What is the most useless TI-84 plus token?
DS<( and IS>(
 37%  [ 3 ]
dbd(
 0%  [ 0 ]
ANOVA(
 0%  [ 0 ]
ClearEntries
 0%  [ 0 ]
E
 12%  [ 1 ]
e^(
 0%  [ 0 ]
PrintScreen
 50%  [ 4 ]
Total Votes : 8

After some theorising in the chat, it has turned out to be quite a challenge to pick out a single most useless token. Some have suggested the ClearEntries, and the ANOVA( tokens, but there are surely plenty more! There are many tokens that I've never used personally, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful! (BoxPlot), Leave your suggestions for the token you would deem the "most useless token" in the 8x series of calculators, Ill be adding them to this list and making a Poll with these suggestions Tomorrow to determine once and for all what the most useless token really is!

ANOVA(
ClearEntries
dbd(
DS<( and IS>(
E
e^(
PrintScreen
The DS<( and IS>( tokens always seemed pretty pointless to me.
DS<( and IS>( Are actually pretty cool and useful items. I wrote a tutorial on here at one point about them and their potential.
DS<( and IS>( used to be the only way to create For() loops on TI calcs, back when the TI-81 was the only Z80 calculator available.


ClearEntries is pretty handy as well. Long before pocket-dialing became an issue on smartphones, pocket-TI-program-launching was a thing. Doing a ClearEntries before putting your calculator in your pocket will prevent the bottom of your TI-83+ slidecase from pushing on the ON and ENTER keys then inaverdently launching a program and draining your batteries until you find out.
Well for that problem of accidentally pressing enter, you could always press a 0 to have the last entry not do anything, which would be the same as using clear entries, and it's easier to type out.
String►Equ(, without a doubt. Unlike the other ones, which all have a unique purpose (however insignificant), String>Equ( does the exact same thing as "string"->Y-Var, but takes up one extra byte. It literally has no purpose whatsoever, and I'm honestly surprised that TI chose to keep it for the CE.

Speaking of the CE, the FRAC-APPROX token was apparently useless enough for TI to get rid of it.
Oh, I get how the DS< and IS> would be used, probably something like


Code:
1->X
Lbl 1
//do stuff
IS>(X,100
Goto 1


That sounds honestly awful to program in. Although I guess some of the workarounds I do in TI-BASIC for tasks that are trivial in "real" languages are just as bad...

There are some commands like PrintScreen that can't actually be entered, so those are fairly useless. They also do nothing (in the case of PrintScreen, according to tibasicdev, TI decided not to implement it).
PrintScreen is actually a TI-82 command. Not sure why TI included the token on the 83+, but I guess it's because of what you said.
Off-topic, but speaking of IS>( and DS<(, this thread [yes, it's from 9 years ago and no longer relevant, but let me have this] has always bugged me since I'm not sure where they got the idea that it's equivalent to X+1->X:If X>VALUE:Then:stuff:Else:stuff:End, since the only command that's ever affected is the one directly after the inc/dec command; there is no part of it that even remotely resembles an Else statement.

More useless tokens:
- Most of the date ones, including dbd( and especially dayOfWk(.
- e^(; if we have this, why don't we have i^( or π^(?
- either 10^( or E. My vote goes to E, since it throws a syntax error with variables or (parenthesized expressions) but is otherwise equivalent to 10^(.
- ⁻¹, ₂, ³, ³√(. They can be easily replaced with other tokens.
You made a mistake in creating the poll. These tokens all do things. PrintScreen, on the other hand, is a valid token that can't be typed and doesn't do anything. http://tibasicdev.wikidot.com/printscreen
I was just reading about PrintScreen, and it said that the token is found in the PRGM menu, and if the calculator is connected to the computer, it will print the screen and send it in a compatible format. If it is not, it will just act like Pause until the Enter key is pressed. Here is the link:
http://tibasicdev.wikidot.com/forum/t-884431/printscreen-command
readroof2 wrote:
I was just reading about PrintScreen, and it said that the token is found in the PRGM menu, and if the calculator is connected to the computer, it will print the screen and send it in a compatible format. Here is the link:
http://tibasicdev.wikidot.com/forum/t-884431/printscreen-command

yes but thats on the ti-82, the weird thing is that its available on the 83+/84+, but has no utlity on those calcs
Is it on the TI-84+CSE? I have never seen this command before, and I just learned about it today. I don't think it is in the program menu for my calculator. Which is good, right?
readroof2 wrote:
Is it on the TI-84+CSE? I have never seen this command before, and I just learned about it today. I don't think it is in the program menu for my calculator. Which is good, right?

You can't access it from the calc, it doesnt show up in any menu, but there is nevertheless a token for it, kind of like the greek letters, they made tokens for em, but you can't use them (sorta) While I'm at it, I wonder if you can type it into sourcecode like if it will change it to the token, either way, no you don't see it on your CSE and thats perfectly normal
edit: just tested it out and Yes, sourcecode has it in there
How does SourceCoder create the token for a calculator and add what it does?
The token has no purpose on the TI-83 and higher; the link you read was describing its function on the TI-82. The token is only accessible on non-TI-82s by manually inserting "91" (the hexadecimal value TI set aside for it) into your program using a hex editor of some sort.

That's precisely what SourceCoder does: if you have the text "PrintScreen" in your program, SC will change that to 0x91 in the binary .8xp. Not sure what you mean by "and add what it does"; SourceCoder just makes the file. What each of those commands do is determined by the calculator.
If PrintScreen does nothing on the non-82 calculators, why would TI set aside 91 for that token? Were they trying to reuse what they could of operating systems so they wouldn't have to start from scratch or something?
E IS NOT USELESS.

It's faster, and it saves bytes.
Hitechcomputergeek wrote:
E IS NOT USELESS.

It's faster, and it saves bytes.

I know, but someone suggested it, and there is already the 10^( token so I kind of see where he is coming from...
readroof2 wrote:
If PrintScreen does nothing on the non-82 calculators, why would TI set aside 91 for that token? Were they trying to reuse what they could of operating systems so they wouldn't have to start from scratch or something?

Just cause they took lots of their old code to make the newer OS, that particular token was just never removed...
M. I. Wright wrote:
String►Equ(, without a doubt. Unlike the other ones, which all have a unique purpose (however insignificant), String>Equ( does the exact same thing as "string"->Y-Var, but takes up one extra byte. It literally has no purpose whatsoever, and I'm honestly surprised that TI chose to keep it for the CE.

Speaking of the CE, the FRAC-APPROX token was apparently useless enough for TI to get rid of it.


The Str►Equ token is INCREDIBLY useful. How else would one edit the [y=] functions in a program without ASM?
  
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