Ti Nspire CAS Debate

KermMartian · Posted: 11 Aug 2011 12:32:27 pm Post subject:

I hope you're talking about legitimate ROMs, not promoting illegal software on this site. Shock

I get the impression that the TI-89ti is more powerful (and less buggy) CAS-wise, but I'm a bit biased against the Nspire, of course.
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Lionel Debroux · Power User Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 421

qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4179

_player1537 · Guru-in-Training Joined: 25 Nov 2009 Posts: 2958

Nice save, Qazz.

It doesn't look like I've posted in this thread. I'd say to just go with whatever is the cheapest.
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willrandship · Posted: 11 Aug 2011 10:54:35 pm Post subject:

Yeah, effectively you'd set it up so that the RAM actually acts like RAM is meant to on desktops. Linux can run with only 16 MB Razz

And I'd have to agree with _player, that large of a cash difference would be enough to sway me towards the older one.
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KermMartian · Posted: 13 Aug 2011 05:54:01 am Post subject:

If you can install Linux on an 80386 laptop with 4MB RAM and a 120MB hard drive, I think you could pull off compiling an ARM build for an Nspire. Smile

Historically, the biggest problem would be bootstrapping the low level storage, input, and output drivers, I think.
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KermMartian · Posted: 13 Aug 2011 06:04:25 am Post subject:

willrandship · Posted: 13 Aug 2011 08:49:22 pm Post subject:

well, it would be if they had Asm support natively. 150 mhz ARM9 is nothing to scoff at, nor is the 320x240 screen or the multitude of GPIO pins.
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TheStorm · NOU! Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2375

Porting Linux to the Nspire is definately doable and there are rumors that the early omap based prototypes ran a Linux based OS. The hardware can definately do it, that isn't a question.

In regards to the topic starter, personally I'd go with the CX if for nothing else the much nicer color screen.
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qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4179

KermMartian · Posted: 14 Aug 2011 11:04:45 am Post subject:

Jonimus, the hardware is absolutely capable; the question is who wants to go through the pain of throwing all the drivers together, getting it to boot with the locked-down nature of the devices, etc.
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willrandship · Posted: 14 Aug 2011 05:56:57 pm Post subject:

Well, ndless already has C-based libraries associated with low-level hardware, which would be at least somewhat portable to linux.

If only we had the RSA keys...then wee could get around the entire "locking down" issue, although someone already found a way around the boot1 level (Lowest level possible without hardware changes) the method found is a tad bit risky, and would have a high risk of calc bricking.
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DJ_O · Posted: 14 Aug 2011 09:52:46 pm Post subject:

Also even with the RSA keys, I bet TI would try something else to lock down the calcs. Notice what they did with the TI-84 Plus Pocket.Fr and Boot 1.03. They rendered the 84+ RSA keys useless.
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Deep Thought · Posted: 14 Aug 2011 10:08:19 pm Post subject:

KermMartian · Posted: 15 Aug 2011 02:07:21 am Post subject:

While we're bashing the Nspire, I was reading the Staples weekly sales flyer today, and even my mother commented that they're still selling the TI-84+ and TI-83+ series. More significantly to me, they had no Nspires at all advertised, so presumably they're not popular at all. I hope that is indeed that case and that perhaps TI is starting to get the message about its poor decisions.
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Lionel Debroux · Power User Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 421

Among individual buyers aware of the Nspire platform's limitations and of TI's philosophical stance about it, such as you and me are, the Nspire is probably not very popular indeed.
But nowadays, in a number of countries, individuals are not the driving sales force. School institutions and test regulation authorities are, and they're the target groups. And we have to live with that state of fact, even if there are many reasons why it sucks (incompetent test regulation authorities, low representativeness of standardized tests wrt. real-world usage, etc.) Wink

See the discussion at https://groups.google.com/group/tinspire/browse_thread/thread/933ddea846c24a26 , featuring a loooong post by myself (I spent three or four hours on it), replying to fairly long posts by the thread starter.
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qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4179

wow ,the nspire is turning into a failure for TI? You know, if I remember correctly, I was the only kid in 9th grade who had an nspire, but I never used it,I stuck to my trusty TI-84+SE.... I think everyone saw them as too complicated :/

also, the were probably also put off when I told them gaming on the nspire was not as extensive as the TI-84+SE, and when they saw the extra $50 it cost at staples.
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willrandship · Posted: 15 Aug 2011 02:52:02 pm Post subject:

I've only seen one other nspire than the two I own IRL.

Someone should really do the boot1 hack so we can put it our own boot2. It could even be set up to run the normal OS.
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DJ_O · Posted: 15 Aug 2011 04:59:23 pm Post subject:

KermMartian, I bought a TI-Nspire CX yesterday at the Staples store in Quebec City area near the two bridges, and they were barely noticeable at all in the store.

You had a place where you easily see the TI-83 Plus, TI-84 Plus, TI-84 Plus Silver, Casio PRIZM and TI-89 titanium, but no Nspire models there. Instead, those were located in the middle of the aisle, hidden inside some sort of carton shelve, along with more TI-83 Pluses at the top. If I didn't check at the bottom, I would never have known that store had the Nspire anymore.

I definitively think it doesn't sell well here, so they don't do as much effort to show it like they do with other TI models and the Casio Prizm.

By the way in retail stores, it's $194.99 over here for the regular CX, even more than the TI-89 Titanium and $45 higher than a PRIZM. Also they no longer have Casio FX-9750G+ in stock (which they sold for $24.75), the only Casio graphing calc they sell anymore is the Prizm itself.

As for the calc, I personally like the Prizm better. The touchpad controls are kinda annoying because if you press a different arrow direction while still touching it, it will still continue moving in the other direction until you stop touching it, not to mention it's annoying when selecting stuff when the mouse cursor always appears randomly and you accidentally click stuff you don't want to.

Also you can't adjust the LCD brightness like on the Prizm. Granted, its brightness is the equivalent of 4/5 on the Prizm, but it would be nice if we could change it to slightly brighter or darker depending of the room lightning or if we want to save on battery power while still using the calc non-stop. Also there are some display glitches it seems like white squares appearing under the cursor after it disappears, from time to time, and we notice some weird horizontal stuff due to the interlacing from time to time (like on a VHS tape), although it's not too noticeable.

EDIT: You know what's funny? The Nintendo 3DS I bought the same day as my CX costed me $25 less than my calculator! Shock

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