It is rather vexing that all TI support is for the TI-83 series, especially the TI-83+. I own the best TI-83 series calculator out there, the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition. I am just an innocent programmer newbie who wants to learn Z80 Assembly for this supreme calculator. Do I find any support whatsoever? Of course not! The most that I have found so far is an include file called ti84pcse.inc. I have Spasm, too. I also have an emulator called WabbitEmu.
People always say, "Dream big." Well, my dreams don't stop at just wanting support for Z80 on the TI-84+CSE. I want support for hex. Yes, you saw this correctly. Hex. I have the audacity to want to know how to program directly on the TI-84+CSE without a computer.
If there are any experts who use the TI-84+CSE and can help me, I would appreciate some help in this sad situation.
chickendude wrote:
Programming assembly using the hex versions of the opcodes (there's an easier way to say this, but i'll leave it out out of respect for Kerm
) is probably the most confusing way to learn assembly. Every time you add an instruction, you'll have to update nearly every single command that has an absolute address pointing inside your program, relative jumps, and will just be a headache. I really recommend NOT trying to write assembly in hex but rather use an assembler which will make your life infinitely easier. I find it's much more enjoyable coding on the computer, it's much more convenient, quicker, better debugging tools, and you don't have to worry about RAM clears. There are some pretty nice oncalc assemblers, such as Mimas and ASMDREAM (check
ticalc for both of them).
KermMartian wrote:
So many times this. There's absolutely no reason not to use a modern assembler, and it doesn't make you more cool or skilled or respectable than assembly programmers who use assemblers to compute the machine-code equivalents by hand. Many of us have done it, but only in times of dire necessity when an assembler is not around.
I'm confused by you claiming that TI doesn't support the TI-84+CSE, switching to stating that "The most that I have found so far is an include file called ti84pcse.inc. I have Spasm, too. I also have an emulator called WabbitEmu" (which is all you need to program for the TI-84+CSE on a computer), then immediately following it with wishing to program without a computer. You seem sufficiently knowledgeable that it's hard not to assume you're just trolling us.
I am NOT trolling you.*
Think about it this way (no offense if you find this offensive): there's no reason to learn how to program Z80 on the calculator, is there? We all do it for fun, we all do it because of our love of logic and math, unless someone here is under the delusion that knowing Z80 for TI calculators will be useful in life.** In the same way, I want to know how to program directly on the calculator, just for fun. I love challenges. I apologize if you misunderstood my first post; I do not think at all that I am cooler, more skilled, or more respectable than any other programmer here. For heaven's sake, I am a newbie!!
As for the include file, emulator, and Spasm, I simply claimed that support by Texas Instruments is scarce. None of those three are from Texas Instruments. Anyway, the include file has a lot of "maybes" and some of the commands do not work.
What I was getting at, however, is not the lack of programming tools but the lack of resources to learn! When I read a tutorial on Z80 Assembly, I cannot know whether the information applies to the TI-83 Plus only or all TI calculators. There are no good tutorials specifically for the TI-84+CSE (although if you can find some I would certainly be thankful, which was the whole point of my first post).
*Although I do love trolling.
**Knowing programming, especially computer programming, will be very useful life, but not really Z80.
Mimas and ASMDREAM do not work on the TI-84+CSE. Thank you all the same, chickendude.
TI doesn't have a history of really helping the community by releasing developer tools. Yeah they do make something (and SDK, really) but it is up to us, the community, to make the tools they don't provide such as an emulator and compilers. TI is about education, look for their support there not in the making and facilitating of games and apps like DCS8.
The 84CSE is like 2 years old, give it time. You can't pump out new text books over night, let alone you can't encourage the adoption of the 84+CSE in textbooks over night. As more educational institutions adopt the 84CSE after the text books they use we'll see more students buy them and thus more adoption from the community. Give it a few years.
Many of the concepts that you can learn in TI-83/TI-83+ tutorials will apply to the TI-84+CSE, the biggest difference is dealing with the LCD, a lot of which is covered
here on WikiTI.
When I first started learning ASM on my TI-83, the first few programs I wrote were by entering hex directly into the calculator, although they were very short, simple programs. If you want the challenge of writing bigger programs, I wouldn't personally do it, but by all means go for your life - I just recommend regularly backing up!
These days I'm more than happy working with Spasm & WabbitEmu to get my Z80 kicks.
I will also just add that whilst you mentioned this: "Knowing programming, especially computer programming, will be very useful life, but not really Z80.", I don't think that's entirely true. It doesn't have to be Z80 specifically, but I think that learning any kind of assembly language is a very handy thing for programmers to understand some really cool low level concepts
WikiTI is your best bet for now. ALso the only real reasons to learn how to use hex instead of proper mnemonics when programming in Z80 assembly are:
-If you lack a computer or a link cable to send an on-calc editor like Mimas or OTBP assembler
-If you just can't stand programming full games in assembly and just want to make small routines for use in TI-BASIC.
And the reason why there are so few resources for the 84+CSE so far is that the calc just came out one year ago, while the 84+ has been around for a decade. Even in 2014 people still make new discoveries about the older 84+ from time to time.
JamesV wrote:
I will also just add that whilst you mentioned this: "Knowing programming, especially computer programming, will be very useful life, but not really Z80.", I don't think that's entirely true. It doesn't have to be Z80 specifically, but I think that learning any kind of assembly language is a very handy thing for programmers to understand some really cool low level concepts
Indeed, as well as giving you a snowball's chance in hell of surviving if you're using a "modern" high-level language when the high-level abstractions that were designed to protect programmers from learning those low-level concepts happen to leak and break down. (I've perhaps spent a little too much time reading the Joel on Software blog 
)
There's nothing I'm going to add here that someone else hasn't said already.
Learning any kind of assembly is absolutely a useful way to spend time, even if you never need to write assembly again, because you need to understand how computers work below all of the abstraction.
Learning for the 84+CSE isn't really different than for the others - a z80 is a z80. But the LCD is different.
Yes, I agree that learning an Assembly language is useful to understand the workings of a device. However, I was referring to Z80 Assembly in specific; if your goal is to learn it to understand how an Assembly language works, then I understand, but if you are learning it because you think that learning Z80 Assembly in specific will be useful, then I don't agree.
