UtilPack/ UtilComp [hp prime][lib]

[Dream of Omnimaga]

It depends if the computer program that lets one communicate between his calc and computer is doing part of the job for us, though.

[alexgt]

True but I would want to make my own communication program

[Lionel Debroux]

Making one's communication program is an interesting learning exercise, but for end user experience, it's probably better to help improve the existing portable and interoperable communication program - namely libhpcalcs (*) - and make a portable GUI for it

Erwin Ried's non-portable, non-interoperable program only supports severely outdated versions of the Prime firmware, so it's out of the picture for, er, communication programs. It has a pretty UI, though.

[alexgt]

Yeah, this would be more for developers (although I am not sure how far we could push it if we can actually do something like this)

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Yeah I heard that he could not figure out how to get it to work with newer firmwares or that he gave up on it. It's a shame because it had some nice features. Maybe at one point libhpcalcs could allow plugins that adds such features?


That said, communication tools for stuff we were discussed wouldn't necessarily be that useful either. The audience for online calculator gaming, especially for HP calcs, would be extremely small.

[alexgt]

It would still be AWESOME , and I could use it to make a on calc CW post notifier (i would use it if no one else would since I has no phone )

[Lionel Debroux]

Yeah I heard that he could not figure out how to get it to work with newer firmwares or that he gave up on it.

He gave up on it, I'd say. The protocol is documented by libhpcalcs, which worked on older firmware versions, and keeps working on '2014 firmware releases without a major overhaul. Several external contributions have improved the communication, but unlike PrimeComm, libhpcalcs was fairly unharmed by the May 2014 firmware release.
The fact that there are few Prime users, which is sad, doesn't help finding time or motivation for working on tooling...

It's a shame because it had some nice features.

UI-wise, yeah. The text editor with syntax coloring is unmatched.

Maybe at one point libhpcalcs could allow plugins that adds such features?

Such features should indeed be added to that unwritten portable GUI (equivalent to TILP) on top of libhpcalcs. However, for good software design (portability, interoperability, reusability), libhpcalcs is focused on communication stuff and should stay that way, like the libti* family, especially libticables + libticalcs, is

[Dream of Omnimaga]

There are quite a lot of HP Prime users, but unfortunately most only care about using it for maths and science, kinda like 68K calcs nowadays. But I understand your concern.

[alexgt]

There are quite a lot of HP Prime users, but unfortunately most only care about using it for maths and science, kinda like 68K calcs nowadays. But I understand your concern.

Yeah not many people are trying to push the limits of the Prime (You can do amazing stuff that I haven't had the time to add to MinePrime/ SIFS)

[Dream of Omnimaga]

(You can do amazing stuff that I haven't had the time to add to MinePrime/ SIFS)

MinePrime is now full 3D? Just kidding, but if someone doesn't care about his 3D being very accurate, especially if he uses a lower resolution, then he can create some amazing graphics out of just multiple layers of 2D maps (have each layer scroll at different speeds like parallax scrolling but almost at the same speed as the front layer).

[alexgt]

I would probably look into raycasting in my eventual 3D version (unless there comes up some hack for ASM coding for the prime and a super fast 3D world renderer happens) MinePrime started as a project to get used to HP PPL (One of my first projects and the worst written one (by re writing it I cleaned up ~8mb of code and did the same thing when I rewrote it in one line in a loop and a if statement ))

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Wow that's quite a big cleanup , good job. Anyway, I can't wait to see updates on MinePrime, this project and others

[alexgt]

Well, I haven't been working on any calc projects lately but next week I will jump back into it

[Unicorn]

Yay! I'm ready for a playable emu demo...

[alexgt]

Yay! I'm ready for a playable emu demo...

?!