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Review
Review by  Konrad Meyer
Reviewed on 2004-01-27
Note! This review was written for a previous version of this file!

PedroM is a wonderful piece of software. It's a marvel, and is definitely the first independent OS for a TI calculator. It does have basic arithmetic built in (editors fix me if I'm wrong; I think it has simple division, multiplication, addition, and subtraction)

The UNIX like interpreter might intimidate users who have never seen UNIX, but its fairly simple to understand, and has a help command. Also, the lack of BASIC support might seem bad, but I think it is good, mainly because it encourages people who know BASIC to learn ASM, takes less space on calculator, and doesn't fill up ticalc's archives with useless BASIC programs (I know very few that are actually good, and I used two program in it). Overall I'd give it a 9 out of ten; It is wonderful, is an independent OS, but it lacks the CAS, the only reason I took one point off.


Review
Review by  Michael McElroy
Reviewed on 2004-01-26
Note! This review was written for a previous version of this file!

PedroM is pretty impressive. It has a UNIX-style command interpreter, nearly-perfect ASM support, multitasking support, process tables, and more. It's also the first totally independent OS for the TI-89, and possibly even for any TI calculator. That alone is enough to merit acclaim. Also, because Patrick re-wrote most of the standard TI-89 C/ASM headers (to improve them), programs that use the standard headers can be recompiled with these instead for a noticeable speed boost.

There are a couple major problems with PedroM, but they are understandable. First, it lacks a BASIC interpreter. While this may seem to nullify any positive points that the rest of the OS has earned, I can personally attest to the difficulty of writing a programming language interpreter. Second, there is no Computer Algebra System (CAS). This too is understandable; however, what with the TI-89 being a calculator, it is much more noticeable than the lack of BASIC. If anything, this was the single reason I took PedroM off of my TI-89.

Overall, PedroM is impressive - about a 9 out of 10. I refrain from giving it a perfect 10 simply because of what it lacks. For those of you who are new to PedroM, I would suggest first trying it out on VTI to get a feeling for how it works, rather than going straight to a real TI-89. Either way, I definitely recommend that you try it.


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