"Programming the TI-83+/84+" Heads to Production

KermMartian

Four months ago, I announced that I was writing a TI-83+/84+ programming book with Manning Publications. At that point, I had written six chapters and two appendices, and had gone through one set of peers reviews. It's now mid-June, the manuscript is completed, three sets of peer reviews (and associated changes and fixes) are under our belt, and the capable eyes of Dan "Shkaboinka" Cook have searched ruthlessly for technical errors. Through Manning's MEAP (Manning Early Access Program), I've been privileged to have a large number of readers already look over the manuscript and offer their feedback.

I am now happy to announce that 135,531 words, 390 pages, thirteen chapters, and three appendices later, "Programming the TI-83+/84+" is ready to move to the Production phase. The book will be typeset, the index will be generated from my extensive annotations, final proofreading and spot-checking will be performed. The book will then head off to the printer, and (hopefully) by the beginning of September, it will start landing on store shelves (and in online stores). If you haven't already pre-ordered the book, you can get order the print book and have it delivered when it is ready, and built into the price, you get the E-Book to start poring over now. If you click through to the discussion topic for this news article, I have listed a summary of each chapter, so I hope you'll grab the book ASAP, and tell all your friends about it!

Graphing calculator programming is a great way to pick up a fun hobby and a useful skill. It's a perfect stepping stone to any sort of programming, and I've taken pains to make "Programming the TI-83+" an easy introduction to programming in general. I hope you pick it up now or in Fall 2012, enjoy it, and feel free to send along any feedback, comments, and questions.

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More information

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Part 1
Chapter 1 introduces graphing calculators and calculator programming, outlining why learning TI-BASIC is important and relevant. It presents your first three programs: a “Hello, World!” program, a guessing game, and a quadratic equation solver.
Chapter 2 presents input and output on the homescreen, including displaying text and numbers and getting strings and values from the user.
Chapter 3 covers conditionals and comparisons, the building blocks for creating programs that make decisions.
Chapter 4 completes the picture of controlling program flow in TI-BASIC with labels, loops, menus, and subprograms, all of the structural features that you’ll need to create arbitrarily complex programs.
Chapter 5 steps back to detail the process of designing, creating, and debugging a program in any language. It illustrates each step with a running TI-BASIC example.

Part 2
Chapter 6 teaches you how to create fun, interactive programs and games with event loops. As with many other lessons, it wraps the TI-BASIC focus in skills you will be able to bring to many other languages you may explore. This chapter culminates in a full Mouse and Cheese game for your edification.
Chapter 7 discusses your first true graphics tools, presenting the concepts and commands for turning individual pixels on and off. It shows how to draw small and large text anywhere on the screen, and reinforces the lessons of the chapter with two demo programs: a painting tool and a mouse cursor subprogram.
Chapter 8 expands further on graphics and graphing, covering creating and manipulating graphs from inside programs, as well as drawing with points, lines, circles, and other shapes. It introduces the commands for storing and recalling pictures on the graphscreen.
Chapter 9 rounds out the second part of the book with an overview of the many data types your calculator can handle and the important commands for manipulating each. It walks through strings, lists, matrices, real and complex numbers, and random numbers, and concludes with a complete framework for a role-playing gamen (RPG) that you can expand and enhance on your own.

Part 3
Chapter 10 details how to optimize your programs for speed and size, presenting TI-BASIC-specific tips without losing sight of the more general programming lessons for proper optimization.
Chapter 11 shows Hybrid TI-BASIC and the hybrid BASIC libraries, and includes a discussion of the major libraries, where to find them, and how to use them.
Chapter 12 introduces a new programming language, z80 assembly, giving you enough detail about binary, decimal, hexadecimal, and assembly commands and program flow to spur you to explore it more on your own.
Chapter 13 concludes with ideas about where you can go with programming and calculator programming from here. It also discusses hardware development and hacking, and how such a hobby ties into calculator programming.

