[A86] Re: Hey All, Some beginner Question :)
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[A86] Re: Hey All, Some beginner Question :)
On Fri, 31 May 2002, Xavier LaRue wrote:
>
> Hey all,
> I was working on an matrix code emulator for the 82/83/83+ and I realise that I never program for my 86.. So I try to port it.. and it work correcly but I have some question:
> 1) Can you tell me how to stop the screen refresh.. because when I
> update the screen.. It flicker.. Because my refresh routine is too slow
> so how to stop the refresh of the screen ?
Generally, you don't. If you look in documents like 86PORTS.TXT on
ticalc.org you can probably find a way to turn off the screen, but then it
will go blank which probably isn't what you want. The usual method to
draw without flickering is to draw everything into graph memory (or
somewhere else) and copy all at once when it is done, similar to the TI-82
in fact where you would rarely write each pixel/sprite straight to the
display controller.
A more advanced method would be to use double buffering, where you
alternate between two buffers to draw in, and switch which one is shown
after you finish drawing one. The 86ports.txt file also tells which port
to use for this. Note that it probably is a good idea to synchronize this
with the screen refresh.
> 2) Can somone tell me what are the saferam in the ti-86 .. I know well
> the 83+ but I seem can't find any equate for the 86??
I can assure you, the 'saferam' situation is much better on the TI-86,
though few people call it 'saferam' there.
Just like on the TI-83+ you can use the graph memory and text memory
without much trouble. But due to the memory paging system, RAM can be
switched in and out of view, and fortunately for you a lot of unused space
is switched in by default. The biggest free memory space is the 16K of
memory from $8000 to $BFFF which is an entire 16K in size. Note that you
probably shouldn't use the first/last few bytes of this due to the
floating point stack and expression stack (or some reason like that) but
almost all of it is free. But keep in mind that accessing variables
requires switching the page, so you should be sure to put this one back if
you want to use it again. Also the _asm_exec_ram where your program is
copied is free (beyond the end of your code) up until the stack unless
some hook/TSR/whatever was installed at the end of it.
> 3) This is probably my hardest question.. So here it go: I made a rpn
> parser application for the 83+ but I want to port it to 86.. So my
> question is how hook work on 86 and how the parser work??
That is indeed a hard question. Unlike the TI-83+ where tons of
documentation on such things was relesaed to help with developing APPS,
there is no such thing here and thus less incentive for TI to document
things. However, there is (or was) an assembly programming documentation
section on TI's web site, and maybe some example code on ticalc.org.
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