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FAQ - File Archives

Navigating
Question Why don't Axe Parser programs have a separate section in the archives?
Answer Axe Parser is a compiler for an alternative programming language on the TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus series. Visitors who notice that separate sections in the archives exist for programming languages like BBC BASIC, Grammer, NewProg, and so forth, often ask why Axe programs are placed in the “asm” directory rather than having their own section.

The reason is that Axe is a compiled language, which means Axe programs are converted into raw ASM programs. Therefore, as far as the calculator is concerned, there is no difference between an Axe program and an ASM program. Languages that do have their own sections in the archives cannot run directly on the calculator without an interpreter or other support program or library. These programs are easy to categorize.

Maintaining a separate Axe section in the archive would be very difficult since authors are not required to indicate what assembler or compiler they used when they upload a file. Because the final program variable is just like any other ASM program, there is no way to tell for certain that the program was created with Axe, especially if the author does not mention this fact or include the source code (neither of which are requirements for uploading files into our archives).

The TI-89, TI-92 Plus, and Voyage 200 sections of the archive demonstrate another example: Many of these programs were actually written in the C programming language and then compiled into a 68K ASM program. Yet we don't have a separate C section for the same reason—from the user's (and calculator's) point of view, there is no difference, and again, there is no easy way to accurately determine whether the program had actually been written in C before it was compiled. But there is a noticeable difference between TI-BASIC, ASM, and interpreted-language programs (NewProg, BBC BASIC, etc.); the latter require a separate interpreter program to run, and the procedure for running the programs is usually different from that of ordinary BASIC and ASM programs. Thus, programs for these languages have their own sections in the file archive.
Created 2011-09-21 14:14:00 GMT
Updated 2011-09-21 14:14:00 GMT

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