A few weeks ago, I got hold of a PDF version of the Ti-Nspire handbook that comes with the beta hardware. What I found (or should I say didn't find) pretty much doomed the thing basic programming wise.

From the looks of things, Syntax wise it appears to be compatible with Ti-92 basic except for one critical exception. The calculator appears to not have any draw functions in any way. I didn't see any picture support whatsoever, no pixel drawing support, or even graph screen text support. Apparently all drawing functions were removed from this calculator. Data matrices appear to be dead in favor of more powerful matrix commands and Expr and indirection is still there from the looks of it, but that's about it.

Whats that mean to basic programmers? Pray for a graphics library to come out, because you're not going to be doing it in straight basic anymore. hopefully, since the product is in beta (as well as the documentation) this might change (or has already changed) in the future, but as it currently stands from my point of view, it doesn't look too good.

Yeah, that would suck. O_O

Though I am sure they would not forget to put in draw stuff... that would just be... stupid... :/

Am I correct if recalling that the NSPIRE will only be 150.00??

I'm not hearing anything about price yet, but I can pretty much guarantee that it's not going to be over $200. Even my Ti-92, which was the most expensive calc I bought, was only $185, and that was almost immediatly after it's launch.

I hope that the PDF is wrong. It doesn't seem to be complete, since it doesn't appear to have a programming section in the manual, (I'd post the manual I found online, but i'd probably be breaking some sort of Copyright law or something) but if these functions are lacking it's not looking too good.

When I get a chance, I'm going to read more of it in detail to see what it can and cannot do, since most of what I read is coming from the catalog section of the manual. (the only section worth reading on any calc book, next to the nonexisting Programming section) From the skimming i did, it appears to focus a lot on the spreadsheet like functionality and graphing abilities the calc has.

So, have you found anything that suggests that BASIC programmers will be able to actually build things for this calculator?? Maybe we should just email TI about it... :/

nothing yet, since they don't sell it here.

Xlibman's probably got a better bet in that dept, since it appears they sell them in canada.

hey xlibman, get us both a ti nspire so we can see what it is all about.

  

well over where i live all they sells anymore is TI-83+, TI-84+, TI-84+SE and TI-89 Titanium, nothing else , but anyway it will suck if there is no BASIC for this calc, people will have to learn asm to code it, and before asm doc come out it will be a while before people can make decent games for it and before someone take time to write TIGCC for this calc

Let me take that back, Canada doesn't have it now but Canada does get it first from the looks of it.

Quoted from The Ti-Nspire FAQ Page

Where and when will the TI-Nspire CAS+ be available?
The TI-Nspire CAS+ handheld and TI-Nspire CAS Software will be available in 2007 through select Canadian dealers. Please call 1-800-TI-CARES for updates on purchase information.

oh i thought it was alerady out

so did I

http://www.atomiclearning.com/ti_nspire has some Nspire tutorials that shows generally what the nspire can do. although there is nothing programming going on in any of the demos.

It seems like their focusing more on the geometry and graphing function of this calculator and less on calculations and programming, like it's more for displaying data in a class rather than actually being used for serious number crunching. It reminds me more of cabri geometry and derive, rather than an actual calculator.

The books just have nothing on programming the thing, and the link software that the NSpire uses doesn't reference programming at all. (it can accept document files, backups and OS upgrades. it doesn't tell you what kinds of documents the documents can be.)

the booklets references http://www.education.ti.com/nspire and http://education.ti.com/go/nspireenglish but as of yet it goes to the TI main page. If you select canada on one of the sites it goes to the tell nothing about the calculator nspire page.

more insight on this calc.

From what I'm seeing, it doesn't seem to support programs at all, but it supports functions like the 89 does, with all of the limits of functions.

The below is from the 89 manual

Quoted from the 89 manual

A user-defined function:

• Can use the following instructions only. Any others are invalid.
Cycle
For...EndFor
Lbl
Return
Define
Goto
Local
While...EndWhile
Exit
If...EndIf (all forms)
Loop...EndLoop
->(Sto-> key)

• Can use all built-in TI-89 Titanium / Voyage™ 200 functions except:
setFold
setTable
setGraph
switch
setMode

• Can refer to any variable; however, it can store a value to a local variable only.
- The arguments used to pass values to a function are treated as local variables automatically. If you store to any other variables, you must declare them as local from within the function.
• Cannot call a program as a subroutine, but it can call another user-defined function.
• Cannot define a program.
• Cannot define a global function, but it can define a local function.
Note: Information about local variables is available.

All of these functions described above are defined in the documentation, but ones you would expect for programming, such as input, disp, ETC are nowhere to be found.

Now I can't confirm this since I don't have one in front of me, but from how I have seen functions used in the examples, it seems that this is the level of programming that the Nspire is going to support.

well, i just bought a TI nspire and i really like it but i cant seem to understand it that good. can any one please tell me how can I even integrate.

I don't have an Nspire, so I can't really help you much.

From looking at the Ti-Nspire CAS reference guides, The Nspire CAS (the Grey one) can do it but the Nspire (the Blue one) cannot (or at least it's not in the Nspire reference guide). In the CAS reference guide, the command is described similar to the 89 syntax.

the TI nspire(the blue one) should integrate, it even has a function that says numerical integral, but I have looked every where and i doesnt say how to use it.
Anyways why would they make such a complex calculator that doesnt integrate:S