So a while ago, TI Connect CE 5.0 was released by TI as a compliment to the TI 84 Plus CE. Since it has new features, including a program editor, I have decided to do a full review. Sadly, this software only works with z80 USB-port models, but you can have TI-Connect 4.0 installed alongside it, so you are only really missing out on the new features.

Downloads and information
TI Education's TI-Connect CE information page
Download TI-Connect CE for Windows
Download TI-Connect CE for Mac OS X

First up: Start Up
Immediately after the splash screen splashes, you are greeted with the basic interface in screen capture mode. There are three modes, easily accessible from the sidebar, including Screen Capture, Calculator Explorer, and Program Editor. To the immediate right is the connected calculator list if you are in Screen Capture or Calculator Explorer mode, and the tokens list if you are in Program Editor mode. When it is the connected calculator list, you can switch between connected calculators quickly. Just click the one you want to switch to, and you're ready to go!

The Screen Capture Mode at Startup

Screen Capture
The Screen Capture mode is just an interface change on the one from TI-Connect 4.0. You can only take screenshots from the confines of the TI-OS level. This means you can't take screenshots from flashapps or assembly programs. Kind of a bummer, but nothing new. The interface does feel sleeker and more modern, but I feel TI could have updated the feature for this software.

Calculator Explorer and File Transfer
Since this is connectivity software, this is the most important part of this package. How is the connectivity? In a word: fast. It takes very little time from drag-and-drop of programs to menu, and the actual transfer takes full advantage of the USB capability. You also have the option to send files to all connected calculators, which is very nice, especially if you are working on a multi-player game and want to improve the time it takes to get the files to both calculators. In the Calculator Explorer itself, you see everything on the calculator in the sleek interface, and can switch between calculators easily. You can also double click a non-protected, non-assembly program to edit it within the Program Editor almost instantly, which leads nicely into the next section.

File Transfer Menu

Program Editor
TI has not released a program editor with their standard link software since TI Graph Link. This program editor is a nice addition to the software, once again with a sleek and modern interface. It features a tokens list and reference on the side, and can send the program to a connected calculator with the click of a button. The editor feels a lot like TokenIDE or SourceCoder, but with different syntax for store arrows and superscripts and such. The copy-paste issues from Graph Link have been fixed, though, so the store arrows (→) and the like show up properly when pasted into posts. There are line numbers for each line, like an IDE, but the similarities to full-featured IDEs stop there. The only language supported, syntax-highlighting wise, is TI-Basic, as is expected, since this is TI's product and not the community's. That said, if you are familiar with the tokens Axe replaces or don't care about the reference for hybrid basic, you can still use the editor for those languages. The reference only gives syntax, not a description, which is also a bit of a bummer. Unlike SourceCoder, there is no tab-completion or completion suggestions. There also are no colons to start each line, but those are done correctly when writing the actual file.
Program Editor

Overall, this is a nice update to TI-Connect, and you will enjoy the new file transfer speed and the TI-Basic program editing, as well as the new interface. Although the screen capture is still lacking, it is still the best TI Connect to date. Comparing the Editor to SourceCoder or TokenIDE or IES, the editor is still lacking, but it is like comparing a basic text editor to a full-feature IDE.
Nice review Smile I'd like to point out that TI-Connect has had a BASIC editor at one point, which can still be found here: http://tifreakware.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=203

I look forward to having my CE to use this with and get full functionality out of it Very Happy
I'm afraid I never knew that. Well, now I know.
Very cool, pimathbrainiac; thanks for posting this up! As we discussed, I'll soon be making this front-page Cemetech news, so I appreciate you saving our busy staff the time to try out the new software and write a review. Would you mind elaborating a little bit on the TI-BASIC editor? Does it have code hinting, tab completion, the ability to handle indenting, and other features that TokenIDE and SourceCoder have? I notice that it seems to lack the colons at the beginning of every line, which I find disconcerting. Smile
Nice work pimathbrainiac! Smile I might have to give this a whirl; still using TI-Connect 4.0. Razz I believe that it does make sense though that the editor doesn't have colons, as colons aren't a part of the exported file, which could cause some confusion for some first-time users if they were included. Looks a little neater too, which is what I think TI was going for. Smile
Mateo: SourceCoder puts the colons over in the left margin with the line numbers, which is what I was thinking might be a little more familiar to programmers. Smile I'm just projecting what I'm used to seeing from SourceCoder onto the new TI-Connect CE, though, which isn't really fair to them.
Kerm: I believe I addressed the differences well now. I also made a final comparison that pretty much sums up the editor differences in the final paragraph.
KermMartian wrote:
Mateo: SourceCoder puts the colons over in the left margin with the line numbers, which is what I was thinking might be a little more familiar to programmers. Smile I'm just projecting what I'm used to seeing from SourceCoder onto the new TI-Connect CE, though, which isn't really fair to them.

