Open Letter to TI (Will Post Response)

[NETWizz]

Good Evening:

I am one of the three original founders of United-TI (http://unitedti.org). I go by NETWizz (used to go by Jbirky). I used to be an active developer i.e. TI-BASIC, Z80 Asm, & even a Flash Application as well as a high school & college student. Now, I have limited involvement and pretty much let the next generation take over as my career, family, and other obligations are now my focus. That said I still care a great deal about the happenings of the development community, and I am writing on behalf of some concerns that have recently been voiced on the of http://unitedti.org/ community forum in regards to the continued availability of the Ti-84+ SE and the programmability of the TI Nspire.

We at United-TI have been informed via our community members that the TI-84+ is not being discontinued, and the TI-84+ Silver Edition is not being discontinued in North American markets, but we would all like to know about the current production/manufacturing status & the changing production trends. Is the TI-84+ Silver Edition still being actively manufactured/produced, or is Texas Instruments merely unloading its stockpiles with no intent for replenishment of the supply of this particular model (TI-84+SE)?

Also, are there any plans to make the Nspire more friendly to the development community as a whole? As one of many communities I can honestly indicate our members have demonstrated a significant interest in programming the Nspire, with the powerful ARM architecture, and advanced mathematical functions only to be disappointed in that even the most trivial of commands: Input, Prompt, & GetKey are absent. Are there any plans to add this capability or is it deliberately absent in that the target customers are high school students and teachers instead of programmers & engineers? To us it does not make any sense to handicap a newer product. i.e. I personally own an 82, 83, 2x 83+, 83+SE, 84+, 84+SE, 86, 89, 89 Titanium, a 92+, & a Voyage 200. Obviously, I am one of your odd-ball customers for buying that many calculators, but you will notice the Nspire is sorely missing. Many of us feel this way. The only reason some of our members own an Nspire is because it is recommended by their school or it was an uninformed purchase.

Lastly, are there any new developments coming out? i.e. Any chance of a calculator with colored screen?


Please respond. Keep in mind a software fix for the Nspire would go a long way in showing commitment to the community of odd-ball people like me. If it is a concern about compliance with schools & standardized testing, it should be a simple matter to branch off having two OSes (one for students/testing & another for programmers/engineers). Surely there would also be an easy way to differentiate them such as that blinking LED light in the front to appease organizations such as the College Board...

I eagerly await your response, and I would like to give you the heads-up that I intend to post this response to the homepage of http://unitedti.org just to let you know, so please do not gloss-over or obfuscate your answers.

Thank you

Sincerely,

Justin (NETWizz, United-TI)

[DJ Omnimaga]

I don't have time to read it all right now, but a small correction would be that the TI-Nspire now has an Input function since OS 2.0. It still lacks Getkey, Output(), Text(), Line(), Horizontal, Vertical, Pixel-On/Off/Chg, Pt-On/Off and Circle usage inside TI-BASIC programs, though.

[NETWizz]

Thanks. I don't know all the specifics because I don't own one as mentioned. That said, they need to totally re-vamp it to support everything!

[Xeda112358]

Nice! I cannot wait for the reply. The engineer part might actually work. I know that even though I make games, most of my programs are designed to run complex algorithms or algorithms that are not supported as a regular command. Being able to do this on the NSpire--wich has a much faster processor-- would be very beneficial to my own studies and research.

[Levak]

"We will process your request as soon as possible.
Thanks to wait a while.

TI-Cares"

isn't it ?

[wjbudd]

This is going to be very educational. I would like to offer the following comments so that you won't be disappointed if you don't get an affirmative response. Any response that you get, and I expect you will get one, will be very indicative of the nature and character of the TI calculator organization. I expect the response will be polite but secretive and will avoid answering the questions and will certainly not make any commitments. Sort of a "Thank you for your inquiry. Your business is important to us and we will seriously consider your suggestions" which of course is nothing but bull shit. Keep in mind that this is sort of like asking a girl for a date. There is one way to say yes, and anything else means no, which is to say that if TI fails to indicate that they "will" make some of the programing improvements that the programing community needs, then its time to blow them off, ignore nspire, and get on with programing other calculators. As customers, there is no point in buying from a company who ignores our needs. So if it doesn't go well, keep in mind that we don't need nspire and most certainly a much better product will come along any way. Best Regards.

[Xeda112358]

[critor]

[Weregoose]

[Xeda112358]

[Madskillz]

Goodluck getting any kind of useful response NetWizz. Especially on the development of a colored calc. :)

I would say its safe to say that understanding girls is about as hard as learning z80. It takes a long time, and just when you think you are getting a good grasp of things something comes up and causes the whole thing to crash. I would say those are my experiences at least ha. But man it sure is fun trying though.

[IAmACalculator]

All I've ever needed is my 89Ti. That, and my $5 Sterling Precision slide rule. As to the whole 'girl' issue, it's been my experience that they are actual humans, and not some other species. Heck, if you're a geek like me, then much of humanity makes less sense than you'd like, regardless of gender. All it takes is some dedication and patience to understand things. Or be lazy and get this. Okay, that last bit was a joke, but seriously, everything takes patience to understand, ESPECIALLY people.

The entire problem with the nSpire is that it's not meant as a tool. It's specifically designed for high school students, hence the pointless addition of a cursor-driven interface, the lack of programming capabilities, and a manual that doesn't tell you how to use the more advanced functions. The previous calculators, however superior they were in, um, almost every single way, did have a learning curve too steep for the average student to figure out on their own. Not that most of them really cared about learning to use their >$150 device, but they're the ones who make up 95% of the userbase.

[critor]

[Xeda112358]

I know I'm just picking on you. I actually reread it and realised I should have switched the "TI" and "girls" around, but I won't so that you don't look mean

[wjbudd]

The letter was sent 1/23. Assuming that means e-mail, sounds like TI may just ignore it. They have had all week to reply and now it is thursday.

[Xeda112358]

Eh, I bet it wouldn't be the first time, but maybe they are reviewing it?

[wjbudd]

What's to review? The letter was perfectly clear. They either answer the questions honestly, or try to bull shit us, or they ignore us. I really don't expect the reply, if there is one, will offer any thing significant. From previous experience I would say that TI is well known for ignoring the customer. Back a few years ago when TI had a calculator site, people would routinely post questions of TI there and ti would routinely ignore them. It's important to keep in mind how they treat us when making your next calculator purchase.

[Xeda112358]

Hmm. Again, TI is not a person. They usually respond, even if the response is denial. Right now, I am leaning about 55/45 in favor of a positive response (if I was a gambling person). I am sure that something like this would need a thought out response, again, even if the response is not in our favor.

[DJ Omnimaga]

[wjbudd]