Re: TI-H: Why make hardware upgrade? CMPRS!!!

[Next][Index][Thread]

Re: TI-H: Why make hardware upgrade? CMPRS!!!



I've read a couple replies like this. There's one other reason that's
simply been over looked. I myself own a TI-85, so therefore i only have
about 26K of free memory at most (less if i've got ZShell installed). This
is fine for a few simple math programs, but most of the people who build
expanders don't want just a few simple math programs. They want to run
games. One game in particular (Daedalus) takes about 13K of memory just to
install the program. that means i'm left with only 11K (13+2(for UsGard)).
Getting to the point...the calculators just don't provide enough memory to
hold all the programs/games people want. Where as an external memory
device can hold about 16 times as much. That's just my 25 altarian
dollars.

- Jon Olson

"The people of Krikkit," said His High Judgmental Supremacy, Judiciary
Pag, L.I.V.R. (the Learned, Impartial and Very Relaxed), Chairman of the
Board of Judges at the Krikkit War Crimes Trial, "are, well, you know,
they're just a bunch of real sweet guys, you know, who just happen to want
to kill everybody." - Douglas Adams, Life the Universe and Everything

On Wed, 31 Dec 1997, Jonathan Anderson wrote:

>
>Please read the whole thing or none at all, or else you might think I'm
>just tearing down ideas.
>
>I tried once, although I never told anyone about it.  Some things to
>consider:
>* The compression/decompression algorithm takes space.  They usually
>need some memory to work with too.  (Besides the memory to hold the
>complete compressed and uncompressed work).  You could maybe have a
>program remove data as it worked, but it would be hard, and not all
>compression algorithms would like it.
>* You would need to store the compression algorithm.  Decompression is
>usually fairly fast and easy; on the other hand compression is slow and
>needs more memory.  No one wants to wait 10 minutes while their calc
>compresses data.  Why do you need the compressor?  Programs that store
>data such as high scores would need to change them, and you would have
>to recompress the program.  If you just compressed code and static data
>and kept scores and such in another string, you would not need the
>compressor, but all programs that modify themselves would have to be
>edited/recompiled (and not all have source).  Some programs already use
>huffman or RLE for data such as levels and pictures that only have to be
>decompressed.
>* Incompatibility between calcs.  You transfer a compressed program to a
>friend's calc without the decompressor.  That's a problem.
>
>I know some of these arguments aren't too great (the last can be solved
>by sending over the decompressor too), but compression would still be
>very hard to be worth it.
>
>If someone can overcome these difficulties, go for it.  I wouldn't mind
>seeing a compression program.  Perhaps there is a quick, easy algorithm
>that I didn't think of when I tried.
>
>One other thing that might be possible is to make a "compression box"
>that you connect to the link port.  Send a command and then a program to
>(de)compress on one line, then receive the (un)compressed version on the
>other.  That would be a job for the hardware list with something like an
>AVR perhaps.
>
>Joe Martis wrote:
>> 
>> I don't get it... Everyone is trying to make a hardware memory
>> expansion. It cost money... Why not use a logical way to solve the
>> problem. Compress! I figure that if the programmers (I really sould have
>> written this to the asm list, but I'm not gonna subscribe) would make a
>> shell (I'm talking about 82) that takes up most of the memory, and it's
>> mostly blank space. Then the shell and some homemade link software would
>> use a protocal to transfer new files into the compressed space. The
>> shell would decompress the file it's going to run and put it into the
>> compressed/free space, uncompressed. So the shell never lets anything
>> out of it's 'space.' The leftover space would have to be enough to allow
>> the calculator to function normally. I don't understand why no one has
>> tried it (and publicly announced it.)
>> 
>> -Joe Martis
>
>-- 
>Jonathan Anderson
>sarlok@geocities.com
>
>"I can't be wrong - my modem is error correcting."
>
References: