I just tried to download it. It's amazing how much bs you have to go through just to download two stupid files, that they say are free!

i only downloaded one file (ti83plus_sdk.zip). What's up with the 'free signing' utilities, because i can't figure out how to 'sign' an app yet. or do i just have to wait for an email from TI (like it says on the d/l page)? anybody know?

It looks like they forgot to change some of the text from when the SDK had to be purchased (that's where the waiting for email comes in). You don't have to wait for any email, you've got all the stuff you need from that zip file. After you assemble your app into a .hex file (details on how to do this with ZDS are in the 83P Dev Guide), you use the appsign.bat file in the util directory to sign the application (it will create a .8xk file). The 0104.key file in the util directory is the important part (the freeware signing key) that everyone's talking about.

To sign an app, go to DOS, then go to the folder where your hex file is located and type:

appsign 0104.key filename.hex

You might have to put the 0104.key file in the same folder as your hex file.

Hope this helps

Its nice to see that people are actually responsive and constructive in answering questions. Anyway, for some reason the install program did not set the %TI83PLUSDIR% environment variable in DOS correctly, so I had to fix that myself, but now that I have, everything is working just fine. Thanks for your help anyway.

Hmmm.... That's wierd, I didn't have to do that on my machine. I had a problem signing an app when the key file wasn't in the folder with the hex file, but when I put the key file in there it was all good.

You had the same problem, you just solved it a different way. The system variable is used by the program to look for whatever it cannot find in the current directory ... so if everything it needs to find is EITHER in the current directory, OR in the directory pointed to by the system variable, you are in business.

I guess there will be a few more apps around now.
I thought TI would never get the idea that people like programming their calculators.

I hope that people will have the sense not to release APPS that take up only a little bit of the 16kb. Realistically the only advantage for most applications is that they don't require a shell to run. For the general programmer, Ion/MirageOS is probably fine. Applications should probably be reserved for programs that require the extra space.

Shouldn't be much trouble there, it's still going to be a pain to write (and sign) an app.

Yeah, programs like my RPG, heh.

Is TI going to remove the 8.8K limitation since it is now pointless? I suppose that would create compatibility problems though.

Also, does anyone else have the problem where the simulator runs too fast (6x for me)? And do Flash Apps run at 6MHz by default on the 83+ SE, or is that just regular asm programs?

That limitation is hardware based I believe. I don't think it'll be removed because then according to TI, everyone will pirate their commercial apps ;). Remember, too that commercial apps still exist.

Keep in mind that, with the freeware key released, the 8.8K limitation does absolutely squat. If it is hardware based, then oh well, not much to do. Perhaps it can be disabled via communication with hardware, but it doesn't seem that it would make much sense for TI to build in more ways to disable their protections.

Sorry, I have an 92+. Could you tell me what this 8.8K limitation is ?

There's a protection system on the 83 Plus. There are two RAM pages, each is 16K. If program code is ever running from the second RAM page, the calculator will instantly reset. So all program code must be on the first page. The thing is, that 7573 bytes of the first page are used by the system. That leaves 8811 bytes left that program code can run from and not crash. Programs (though this depends in part on what shell they're running from) can be larger than this, but all the stuff after the first 8811 bytes has to be data, and not executable code.

Execution protections also exist on 89/92+ HW2, and they can be disabled by changing bytes of memory mapped I/O. There are actually lots of hardware protections on these calculators, and most of them can be disabled (but in very special states). The hardest thing to do is to find where are mapped the bytes to change in this part of the memory.

Calculators hardware interrest me. Do you know where I can find texts on 83+ I/O and hardware ?

There aren't, as far as I know, any TI-83 Plus specific documents on hardware. However, many things from the TI-82 documents apply. Specifically info about ports 0,1,10h, and 11h (and partially 6/7). Anyhow, to my knowledge, the 83P uses the following ports: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10h,11h,14h,16h. The SE uses some more past that. A very brief info about each port (in respective order) - link, keys, bats/hard, power/int-masks, int-speed/memory-map, ????, mem-bank0, mem-bank1, LCD-instruction, LCD-data, Flash, ????.

With the new freeware key released, I suspect, it will be quite easy to pirate the apps.

(remove signing, change header, re-sign)
(if it doesn't work, disassemble it, and remove the parts that check the header, reassemble, sign)

Aww, who needs those commercial apps anyways.

I actually have the opposite problem with the simulator; it runs much too slow. That may be caused by the fact that my computer is only 233 MHZ though (and I generally have a few other things running along with the simulator). You may want to send a message to TI to suggest they slow it to actual speed. You may have noticed that they are starting to pay a bit more attention to what developers request :)

Flash Apps also run 6 MHZ by default on the Silver Edition. If you want them to run at 15 MHZ, you can either put a little additional data in your program header, or make a call to the ROM entry point to set the speed. Details on both methods are available in the 83P SE programming addendum that TI posted on the SDK page a while back.

However, if TI does this with the 68k SDK, there will be some advantages to writing Flash Apps. Flash apps are more integrated into the entire system. They act exactly like the builtin features (send/receive messages, go to the background, dual screen mode, etc.) And they might not have the increment of 16k requirement that the 83+ has (I'm not sure about this though).

-Sean

I am trying to download but it asks me for a calculator ID...and my ID is not 14 digits long. Anyboady have one I can use? Thanks!

If you have an 83+, your calc ID is 14 digits long. Press 2nd, MEM, then select About, and look for the ONLY 14 digit number on the screen (spaces and dashes don't count).

nope.... 04-0-01-0C. Same number of digits on my 89

That's the Product number, not the calculator ID. On the about screen, the Calculator ID appears directly below the Product number. If you're running on a simulator, you wont have a Calculator ID.

I suppose that is the reason...thanks for a legitimate response!