Help from a programmer needed!

[account4me2]

Hello,

I'm hoping someone will be able to help me out here.

I've been using this program 'Fake': http://brandonw.net/calculators/fake/ for awhile now, but I realise that it would be much more useful if it were reworked a different way.

Basically, with Fake, you:
Select the "Fake" application from the APPS menu and enter a combination of keypresses to use to "unlock" the application later. You then 'clear' the memory using any normal method, and once you do, Fake will hide all of your programs and Flash applications. You can type the combination you selected at any time, and all the hidden programs and applications will reappear.

What I need is something that does this:
You select a combination you want, and when you enter that combination, it HIDES the programs and apps. Then you can type the combination again to unhide the apps, and so on. This way you could, for example, toggle the appearance of all programs and apps in the menus with a single button press.

From a non-programmer's point of view (me), it seems that all that needs to be changed to Fake is that the code that detects if you entered the correct combination needs to be copied and it needs to replace the code that detects whether you went into the mem menu and clicked clear.

It would be VERY helpful if someone clever and with enough time could rework the code of Fake (http://brandonw.net/calcstuff/fake.zip) to do this.


Thank you very much for any help guys!

[FloppusMaximus]

It's certainly possible to do what you're saying (using a hook of some variety.) I don't know precisely how Fake works, though.

[Mapar007]

Why would you want that? Fake is a tool to do fake resets that look legitimate, so I don't see why you'd want that. I have the source to Fake, so maybe I can whip something up when I get home in 2 days.

[account4me2]

It would be awesome if you could do that. Thank you very much!

And to answer your question, here is a typical situation where it would come in handy:

When you enter a test/exam, you use Fake to trick the teacher/supervisor into thinking your memory is cleared. Then as soon as the test starts, you undo Fake and everything reappears. Well what if, for example: During the actual test, a teacher/supervisor is walking around the room watching the students, and catches a glimpse of what look like notes on your calc, so comes to investigate. They would find you tricked them, and that all your apps are still there. Also, there's a greater likelihood of this happening if you are using your calculator in a subject where you shouldn't be using it very much, if at all. Unless you could push a button and make the apps disappear.

In my case, I have a Biology exam in 6 days, and am pretty screwed without something like this.

Also, if it's not too hard (because you will already have been of great help), it would be great if the program could (when the user enters the combination) first return to the calculation screen (i.e. quit any running application), then hide the programs+apps too - in this case a cool name for the app would be 'Panic' (you'd have to ask brandonw though before any sort of official release). :biggrin:

Thanks again!

[ah-blabla]

There is something like this for the TI 89/Voyage 200 etc:
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/252/25235.html
It allows you to hide individual files and folders, so I think you should be able to just hide the folder containing the stuff you want to hide. (You just need to remember the name though of the files you have hidden. Another problem is that it may not be possible to hide the hider. I will test this.)

Note: I haven't tested this myself, so I don't know what it's like to use.

Update: I did some testing (on an emulator): it's pretty cool: you can even hide the program itself, and it still works. (Unhiding the program isn't possible though if you do this, so you need to do a hard shutdown to remove it if you hide it.) The way it seems to work is by accessing the file, which hides the file from the Varlink display.

[Lordelo]

[quote name='ah-blabla' post='138170' date='Nov 3 2009, 11:39 AM']There is something like this for the TI 89/Voyage 200 etc:
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/252/25235.html
It allows you to hide individual files and folders, so I think you should be able to just hide the folder containing the stuff you want to hide. (You just need to remember the name though of the files you have hidden. Another problem is that it may not be possible to hide the hider. I will test this.)

Note: I haven't tested this myself, so I don't know what it's like to use.

Update: I did some testing (on an emulator): it's pretty cool: you can even hide the program itself, and it still works. (Unhiding the program isn't possible though if you do this, so you need to do a hard shutdown to remove it if you hide it.) The way it seems to work is by accessing the file, which hides the file from the Varlink display.[/quote]

I have that sneaky little program, haven't tried clearing all memory after hiding something and see if it's still there afterwards, though. Do you think it would work? Or is this what you just said...? (sorry)

[fougere]

Personally, I would not help you edit/write a program that does something intently deceitful and knowingly against the rules. One could argue that programming was not invented because people were lazy and did not want to work, but it was invented to progress further in technology and the sciences. Using it for cheating on a test does not contribute to this and is an abuse of the gift given by the great minds who came before us. It's just something to think about. I'll get off my soapbox now.

[account4me2]

[quote name='ah-blabla' post='138170' date='Nov 3 2009, 12:39 PM']There is something like this for the TI 89/Voyage 200 etc:
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/252/25235.html
It allows you to hide individual files and folders, so I think you should be able to just hide the folder containing the stuff you want to hide. (You just need to remember the name though of the files you have hidden. Another problem is that it may not be possible to hide the hider. I will test this.)

Note: I haven't tested this myself, so I don't know what it's like to use.

Update: I did some testing (on an emulator): it's pretty cool: you can even hide the program itself, and it still works. (Unhiding the program isn't possible though if you do this, so you need to do a hard shutdown to remove it if you hide it.) The way it seems to work is by accessing the file, which hides the file from the Varlink display.[/quote]

Sorry guys. I forgot to mention I have a TI-84+ Silver Edition (Silver Edition means extra memory). Also, that doesn't really sound like what I'm looking for. I want something where, say, pushing a single button will hide/unhide all my programs+apps. The program Fake by brandonw has all the code necessary for this, it just needs to be reworked a little.

Thanks anyway though!

[JoeYoung]

Here's an idea.

Don't cheat.

[Graphmastur]

[account4me2]

[Weregoose]