than archiving, unarchiving, or running through an assembly shell anyway. That can all be done without any OS support at all.