It's really excelent ! Event if it takes 10k of RAM, it's quite useful and original to let us forget that ! Don't mind critical mail ! (perhaps the clock is not necessary...).
Keep working... and call me as soon as you have finished !
-----sorry I'm french and my english is...

Please tell me at least WHEN YOU WILL EXPECT the shell to be out

Thanks

could someone please help me with creating a gui or any good games for ti 86

All I have to say, is why? I personally got a ti-85 so I could get away from the heck of normal palmtops. What I mean is GUIs. I mean, I like GUIs and all, but I mean geez! It's a calculator. A TEXT Based calculator. I'm sure the makers of it never intended for it to have some Graphical User Interface that looks quite a bit like Windows CE. Plus, as someone else said, LAWSUITES. Danger! Danger! Whoever is making this program! Bill Gates is approaching! By the way, BOYCOTT Microsoft(C).
But seriously though, I personally would forget the start menu and explorer bar. Do that, and it would be awesome.

Like Windows? this seems to be much better than Windows.

All of this stuff is great. (if only someone would make it.) But to put on a real twist: Networking! Plugging in 2 calcs would give them access to all of each others resorces. Mabey with "Made for (This GUI)" programs that would fit into windows and have this ability would be a teachers nightmare and a slackers dream. This OS could be the new standard in TI calcs.

I think that the idea of an assembly GUI for the TI-86 is great. It doesn't need the Windows-clone appearance, though. I think that originality has been the key to the success of the TI calculators and games. Who would have thought of making something called Usgard or PhatOS for an IBM? It wouldn't sell. As far as the TI calcs go, sales of shells isn't an issue since most of them are freeware. My point: everything about this idea is cool, but an original concept(not WinCE 86) is almost a prerequisite. Hey, I hear ZShell's discontinued. Maybe you could get the guys that made that to let you use the name and create ZShell 86. At least that would be more calculator-oriented.

I know this is off topic but I don't know where else to put this. Is there a program for the TI-86 that can factor like the TI-89 or TI-92? Onw of my friends has a TI-92 and al he has to do is put in the factor program and then type x2-7x+28 and it'll give him the answer in this form: (x- )(x- ). He can type anything he wants and it'll give him the answer. If anyone has a program like this please e-mail me. Thanks

There is a button on your calculator labeled "poly", which does polynomials. When it asks for the order, type 2 for a second degree polynomial. This is very useful in algebraic math.

I think that a window-like GUI for the Ti-86 is an excellent idea, it turns a calculator into a palm top and it takes up only 10k! this leaves plenty of room for programs and games. i have already figured out the clock problem, i am now writing a program that allow you to check your e-mail with the calc through an external modem, may be this can be incorparated into the GUI

This shell will take a _TON_ of work on behalf of whoever writes it. I can't. I don't know enough ASM to. I love the idea, and I think it would become famous.

It should be made REALLY impressive.

How about macros/batch files?

All of the shell's options should be in a clearly-marked file that can be backed up. Back when I used YAS, everytime YAS crashed my calc, I had to re-orginize eveything! YAS was nice, but it had a problem where when I was running another program, and the APD timed-out, it would freeze!

I believe that this should be a very dynamic shell. The first layer of customization would come as a Windows (for the computer) installer. You'd select what modules you wanted, what you wanted it to look like, etc. Then it would send it your calc. More work, but it would be well worth it. Then there'd be a control panel in the shell.

I think this shell should support multitasking. Not all programs would be able to multitask. But ASM programmers could add special code to their programs (near the shelltitle) that would tell wether or not it could run in the shell (if it couldn't, the shell would save itself to a swap file) and what memory it used that would need to be saved, and other such stuff.

"...the GUI would take on Linux properties where every user could modify, recompile, and use whatever "flavor" of GUI suits them best. I talking about segmented, WELL-DOCUMENTED code here... it would be a pain, but very rewarding in the end."

I think we need to remember that this is a calculator. We need to use the calculator keys and screen as effeciently as possible.

I think that compression is a really nice idea, especially automatic compression/decompression. I believe that you should be able to select different compression ratios: ARCHIVE, HIGH, NORMAL, LOW, Fast Compress/Slow Decompress, Normal, Slow Compress, Fast Decompress.

