*Cross-posting from Omnimaga*
(http://ourl.ca/6045)

Recently on TI-Bank came out v3.0 of AutoCalc, a CAS program for z80. Even though it is quite awesome, the large amount of programs that it uses and the not-so-friendly GUI have made it quite difficult to use. Therefore, I made an app version of this program (using BasicBuilder), with a cleaner GUI and with Symbolic and PrettyPrint (the app, not TI's MP OS) support.

Instructions:

The app uses a command line style interface, similar to the one used by TI on the homecreen.
For calculations, just type them in and wait.
To exit the app, type QUIT.
If you forgot the syntax for the Symbolic and PrettyPrint functions, type HELP.
If it is taking forever to calculate the result and you want to abandon, press the On button. You'll have to relaunch the app after this, though.

Other functions, requiring Symbolic and/or PrettyPrint, have a slightly different syntax (the ":" character that appears in some of the functions HAS to be used for the functions to be recognized):


D: derivates the expression with respect to X
PD: same as above but also outputs the result using PrettPrint
SIMP: simplifies the expression
PNUM: the standard CAS calculation, but with PrettyPrint output
PEXP: simplifies an expression and then outputs the result using PrettyPrint
PRON enables AutoPrettyPrint, so that all functions and calculations automatically output their results in PrettyPrint
PROFF disables AutoPrettyPrint

The app automatically saves your AutoPrettyPrint settings, so that you don't have to modify them each time you run it.
Also, the app saves the last result into the Ans var and Str0, so that it can be used after quitting the app.
The app has been made so that Symbolic and PrettyPrint are optional, meaning that it will work without them, though with less functions available. The main CAS calculator engine doesn't require Symbolic to work properly.
I also recommend using Omnicalc to install Symbolic, since this allows faster loading times and other nifty functions.

Since this is the first release, I would be very grateful if you tested all of its functions and reported any bugs in this thread. Thanks.

The file can be found in the Omnimaga thread (link on the top).

So, does this mean it's a very complex BASIC suite that you've packaged with BASICBuilder, or it's a series of ASM programs? Either way, a very nice job to the author and to you. I don't suppose you have any screenshots anywhere to show off the kinds of things this program can do...?

It's a mix of BASIC and ASM programs. If you want, here is a screenshot of the original version, so you can see how the engine works. But since I modified the GUI, it will be slightly different in my version.

Pretty cool! I notice that it always seems to come up with the decimal approximation first; does that mean it then tries common combinations of roots, pi's, e's, and ln's to match this approximation, or does it do it more like string parsing and simplification?

It uses common combinations of roots, pi's, e's and ln's to match the approximation, since directly working on the inputted string requires much more CPU power, which becomes much too slow in BASIC. But I guess it could be done in ASM.

Ah, that makes sense. Yes, it would indeed be quite straightforward in ASM, at least with some kind of state-machine-based parser. I'm curious then, what function do the ASM component(s) of this suite serve?

The ASM programs are just there to make the algorithm faster.

Silver Shadow, this project seemed quite promising; what's happening with it? Anything new and exciting?