[A83] Re: CAS
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[A83] Re: CAS
It was just a random idea I had, and it'd be interesting to see someone do
it, though it probably won't be me, unless I get some free time. I haven't
really seen many "plugins" to the OS that are really useful. There were
some for the 86 to do things like automatically run an assembly program
without needing to type Asm(, but nothing more than that.
I haven't thought much about exactly how to do it, but it'd be nice to get
some input from people on that. Something like the pretty print on the 86
would be very useful to me when doing math on it. Sure, I could just use my
89, but I've always liked the 86, and it does useful things much easier than
the 89, like unit conversions, and base conversions (though for that Windows
Calculator is great :)
A [sqrt]key program could be used, and provide a very efficient yet good
interface. If the calc is at the homescreen, and no menu is open, then one
or all of the F keys (they do nothing if no menu is open) could launch the
app. It would pop up over the homescreen and show the last entered equation
and result in pretty print, and/or the currently entered equation. Does the
83 or 83+ have a hook of this sort? On the 86, you create a [sqrt]key
program and set a flag, and that program gets run whenever a key is pressed
in _get_key. Maybe a worthless key like F4/TRACE could be used.
The pretty print code would be the same for both calcs, it'd just need
different system code. I'm sure someone like Dan Englender would have no
problem with that for the 83/83+.
Your comment about the 89 is a bit funny. I can't ever remember using ANS
on the 89, so I had to go check it out in VTI to see how it worked. The
entry system on the 89 is completely different. There is an input line at
the bottom, and the rest of the screen is the scrollback buffer. Kind of
like a typical IRC chat client. Pressing up/down will scroll through the
entries, both input and result. Pressing enter will paste the entry into
the entry buffer. ANS can certainly be used, but generally things are
entered differently. Things in the scrollback buffer do not contain ANS,
but instead contain the value. Thus when things are pretty printed, they
look as you'd expect.
I hadn't thought about ANS, but it could be handled in the same manner
rather easily. It could be optional to display variables as their name or
their value.
If you want a full CAS, go buy an 89 or a 92+. I've thought about the
possibility of doing one for the 86, but it's kind of pointless. You'd be
essentially replacing the OS, so you'd lose the clean interface that makes
the 86 such a great calc. And the screen is smaller, so you don't have as
much room for a scrollback buffer and pretty print. But just a pretty
printer for one equation, now that would be nice.
> I think that in this way you wouldn't be able to do more than 'pretty
> print' the answers, like "12/59" (becomming 12, line, 59) and maybe give
> things like the imaginary part a special place... It might also be
possible
> to 'pretty print' the the last entry, but what if you had used 'Ans' in
the
> equation? Then thing wouldn't be that usefull...
>
> As far as I know on the Ti89/92(+) the TIOS keeps track of how the formula
> was built-up (replacing 'Ans' with the previous entry(s), etc.). And in
> that way it can display some usefull info via the 'pretty print', so not
> only the last thing you have typed.
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