I think icons should be an option in Control Panel.

I think it would be really nice to be able to link with the 82, 83, 85, maybe even the 89/92 eventually. But most important the 82/83 since most schools seem (could be my imagination) to have class sets of these. It should be able to link from the GUI.

I agree with whoever said "The idea of having an Explorer like interface, so that when linked, the calculators can browse the others files, this would be a nice addition. Sort of like the Network Neighborhood approach."

How about a recycle bin?

Maybe some sort of crash-protection?

A clock would take up too much battery power, but would be a nice optional add-on. Or maybe something (a variable) that would hold the day, that all other programs (schedulers, calenders, etc.) would access. A box asking you what day it was could/would pop up every X calc-turn-ons (user defined).

What we shold do is make two versions of the GUI. ONe with Icons one without. Not to difficult. Who would need a clock on it anyway? The Windows type is a great idea but who hasn't thought of that? Take off the explorer, we don't need it because its takes up space. We can delete stuff anyway so who cares. The string viewer is a great Idea! One last thing some email me if they make it so I can download it.

You people are all from 1998 & I'm from the future but the TI-Voyage 200 will have a clock. And now I bring you a phrase f r o m t h e f u t u r e: w00t!

I'm not a 86 user, I use a 83+. Anyway, here's what I think.

1. You should have some sort of task bar... start-menu bar or something. I don't know why you'd want autohide unless it was a special button to pop it open.

2. How will the OS (what'll it be called?) detect new addons? If it has some line of code, then you could auto-find auto-sort them. I.E. it coudl be IDed as ThisOS Utility Addon, and it would be dropped into the Utility Addon folder.

3. Maybe F1 could toggle the start menu/task bar from one mode to another. One would have the battery power and free ram and stuff, another would have the control panel, addons, progs, and quit or something.

4. There's something called the TI-OS, but it's inconvenient. I use MirageOS to run all my games and stuff, because it's more convenient, but I use the OS to edit my progs, etc. because Mirage can't.

5. Add features of future calcs. Look at OmniCalc. It gives you some really useful features for the 83+... factor, custom menu, simpsqroot, base changing... etc.

I don't know if what I just suggested would make it bloated, but I really don't think that optional stuff should come with a premade spot on the menu.

BTW, are there any new screen shots?

There has already been a shell made that does most of these things described. The only thing it doesn't do is display the time. It is almost impossible to do unless you can figure out a way to just turn the power consumption by the calculator and have it run a TSR for a clock. If any one can figurre this out, I'll be at there ankles begging them for the code.

What's it called? I own a TI-83+ SE and I have not found a shell so far that works or has a GUI I like.

The Shell I made that I mentioned earlier about having everything is called Eclipsoft DX. It has TI82, 83, 85, 86, and 89 emulation. I know this doesn't seem right but I got it to work. It uses the idea with the icons as described. It locks memory, has password protection, and looks like Windows CE. It has 8 gray scales, a wallpaper that is changable with the push of a button, and muc, much more. It has been released to a very select few who I can trust, who wont give it away until I can figure out the bug I have with creating a 9th gray scale (for wallpaper purposes). Tell me what you think.

Somehow, I don t think that this Eclipsoft DX exists. If it did, why would he have written that it has TI86 emulation? Why won t he respond to emails about it? Why didn t he give an URL to it, or at least say where to get it? I have done numerous web searches about it and, obviously, have not been able to find it. If anyone can help, please email me.

Many of you that said that you would like to see a GUI like this one will be happy to know that I have already began working on this project on the TI-83. Since the 83 and 86 both use a Z80 processor, so it will be easy to convert the shell. I'm not sure how to create a clock that will keep the accurate time unless the user stays in the shell using shutdown and power saving functions to keep the clock running. Well, I don't think that I'll be able to get this done for about a month or two maybe more, but I am working. THanks for the great ideas!!!

I found out that if you set the interrupt mode, then the clock can update itself while running a program. The only problem is that you can't keep a clock going while it's off, so I'll find away around that. Later!

does any one have accsess to the programming in the HP48 i'm not a programmer but it seems that the initial screen with the numbered icons is a good ideah that could be piggybacked off of. Just a random thought.