Published by KermMartian on December 8, 2018 at 7:55:08 AM CST | Discuss this article (1)

It's that time once more: like last year, and the year before, and for time immemorial, ever-prominent community site ticalc.org has opened their Program of the Year competition. Program of the Year, or PotY, allows ticalc.org users to vote on their favorites of all the programs featured in ticalc.org news articles from December 1st of the previous year to November 30th of the current year. Voting takes place in one-week increments, starting with TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus programs, and moving through TI-84 Plus CE/TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, TI-89/TI-92, TI-Nspire, and computer programs. In past years, there were categories for the TI-82, the TI-85/TI-86, and others, but sadly, we no longer have enough programs in each of those categories for a vote.

This year, ticalc.org news editor Xavier "critor" Andréani has spent November catching up on various interesting projects from this year and past years, filling the pipeline of PotY candidates. Like the past years, you can vote by signing in with your ticalc.org account and vote for your favorite program in the poll at the frontpage. You have 7 days to vote, then a new poll will begin. Please, please take a minute to go learn about the programs and go vote! As Travis "tev" Evans pointed out, if no one votes, there can be no winner. Best of luck to all the authors, congrats for the great projects, and may the best program win.

More Information
ticalc.org 2018 PotY Launch

Permalink

Published by _iPhoenix_ on November 28, 2018 at 6:43:07 PM CST | Discuss this article (3)

Now that school is ramping up for many of us and everyone is back to their calculators, we have a lot of fantastic projects to showcase! Interestingly, a surprisingly large percentage of projects this month were not for calculators. From impressive USB interfacing tools to really cool graphics programs and websites, here are your projects of the month for October 2018.

• Agenda CE [ICE]: SM84CE made lots of progress on his project this month! He has planned his user interfaces out, and recieved help on some crucial features of his program. Go show SM84CE some love and support!
  
• Skyrim CE: kg583's project "Skyrim CE" is a very cool TI-BASIC port of Skyrim! He has some really cool screenshots, and plans to have over six hundred levels! You can find the screenshots and information in the thread, and we wish him luck!
  
• Arduino Stabilized/Guided Rockets: theprogrammingcube made great progress on his project this month! He has worked on sketching out some simple parts in CAD, worked on circuitry, and finalized the hardware. Check out the topic to see it for yourself!
  
• BOSshell: beckadamtheinventor's project "BOSshell" received several improvements recently. He added some cool features including some nice GUI work! It looks like beckadamtheinventor is making some progress!
  
• FreeVox: From Midnightas, FreeVox is a really cool voxel engine written in Lua. It has a lot of potential, with room for extensive modding. You can find more information in the thread.
  
• HD picture viewer: TheLastMillennial has been working hard adding improvements to his project, a high-definition picture viewer for the CE. He showed off some stunning demos, and has some awesome menus working. Check out the thread to see it for yourself!
  
• Homemade Arduino-Based Drone: Cemetech user Nik is creating a super cool Arduino-based drone. He's very thoroughly documented his process, and the topic is a very interesting read. The thread features a multitude of graphs, photos, and diagrams. It looks like Nik has made a lot of progress!
  
• Languish: JWinslow23 has created a sweet esoteric programming language! This time, the esolang is a derivative of the ETA programming language. He's created a very cool website for it. We'd love to see more from this project, and be sure to check out the thread
  
• Mateo Makes a Website: MateoConLechuga has created a fantastic website! He made a very interesting and well-designed blog page. We can't wait to read his blog posts!
  
• Michael2_3B's Website: Michael2_3B has created a cool website for himself! He's still working on the basics of learning the languages involved, but he has a really good starting design to work with. You can find more information in the thread.
  
• Text Dungeon Progress!: [PixelPerfect] made some progress on his project this month! He added shops and it all looks very, very cool. It looks like [PixelPerfect] is making lots of progress!
  
• TI-Boy CE Progress Thread: calc84maniac made some progress on his project this month! He made some small UI improvements and fixed a couple bugs. You can find more information in the thread.
  
• TI84+CE USB interfacing: From MateoConLechuga, TI84+CE USB interfacing is a really cool project that allows for programmatic usage of the USB port. He created a driver for it, and it seems that more programs will be able to use this fantastic tool. Congratulations to Mateo for all of his hard work!
  
• ticesnd: USB Audio library for TI-84+ CE: From JackMacWindows, ticesnd is a multichannel audio interface. It allows programmers and users to listen to (albeit simple) songs using their calculator and a bit of circuitry. Go check the thread out!
  
• Village: _iPhoenix_ made some progress on his project this month! He added trains and reworked his code to add more features. Check out the thread to see it for yourself!
  
• Warper: This month, Cemetech user 123outerme worked hard on his "Sci-Fi Beat-em-Up"! He's not fully content with the rendering techniques used in his previous games, so he's rewriting his engine and making a really cool game while he's at it. Check the thread out!
  

