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After testing a lot of shells out on the net I relized that a homemade basic shell (just a lot of menu()...) is quicker than any of those high-tech assembly things.

I've got some ideas about a shell where you could start 168 different programs with 1-3 keypresses (when in the shell), using the F1-5 keys to navigate into folders (root, 5 folders and 5*3 subfolders), and in each folder there are programs assigned to the numeric keys (1-8). Unused programs, modules and extra levels could also be hidden.
(1+5+5*3) folders *8 keys =168 combinations + an unlimited number of hidden ones.

What do you out there think about the idea? Do you want a beautifull or an effective shell? Lots of functions or a quick interface?
If I would be the only one using such a shell I don't think it's worth the effort, but if somebody else wants it...

I think its a great idea.

I'm making an encryption program that uses the Caesar method of encryption. Here's the info on it's history:

While Caesar was the Emperor of Rome, he used a method of encryption to send messages to his Generals during wartimes.
He used sentences with total lengths equal to square numbers. Then, he made an array (matrix) with the area equal to that number. He wrote downwards, going to the next column as necessary. Then he read across, going down as necessary. This was the encrypted text. To decrypt it, his Generals used the exact opposite method.

Example:

1) sentence: Head_West. (9 characters, _ means space)

2) Matrix:
H D E
E _ S
A W T

3) cyphertext: Hdee_sawt.

Hopefully, I'll have it done soon and if any of you are good w/ Assembly and are willing to port it once I've worked all the bugs out of it please e-mail me. Thanks!

I'm making an encryption program that uses the Caesar method of encryption. Here's the info on it's history:

While Caesar was the Emperor of Rome, he used a method of encryption to send messages to his Generals during wartimes.
He used sentences with total lengths equal to square numbers. Then, he made an array (matrix) with the area equal to that number. He wrote downwards, going to the next column as necessary. Then he read across, going down as necessary. This was the encrypted text. To decrypt it, his Generals used the exact opposite method.

Example:

1) sentence: Head_West. (9 characters, _ means space)

2) Matrix:
H D E
E _ S
A W T

3) cyphertext: Hdee_sawt.

Hopefully, I'll have it done soon and if any of you are good w/ Assembly and are willing to port it once I've worked all the bugs out of it please e-mail me: mailto:h_bhanu@yahoo.com Thanks!

Sorry bout posting twice, I'm on a laptop with a touchpad mouse that sux!

How exactly would you use this program? and what does Hdee_sawt mean? head south?

Yeah... Hdee_sawt is the cyphertext (encrypted form) of Head_west. It can be used for anything....I'm thinking along the lines of notes btwn people...but the encryption/decryption speed needs to be improved...I've uploaded it to the TI-86 MISC Programs directory yesterday....so you should see it there.

:P

cool

I'll take a look and try to port it to ASM.. giving you credit for it, of course, and myself for just porting to ASM.

Maybe add link cable functionality to send messages to other calculators? Just a thought

I have almost finished my first program and I am considering posting it in the archives. Basically it is a shcool optimized day planer. You can put in homework or anything else you want to for any of six periods. If anybody wants to get it, respond to this and I'll post it. Any tips or advice are also welcome.

Yeah, go ahead and post it! You've nothing to lose...

Hate it when your calc crashes and you can restore the data from the backups but have to enter all the items for the custom menu again? I'm working on a BASIC program that will save the contents of the custom menu to a string, and will restore the custom menu when activated. I'll try to port it to assembly.

I've already made such a program in asm. You can download it from ticalc.org. It's in the TI-86 Assembly Misc. Programs folder and it's named custsave.

Try it out if you don't want to waste time making your own program!

Thanks! Does it detect current settings in the custom menu?

A little late here...

When the program is run it creates a new program.
When that program is run the custom menu is restored to how it was when the program was created.

I downloaded yours and am now using it. Works really well! FOR ANYONE WHO SEES THIS, DON'T USE CREST, MY PROGRAM! USE CUSTSAVE INSTEAD!(my program doesn't even work) Anyways, thanks for a great utility!

I'm currently working on giving the TI-86 wireless internet capabilities. The design allows someone with a broadband connection to access the internet from their calc. It requires two philips chips, which I am working on programming right now. I need help with the actual browser though, since right now I'm just doing it in BASIC. If anyone is interested, please email me. Oh, and I hope to set it up to support email and AIM, but I'm still trying to figure out how I might do that.

Sounds interesting! Exactly what hardware are you using and how is it set up?

Also, you should use assembly.

Just realized....The link port has a bandwidth of only about 9.6Kbps, so pages would be PAINFULLY slow to load, it couldn't keep up with the transceiver, and the calculator itself is underpowered and has to little memory. If you're talking about a TI86, most web pages would fill up the entire memory, or even exceed it. Even if you got the html onto the calculator, processing and displaying it could be very slow with all the tags. Any image or other related files would also have to be transferred. It would be much too slow, and the calc wouldn't even have the tiniest chance of being able to hold it all. Images frequently exceed 1 MB! Sorry to disappoint you.

If he was really desperate, he could just pre-process it before it got to the TI (with a separate external microprocessor or a PC), thereby absorbing most of the memory/processing.
This would leave just text-only (maybe bold/italics as well), with links, for a single screen (with a small scroll buffer).
If the user hit an image placeholder, then the pre-processor could convert it to a TI pic. As the user scrolls toward the end of the buffer, a new one gets sent down the link cable. If he clicks a link, the requests etc. are all done by the pre-processor.

As you say, the TI-86 really doesnt have the power to be browsing the web. But it can display a page or so. What the point of doing it this way is I have nfi.

Also, AIM and e-mail services would take an INDESCRIBABLY HUGE amount of processing power! Much more than even a '92+ has! Sorry to disappoint you yet again.

no AIM wouldn't require much in the way of processing power. The bulk of it would be logging in, and you would probably only be able to converse with one contact at a time, but it would be possible.

OK, so I exaggerated. It wouldn't take an indescribably huge amount of processing power.

I take back all the discouraging comments I posted previously. Looking at them, I keep on thinking 'was that really me?" You would need an external processor (preferrably 16-bit) like one of the other comments said, but it would work. If you need any assistance, especially with hardware design, I would be happy to help.