About 2 months ago I wrote an article explaining how I’d been getting back into programming the TI-83/84+ calculators, and I wanted to update you guys on how that’s been going. To start, I finished the Hangman game, but it was written in TI-BASIC, a programming language created by Texas Instruments that’s sort of like the BASIC included with old computers like the Commodore 64. The problem is that the language is “interpreted”, which means the system has to analyze each instruction as it’s being executed and convert it to the 1s and 0s the calculator actually understands. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge issue, and many popular languages like Python work the same way, but it massively impacts performance on the TI since the hardware is already super underpowered. I want to make really fast, impressive games, so I decided to switch to the other available language, Assembly (or “ASM” for short). ASM is lightning fast compared to BASIC since programs written in it are converted to 1s and 0s before instead of during execution, but the tradeoff is that it’s MUCH harder to use; you basically have to micromanage every aspect of the system, and debugging anything is a nightmare because the calculator just crashes if you make a mistake instead of providing an error message. I’ve found it oddly satisfying to use though, it’s definitely been challenging to learn, but the feeling of finally getting a program working and having it run 20X faster than it would in BASIC is simply unmatched. I haven’t made much apart from a screen filler and addition program yet, but I’m excited to continue working with the language!
Side note: I still haven’t gotten around to buying a physical calc yet, but I’m hoping to get one the next time I get paid