Say you were reading a tutorial on using your calculator for math, including things like math, graphing, calculus, etc. Say further that in order to appeal to the latest TI-84+/SE users, it focused entirely on using the MathPrint operating systems. How would you feel about this? How about if it instructed users of older calculators how to upgrade to an MP OS? Now what if it present MP and non-MP screenshots side-by-side to appeal to TI-83+/SE and non-MP TI-84+/SE users, even though that would lose some depth for MP explanations and visuals? Discuss!

Better to support the lowest common denominator, I think. I've never used a MP device so can't say how much of a difference there actually is, but AFAIK the difference is just cosmetic. It may be worthwhile to touch on the difference, but best to prefer non-MP I think.

That's my thought too, especially from the perspective of a community hacker and someone who took math quite a few years ago. Thanks for the feedback. I'll continue to collect thoughts, especially from younger members who are currently in math classes and may have personal current experiences to share,.

Don't want MP anywhere near my calculator unless TI gets their act together and stops breaking things. On the other hand, I also probably won't be reading that sort of tutorial any time soon

Indeed. I feel like math students who just got a TI-84+/SE that comes loaded with MP would want to read a tutorial that used MP rather than one that made them switch to classic mode, but I also think it would be nice if it covered people with older calculators.

If you're going to use MathPrint, you should add some kind of notice that tells people using older OS versions to update to an MP OS to avoid fragmentation. My math teacher doesn't use MP simply because she doesn't know how to upgrade the OS, but many of my classmates do and they often get confused when the teacher's calculator display looks different from their own. They also don't seem to understand that 1/2x is different from 1/(2x), but they would understand it if it was in a fraction form, like MathPrint. MathPrint also adds statistics wizards, if I recall correctly, which may be helpful to math students.

Such a tutorial would definitely include a note on how to upgrade, so that people wouldn't be confused. However, the dilemma is whether to also include instructions and screenshots for non-MP readers, either those who cannot or do not want to upgrade their calculators to an MP OS.

I'd write the tutorial either way you want but gear it towards MP or non MP. Then, just write a note that results will vary or maybe go into more depth and say how it'll vary.

This is included in 2.55MP but not 2.53MP.

comic: A good point. Geared towards MP is probably the more "modern" version, with occasional notes and screenshots showing how the non-MP view might be different.

JosJuice: Ah, good to know; I can't say I've ever played with that tool.

I say that it would be better if there were minimal mention of MP, only mentioning it if the topic has a descrepancy between normal OS and an MP OS. This is because a lot of kids might have different calculators, some without MP. Overall, just to be fair to all calculator users, I vouch for some or minimal MP talk.

and I would warn students that upgrading to MP from non-MP is a bit of a hazard as it decreases calculation speed and breaks stuff on the programming side.

edit: Also, it'd be great if students are instructed on how to switch between classic and MP if forced to use an MP OS, so that way they can choose for themselves what they prefer

Qazz: Good to hear. Trying to get the high-level here, it seems that people almost universally don't think it's a good idea to focus solely on the MP operating systems and not mention anything about the non-MP OSes. Is that correct?

Personally, I prefer MathPrint/PrettyPrint whenever possible. There is already a wide variety of complex and confusing (and sometimes even contradicting) notations in mathematics. A math education tool shouldn't add to that confusion.

Maybe non-MP with an appendix on MP?

I don't have a problem with MathPrint itself; implemented correctly, I agree that it can help students see the connection between the math they see in their books, the math they perform on paper, and the math that their calculator prints. My problem is that MathPrint on the black-and-white TI-83+/84+ series is quite buggy and poorly-implemented, and I feel some of that slowness and bugginess can be offputting to students. Nevertheless, I did carry both MathPrint and non-MathPrint explanations throughout "Using the TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus", which is now available!

(This is coming from my limited knowledge on TIOS)

I would say to use non-MP since the same style of inputting into non-MP and MP is the same, except that MP has a cosmetic change and there are additional ways of input added. Going with an older style that has backwards-compat. in MP is better IMO than MP-specific translated to non-MP (MP features would be dropped).

I would at least put in a central section saying how MP differs from non-MP, but (hopefully) that the non-MP examples would work the same on MP minus graphics.

About MP and non-MP screenies together... Would this be for parts that MP significantly changed parts (not just graphical pretty-printing), such as the stat plot wizards added? For large differences, sure. Else, stick with a classic display.

Note: a good reason to stick with a classic mode is that, well, MP and fractions and such, it is clear where different parts of equations start and end (when doing a lot of fractions). In classic, parenthesis are a large concern as misplacing them can lead to getting bad results (especially since this isn't an AMS calc where it actually tells you about parenthesis mismatches). Also, MP calcs have both MP and classic, so someone with MP wouldn't have a lot of differences if the calc is put into classic mode.

I vote for sticking with non-MP for the most part, but making lots of references to MP.

I have lots of classmates who don't understand the 1/2x vs 1/(2x) thing, like Souvik mentioned, and having an in-depth tutorial on how all of that works would be a good idea. Especially considering that putting lots of extra parentheses won't really hurt anything, and it would be good to get in the habit of putting extra just to make sure.

Additionally, with the MP calcs, you can just switch back to Classic mode, whereas older calcs are stuck (for better or worse) in Classic mode.

If you're showing screenshots, I think showing one of each would be a good idea for the most part, because I know that I've tried to follow tutorials before where my output looks slightly different from theirs, and in the end, it's because I was using a slightly different version. I feel like the same thing would happen here. Especially for things like understanding that 0.49999 is the same as 0.5, which is the same as 1/2 (all of which would be possible to run into depending on which OS version you're running) and having that knowledge would be helpful in case they ever have to understand someone else's calculator.