Yes, I actually prefer the colons as well, as that is more what it looks like on-calc. Smile Just trying to think of why they might not be included; seems like there might be a little reason. Luckily it's not too crucial though. Wink
Quite so; it's a pretty insignificant nitpick. I'm just glad that they're showing more sign of encouraging TI-BASIC programming on the new calculator, and I hope time will show that TI extends that enthusiasm into new activities as well as helping us program assembly for the TI-84 Plus CE.

Edit: By the way, I've reformatted this slightly and posted it as front-page Cemetech news: http://www.cemetech.net/news.php?id=727
Good review: looks interesting, but I'll miss the 83+ compatability. Can it be installed alongside TILP? My TI 89 is running AMS 1.00 and does not seem to work with TI Connect 4.0.
Quote:
Can it be installed alongside TILP?

Yup, at least critor did it on Windows, AFAICT.

Of course, in order to install TI's software and TILP alongside each other and enjoy both in working state, you'll have to use the filter driver, and on Windows 8/8.1 and 10 previews, use Zadig to self-sign the CAT file. But that's working around fundamental limitations of the Windows platform, not an intrinsic problem of TILP (libticables).
Thanks for the information regarding TILP and TI Connect CE. As I don't use TILP, I'm glad we can install this alongside still, with the filter driver, as with previous iterations of TI Connect.
Why i'm impressed, TI! The editor does look really nice. I guess everyone made a bit of noise over the lack of colons, sorry for adding to that but in the article "[...] but those are done correctly when writing the actual file." I just wanted to point out that there's nothing to really "do correctly", as that's just how the oncalc editor displays them, prefixing the line with a colon (as Kerm does in SourceCoder), so there's no way they could delete the colon and prevent it from appearing oncalc short of installing a calculator virus on your calc Wink

I haven't used TI Connect in years though and doubt that will change now, but i like the way the 83+ line is going. Maybe one of these days the 89'll get an update, too! *holds breath*
Note, the article is incorrect in saying that TI hasn't shipped a program editor since TI-Graphlink, but TI Connect had one until version 1.5 and the OS X version even had one for 1.6 and 1.6.1. I'm not sure if the 4.0 version for OS X included one or not.
TheStorm wrote:
I'm not sure if the 4.0 version for OS X included one or not.


It does but it's extremely buggy to the point of being useless (Crashes regularly losing all work in progress).

There is also the kind of forgotten program editor for voyage 200 for Windows:

http://education.ti.com/en/us/software/details/en/332832E61ECF459CB5387223F94208BB/ti-programeditor

which AFAIR can also be used with TI-89 but it does have its share of problems too. Needless to say of all the calcs the voyage and the 92 are the ones with the less need of an editor because of the qwerty keyboard. Still, I prefer to use the TI keyboard on the 89 or an emulator for most work.
Lionel Debroux wrote:
Quote:
Can it be installed alongside TILP?

Yup, at least critor did it on Windows, AFAICT.

Of course, in order to install TI's software and TILP alongside each other and enjoy both in working state, you'll have to use the filter driver, and on Windows 8/8.1 and 10 previews, use Zadig to self-sign the CAT file. But that's working around fundamental limitations of the Windows platform, not an intrinsic problem of TILP (libticables).

Cool, I'm on Win 7 so that should not be a problem. Smile
TheStorm wrote:
Note, the article is incorrect in saying that TI hasn't shipped a program editor since TI-Graphlink, but TI Connect had one until version 1.5 and the OS X version even had one for 1.6 and 1.6.1. I'm not sure if the 4.0 version for OS X included one or not.


Fair enough. I think tifreak told me this at one point as well. I did not know this even existed for TI Connect at the time of writing because I installed the program originally when I was in 8th grade Razz. Thanks for the correction.
I wish it allowed you to edit lists/matrices like the TIDataEditor in Connect 4.0 Sad
One odd thing that I can't seem to figure out is how they organize the variables anymore. They don't seem to order the calculator explorer section by any rhyme or reason. Razz

Also, 1 page applications are listed as being 15kb in size. Oh well. Smile

In addition, I kind of don't like how you can't specify files to send all at once if they don't exist in the same directory, or maybe I'm just using it wrong.

Anywho, after thus far using the program, I am thoroughly impressed! It transfers quickly, is easy to use, and does overall a nice job. TI++ Very Happy
Has anybody else have trouble with TI Connect CE with Windows 7? I've installed it on 3 Windows 8.1 machines and it worked. However, it fails to recognize the calculator on the 2 Windows 7 (64-bit) machines that I tried it on, even though the older TI Connect 4 recognizes it on the same computer.

Seems to be a driver issue.

-wes
  
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