Exclusive: C Programming on the TI-84 Plus CE
Published by KermMartian
8 years, 10 months ago (2015-05-28T01:40:08+00:00)
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Since the introduction of the TI-84 Plus CE at the beginning of this year, there has been speculation in the community that the new device would support easy C programming. The z80 processor in the older TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus was ill-suited to C programming, but the ez80 in the new calculator is even targeted by a C compiler available from Zilog for free. Our suspicions were further confirmed by the presence of IEEE754 floating-point routines embedded within the calculator's software; the TI-OS has never contained such support before. Finally, we saw demos of very well-made C applications for the TI-84 Plus CE at the T^3 2015 conference, so it was only a matter of time before the community got the ability to create C programs.
Of course, actually putting together the tooling and documentation to teach people to create TI-84 Plus CE programs in C is no mean feat, and happily, Cemetech programmer extraordinaire MateoConLechuga has put in that effort. Today, Mateo shared an in-depth tutorial on C programming for the TI-84 Plus CE with us, and it's just as thorough and helpful as we'd expect from someone who has earned the "Cemetech Expert" rank. Mateo has outlined the steps to install Zilog's C compiler, set up the necessary project settings to create TI-84 Plus CE programs, converting compiled binaries to .8xp programs, and even included a sample program that prints and manipulates strings and numbers. Mateo ends with thoughts and questions on how things like graphics, file manipulation, and so on should work, so I encourage you to visit the topic, try the tutorial, and contribute to the discussion. Congratulations to Mateo for getting this important chapter in the community's programming efforts underway!
More Information
Compiling C for the TI-84 Plus CE
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Since the introduction of the TI-84 Plus CE at the beginning of this year, there has been speculation in the community that the new device would support easy C programming. The z80 processor in the older TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus was ill-suited to C programming, but the ez80 in the new calculator is even targeted by a C compiler available from Zilog for free. Our suspicions were further confirmed by the presence of IEEE754 floating-point routines embedded within the calculator's software; the TI-OS has never contained such support before. Finally, we saw demos of very well-made C applications for the TI-84 Plus CE at the T^3 2015 conference, so it was only a matter of time before the community got the ability to create C programs.
Of course, actually putting together the tooling and documentation to teach people to create TI-84 Plus CE programs in C is no mean feat, and happily, Cemetech programmer extraordinaire MateoConLechuga has put in that effort. Today, Mateo shared an in-depth tutorial on C programming for the TI-84 Plus CE with us, and it's just as thorough and helpful as we'd expect from someone who has earned the "Cemetech Expert" rank. Mateo has outlined the steps to install Zilog's C compiler, set up the necessary project settings to create TI-84 Plus CE programs, converting compiled binaries to .8xp programs, and even included a sample program that prints and manipulates strings and numbers. Mateo ends with thoughts and questions on how things like graphics, file manipulation, and so on should work, so I encourage you to visit the topic, try the tutorial, and contribute to the discussion. Congratulations to Mateo for getting this important chapter in the community's programming efforts underway!
More Information
Compiling C for the TI-84 Plus CE
Permalink
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