Appendices
Appendix A is a crash course in using your graphing calculator. Chapters 2 onwards assume a very basic set of general calculator skills, and appendix A reviews all of these skills in case you don’t feel entirely comfortable with your device.
Appendix B summarizes all of the commands found throughout the chapters, and includesing usage examples and syntax.
Appendix C lists valuable resources for seeking programming help, finding additional programs for inspiration and source code examination, and tools to facilitate BASIC and assembly programming.
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elfprince13 · Posted: 21 Jun 2012 01:53:43 pm Post subject:

Congratulations! I'm quite excited to receive my copy! Will the MEAP digital download be updated between now and printing?
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KermMartian · Posted: 21 Jun 2012 02:04:51 pm Post subject:

JoeYoung · Advanced Member Joined: 18 Dec 2008 Posts: 278

Spelling error in Chapter 9 summary.

Additionally, this user has some thought-provoking questions it does not appear you addressed here: http://www.manning-sandbox.com/thread.jspa?threadID=49101&tstart=0

He's got a good point. Once you're publishing a book, this just looks unprofessional:

KermMartian · Posted: 21 Jun 2012 03:04:06 pm Post subject:

elfprince13 · Posted: 21 Jun 2012 03:10:20 pm Post subject:

I'm pretty sure I bugged you about the Java thing too. Things that are statically compiled and run in a VM are bad examples of interpreted languages Wink

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KermMartian · Posted: 21 Jun 2012 03:37:11 pm Post subject:

Spenceboy98 · Posted: 23 Jun 2012 11:38:32 am Post subject:

Is this book gonna be in libraries?

KermMartian · Posted: 23 Jun 2012 11:57:27 am Post subject:

AHelper · Posted: 23 Jun 2012 12:26:03 pm Post subject:

KermMartian · Posted: 23 Jun 2012 02:10:46 pm Post subject:

Such links are frowned upon in books, since material online may change and disappear much faster than a book passes into obselesence. I do talk about QBASIC and Python. Smile

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CalebHansberry · Posted: 23 Jun 2012 11:14:57 pm Post subject:

I have hopes that first of all, I can get the book, and second, that I can read the chapters on ASM and learn it! I also hope I can use the information on BASIC programming to improve my BASIC programming techniques.
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"We do not understand in order that we may believe; we believe in order to understand." - Francis Breisch Jr., "The Kingdom Of God", 1958

qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4177

Excellent to hear! I'll be sure to pre-order it as soon as I can.
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KermMartian · Posted: 24 Jun 2012 09:27:06 am Post subject:

Caleb, the ASM chapter is an intensive (but incomplete) introduction to the language, meant to get BASIC programmers passionate about ASM. I think that if you read it, it will give you enough background on thinking like a z80 ASM programmer that something like z80 ASM in 28 Days will be much simpler. And yes, it also has tons of optimizations tips, and lessons on command usage that I think you'll find helpful in getting you to write better programs.

Qazz42: Hurrah! Don't forget to pre-order through one of the links on Cemetech so that I get an extra percentage. Wink

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qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4177

Of course, I'll also be sure to get the "MEAP + Print book (includes Ebook) when available - $29.99" package, as I demand something to be signed at a later date Very Happy

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KermMartian · Posted: 24 Jun 2012 09:34:50 am Post subject:

AHelper · Posted: 24 Jun 2012 01:12:19 pm Post subject:

hehehe, KermMartian running around vanda..... er, "signing" books in bookstores.
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<BrandonW> "You don't even want to know what TI Connect does when it's just detecting your calculator...It ACTUALLY ERASES THE SWAP SECTOR on every communication attempt...EVERY SINGLE ATTEMPT...Yes, TI Connect will kill your calculator..What do I have to do to get your attention?!....Such a bloated protocol."

KermMartian · Posted: 24 Jun 2012 03:09:44 pm Post subject:

Ashbad · Posted: 24 Jun 2012 03:44:00 pm Post subject:

insrisg · Posted: 25 Jun 2012 07:10:38 am Post subject:

This looks like a great book and I look forward to purchasing a copy, even though it will directly compete with my own brief "Program Your Calculator" eBook.

What bothers me, however, is that TI seems intent on compromising the value of both of our books with their moves that appear designed to make the TI-84 itself useless for programming.