You have probably noticed the lack of a good shell for the 86. Yeah, so we got Aurora, Iridius, and A-Shell. On first impression, Aurora seems to be the best, with its fast cursor, and 8x8 icons. But a 86 running Aurora has to have its files start with prog, and that gets a little messy. Iridius and A-Shell both are listed shells, meaning the ASM programs are listed. This interface is minimal and non-graphical, and most likely does not support libraries. Currently, no shell can do anything that TI-OS cant do. Asm( can do most of what Aurora, Iridius, and A-Shell do.
Here is the proposal. We must create a shell to act as the standard, to be useful in its existence. Notice that by now there have been seven different shells for the TI-85. Probably the worst thing about different shells is INCOMPATIBILITY. Usgard programs cant run on OS-85, OS-85 programs cant run on Supernova, etc. We must elimiate this. There has to be ONE standard by which to program by. ONE type of library. ONE syntax. ONE STANDARD. Notice that I did not say one shell. There could be 256 shells, but they all must run under ONE standard. Take for example the TI-82. The compatibility of the two new shells for the 82, ASH and OS-82, has created quite a dilemma. Programmers partial to one shell dont want conversions of their software to the other shell. Then when someone else converts it, there is a big commotion.
We have to eliminate this problem all the while adding features to enhance the shell. However, such a magnificent piece of work could not possibly be finished by one or two, or even three people. I am looking for people interested in helping out. If you want to help out, email me back with a list of some ASM programs you have made. Below is a list of modules which need to be programmed, choose one that seems interesting to you. Some modules are larger, such as the multitasking module, and you may need to work in a small group with other programmers to accomplish the task. Please email me back with your module preference and a short list of older sucesses. I will email you back with a more detailed description about it. Thank you for reading this.
MODULES PENDING CREATION (Explained in detail in reply mail)
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-ICONS, 4-6 LETTER CAPTION
-BACKGROUND PIC, MAYBE GRAYSCALE
-VARIABLE-SPEED MOUSE, 8 DIRECTIONS, 2ND=LEFT CLICK, ALPHA=RIGHT
CLICK
-START BUTTON
-APD
-PASSWORD PROTECTION
-STARTUP AND SHUTDOWN PROGRAMS
-PLUGINS
-SPECIFIC-PROGRAMS ENHANCED
-BUILT-IN ICON EDITOR
**THE FOLLOWING MODULES ARE EXPERIMENTAL**
-TASKS TRAY (works with multitasking)
-MULTITASKING
-MULTI-FILE TYPE DRIVE FILES (i recommend you ask me about this!)
-TI-82, 83, AND 85 ASM SUPPORT
-DYNAMIC LIBRARIES, APPENDS TO SHELL
-TI-OS COMMAND LINE
-ACCELERATED BASIC
-BUILT-IN LINKPORT SOFTWARE
MODULES IN CREATION
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MODULES COMPLETE
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This data is recent as of September 3, 1997. All ideas are private and pending copyight.