And that's a wrap! With so many projects being started, very few projects are actually being finished, but don't let that discourage you from voting in the polls for your favorite completed project of the month!

Permalink

Published by Alex on November 26, 2018 at 4:08:36 PM CST | Discuss this article (1)

First off, what is Devemeber? Devember is a programming challenge you take up. It is an excuse for programming, for learning to code and for sharing it. We at Cemetech want to encourage you guys to partake in this; we encourage you to not do a calculator project but instead do a web, computer, mobile, or hardware project. This is not a contest but you will be rewarded with new knowledge and personal satisfaction. :P

If you wish to partake in this Devember challenge, create a new topic in "Your Projects" with the words #Devember: {$MY_PROJECT_NAME} and include the following info in the message body along with the repo you plan to use for your project.

From here on out I'm going to basically plagiarize the Devember website.

I, *insert username*, will participate to the next Devember. My Devember will be *insert objective*. I promise I will program for my Devember for at least an hour, every day of the next December. I will also write a daily public devlog and will make the produced code publicly available on the internet. No matter what, I will keep my promise.

*here describe your Devember*


What is an Objective?

• learning programming
  
• learning Ruby
  
• programming a game
  
• programming this game: 'Clowns Inc.'
  
• programming a tool to manage wifi
  
• programming a library to record videos
  
• Anything else you can think of


In the final section describe more in the detail what your Devember will be. What guide, or book, will you be following. What language, libraries, tools will you be using. What are your plans. You can have the same Devember together with other people! If so write their names in this section.

Everyone is encouraged to join Devember. From newbies to pro developers. Everyone can learn. Learning is life. Sharing boosts learning. When, in the contract, you agree to keep a devlog, is because of two reasons. In the first instance it gives you a daily motivation to keep faith to the contract, but it also makes you share your experience with everyone else. This means you will get both the feedback from others and their own experiences. And all this is mutual. This is humanities superpower: community learning. It is together that our societies evolved through history. Now, Devember is coming. Will you join the others? Will you join the learning? Will you join the fun? Will you join Devember?

Put your contract somewhere public. It can be your blog, your Facebook, your Tumblr, your Devember devlog, etc.

When you write about Devember, please use the hashtag #Devember.

We at Cemetech believe that it's a pretty difficult promise. Heck, rewrite that promise a bit so you feel better about keeping it. Maybe instead of everyday, change it to be "I will code 5 hours every week." We won't shun you for breaking the promise so take that promise as seriously as you'd like but at least keep us updated weekly with how (un)helpful your tutorials and resources have been, what new resources you have utilized, what additions and changes you've made, any challenges you are facing or hurdles you foresee, and anything else. Naturally, Devember asks that all projects be open source so please include a GitHub, GitLab, or other repo link in the topic.

If you're reading someone else's Devember topic please help them out! If they're struggling, point them to some resources, explore their code, etc etc. Offer alternatives and explain why you suggest the change. No one is going to learn when you drop a change with no explanation or suggest new resources without a reason why you think it'll help.

Below I'll write a sample Devember topic (not one I actually plan to follow through with at this current point in time, sorry!):

---

I, Alex, will participate to the next Devember. My Devember will be learning to develop my own MagicMirror module. I promise I will program for my Devember for at least an hour, every day of the next December. I will also write a daily public devlog and will make the produced code publicly available on the internet. No matter what, I will keep my promise.

Most map and traffic modules for the MagicMirror software uses Google Maps, which charges for their API usage. I plan to use OpenStreetMaps to source the data. I plan to support multiple pins as such to mark someones Home, place of Work, and other POI's. I will be using MagicMirrors Module Template to help with with this as well as various tutorials online to help me navigate OpenStreetMaps API.

You can checkout my source at: GitHub.com/qczar/projectname

Permalink

Published by MateoConLechuga on October 23, 2018 at 6:42:52 PM CST | Discuss this article (6)

As the USB port for the TI-84 Plus CE and TI 83 Premium CE becomes easier to use, users throughout the community have been eager to connect their calculators to other devices. One such Cemetech member helping to lead the charge is commandblockguy, who has released a USB serial driver, available on GitHub: https://github.com/commandblockguy/CE-serial. This driver allows one to attach a plethora of devices, such as an Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and many others as long as they use the standard CDC serial interface. Currently commandblockguy has successfully tested an Arduino link.

This will hopefully enable users to be able to easily build one of their own similar TI Innovators, along with many other potential uses. Perhaps one day we will see a remote controlled car driven by a TI 84 Plus CE! (Or a real self driving car perhaps?). As one of the first released USB drivers for the latest member of the calculator family, it will be exciting to see where the community will take it.

The driver is currently implemented in C and assembly, and is easily buildable by downloading the repository and using the CE C Toolchain. Most likely you will need a variation of a USB OTG adapter in order to be able to use the driver. Pull requests and feature additions are most welcome, in addition to any bug reports and testing.

Let's all give commandblockguy some good vibes and credit, and test out this great new addition to the calculator world!



Permalink