Since the controversial MathPrint (MP) operating systems for TI-84+ and TI-84+SE calculators were released, it seems there has been a division in the community over which OS is worthy of our calculators. The more vocal side of the debate seems to decry the MP OSes, named 2.53MP and 2.55MP, as rushed, buggy, and poorly-coded. There seems also to be a solid bloc of users who need the MP OS features for math class, or perhaps are required to use it. Where do you fall on the debate? Do you think the extra features of the MP OSes are worth the bugs? Do you think that the fact that things like Doors CS are patched to work with the MP OSes make it "ok" to have the OSes? Or do you think that everyone should stick with the pre-MP OSes? Let's get as vicious a debate as we get in the Politics subforum.

I use 2.55 MP, but I'm trying a week without using the MP-ing features. Before I upgraded, I had 2.30 and wondered why my table partner in math class could perform a weird trick. 2.55 MP is easier to use integrals in, a big advantage for AP Calc. I program TI-Basic on my 84+SE anyway.

P. S. Where in the world can I find 2.43?

P. P. S. I am not required to use 2.53 MP. I simply found it convenient at first.

Using 2.55MP, but only because I didn't bother downgrading my 84+SE yet. I have MathPrint disabled most of the time, though.

If I want pretty-printed math, I'll use PrettyPrint, thank you very much. Then I can have pretty math and a stable OS

2.43, no contest.

I feel that the majority of calculator owners would have updated to 2.55MP by this point, and that many 84s sold from this point on would probably have 2.55MP in mind.

Doors patches up their setbacks quite nicely for most available games, like the ION-compatible ones. When I write programs now, I do it with the MP OSes in mind.

2.53MP was installed on my calc when I got it, but I downgraded to 2.43 after a while and I think that it's much better. It's faster, and I actually like that there's no scrollback on the homescreen. Clearing the homescreen was very tricky on MP OSes (even in Classic mode!) but the old ones can do it with just a single button press.

My calculator came with 2.41 on it, and I never upgraded it. I'm glad I haven't, too. I actually did a side by side comparison between my TI-84+SE with another that had 2.55MP on it. It was a basic program that printed the numbers 0 through 100. My calculator finished in almost half the time. I even went to far as to put fresh batteries in both calculators and mine was still almost twice as fast. I didn't even run the test to completion on the MP OS with mathprint enabled. I got impatient. I'm never upgrading my calculator.

2.43, my experience with the MP OSes has deemed them failure-piles of instability and lame additional features that I would rarely ever use.

2.43 for me too. I upgraded to 2.53 MP but then downgraded back to 2.43 because MathPrint was too slow to be usable and because of weird bugs like random parts of programs appearing in other programs. I have not yet tried 2.55 MP, but I'm assuming it's just like 2.53 MP.

http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/ASIA/nonProductMulti/singapore_apps.html

I have 2.53 MP mostly because I use the Nspire, and i cant downgrade. For my regular 84+Se I use 2.43

I really like the idea of the MP, but I do feel that there is no excuse for crappy design from a large corporation who is in the business of designing these kinds of things. I can see how naive teachers would gobble it up and require it because it "makes it easier" and they want to base their teaching on it ... though I find that upsetting, because my experience with such teachers is that they teach the tools or "their" equations, and tend to miss the mark ... I has a stats teacher who pulled points off my final project for using a method of quartiles which FIT THE DEFINITION MATHEMATICALLY (versus her "eh, close enough" formulas), even though it was about applying your own knowledge on the matter (and I explained the formulas clearly and why I used them in the report in a very scientific manner).

... I have the MP because I wanted to see what the hype was about, and I figure that I can just turn it off; but the bugs and speed drop is just inexcusable (unless TI says "oh crap!" and jumps on some fixes). And I think that the NSpire does not allow downgrades is entirely retarded and just supports the kind of behavior I just described (i.e. let's not worry about other cases; in fact, let's try to prevent other cases from existing)

Exactly agreed. They have the resources for it, and they used to have the professional programmers for it. I tend to think that the coders who wrote the MP bits just aren't as good as the original OS coders. Yeah, good luck with that.

One of my biggest problems with the MP OSes is that there's essentially no way to have BASIC programs run well and be backwards-compatible. The "CLASSIC" token started on 2.53MP, so if you insert it at the beginning of your TI-BASIC programs to make sure that they run in Classic instead of MathPrint mode, you won't be able to transfer that program to any calculator running an earlier version of the OS. The only solution I can think of would be a shell that automatically sets Classic mode for every program, and have programs need to explicitly set MathPrint mode. I hope I did that with Doors CS, but I can't recall if I did.

Well, you can still [2nd][ENTER] to your heart's content, so I'm happy.

My thoughts precisely.

Well, my calculator came with 2.43. After some time I upgraded to 2.55MP to try it out, but because of that many bugs and it being low I downgraded again.
What would be awesome would be a new, stable and fast mathprint-os

Well when I bought my calc (ti-84+se) it already had 2.53 so I got used to MP and actually enjoy it. I dislike having to use parenthesis. I actually have not encountered any bugs, so I am fine.

I say that if TI doesn't do it, perhaps someone else should take a look at both OS's and remake it "better" -- just to make a point -- and then distribute that! ... Unless that would be illegal. But I wonder what TI would say if someone asked for permission to do it (either it would be a wake-up call if they do it well, or they'd just not care and say "go ahead", or...)

I use 2.43 because it is much more stable and I don't have to worry about the combatibility problems I get with Math Print. Also, I find 2.43 to be a bit faster too

Well, I might actually downgrade to 2.43. I'm now mathematically talented enough not to need some slow operating system.

Redistributing a modified OS is illegal, because the OS is copyrighted. The other problem would be messing with it without the source (very bug-prone).

Neither of those have ever stopped BrandonW, but I dare not do one-quarter of the ridiculous things that Brandon pulls off. Shkaboinka: I feel it would be better to just move on to a device without the bugs, or use an OS without said bugs. No point in doing with TI's coders are supposed to be paid for.