Re: Packman or Packman 2
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Re: Packman or Packman 2
On Mon, 16 Dec 1996, CHRISTOPHER M. BUCKLEY wrote:
> Jonathan - thanks for responding - I'm alittle new at this so maybe
> you can give me a little guidance. (Anyone else out there please feel
> free to join in at any time!)
>
> I saved the file you sent to disk (I believe I have anyway - since I
> haven't had a chance to open it to look at it).
>
> How are these programs written - what language?) and do you know if the 82 and 85 are written
> in the same language? I was thinking that I would just type in the
> program by hand once I"ve opened it up and taken a look at it since I
> don't have a linking cable (but am considering the purchase of one).
They are written in a language informally called TI-Basic, because of
some resemblance between them and certain forms of the BASIC programming
language for computers. It is a relatively high-level language, that is
fairly similiar between the different TI-8x calculators. But there are
some differences between them, some of which relate to the difference in
architecture and operating systems(e.g. differences in screen size and
menu systems). Also there have been continued enhancements and
refinements to the language with each new calculator(e.g. the TI-82,
which came out after the 85, has a point test command that the 85 does
not). However, due to the overall similiarity between the calcs, most
> When one writes a program for one of these calculators, does it have
> to be in the language of the internal features of the calculator (the
> language the calculator was built with) or can one write a program in
> any language and how would one go about translating a program from
> one language to another? Wouldn't this require knowledge of both
> programming languages (unfortunately, something which I don't
> possess).
The programs have to be written in the language that calculators can
interpret, which is the afrorementioned TI-Basic. However, the 83, 85,
and 92 have means for doing assembly language programming on them, which
means that with a cross-platform compiler running on your PC you could in
theory compile a high-level language of your choice to run on any of
these three computers. But as this does not pertain to your plight I
will save further explanation for if and when you have more specific
questions.
-MarcII
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