What are your three favorite PC programs in support of the TI... and why.

[+--- Ω ---]

Most of us use PC's in support of our TI hobby, and some of these programs it seems are invaluable.  So, what are your "TOP THREE" and WHY?

[TheBF]

TI-DIR:  INVALUABLE  for file management PC<->TI99<->PC

Classic99:  Lowers my blood pressure versus using floppy disks all the time.

TeraTerm:  Really flexible terminal for communicating with the TI99

 

[+jedimatt42]

gcc - to dev software

xdt99 - to dev software and create .DSK command line style

Classic99 - to debug software

 

[email protected]

[BeeryMiller]

MAME         Great tool for emulating various hardware setups for the TI and Geneve

TI-DIR        File management

Mystic BBS  File resource with the file categories and retrieving files easily through a Telnet connection

 

[+--- Ω ---]

39 minutes ago, TheBF said:

TI-DIR:  INVALUABLE  for file management PC<->TI99<->PC

Classic99:  Lowers my blood pressure versus using floppy disks all the time.

TeraTerm:  Really flexible terminal for communicating with the TI99

 

 

I agree on TI99Dir.  I use it for converting formats, reading TI text files for cutting and pasting into PC programs as well as managing files on my TIPI, although I also use my browser for that function as well.

 

I also agree on Classic99.  Classic 99 shares the BASIC programs subdirectory on my TIPI.  So if you have your TIPI setup as a network drive on your PC, it's awesome.

 

 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Winhex -  inspecting/troubleshooting disk images and DSR-related routines

MESS/MAME - Geneve emulation for quick testing/dev

Notepad  - no frills editing/code review

(TI99DIR and TI Image Tool are important/useful for all of the above)

[pixelpedant]

Classic99 - Debugging and development; Indispensable 

TI Image Tool - I've had more luck with it than with TI99Dir, where reading and writing NanoPEB CFs are concerned. 

Notepad++ - I mean, it's not like it even does all that fantastic job.  But it does a pretty good one, and I use it all the time.  REGEX Find/Replace and custom syntax highlighting and what have you are really handy, when editing XB (in tandem with Classic99's support for simple pasting). 

[TheBF]

LOL.  I forgot to choose my own XFCC99  cross-compiler.  Duh.

[RXB]

Classic99

TI-Dir

Windows Notepad

WinMerge

Hex Editor Neo

7 Zip

VLC

OBS Studio

[Asmusr]

xdt99

ti99dir

convert9918

 

[PeteE]

Magellan - makes the pretty pictures

Classic99 - for emulation, and has a nice debugger

XDT99 - for programming in assembly

GCC - for programming in C

all of the above work well on Windows/Mac/Linux (classic99 runs good under wine)

[+--- Ω ---]

12 minutes ago, Asmusr said:

convert9918

My #3 as well.

[Asmusr]

29 minutes ago, PeteE said:

Magellan - makes the pretty pictures

I'm glad somebody mentioned it. I didn't since I have been the main developer for 6 years. But Magellan has been the starting point for all of my games, and I think I have used it for thousands of hours.

 

Many people have mentioned xdt99, but few people know about the xdt99 plugin for IntelliJIdea, which I think is the best thing that has ever happened to PC development tools for the TI-99/4A. It may seem strange or difficult to use a Java IDE for TI-99/4A development, but actually it works perfectly fine, and you have a lot of tools available (like syntax highlighting, code completion, and renaming labels everywhere in one go) that you don't have when using notepad++ or similar.

 

[majestyx]

Classic99 (got me back into the TI)

ti99dir (absolute requirement for the nanoPEB)

Notepad++ (for editing the cart descriptions for the FG99)

[+FarmerPotato]

8 hours ago, --- Ω --- said:

Most of us use PC's in support of our TI hobby, and some of these programs it seems are invaluable.  So, what are your "TOP THREE" and WHY?

If I have to rank them, I guess I can put 3 at the top.

 

For development of software + hardware:

xdt99
Magellan
Kicad

 

There's a list beyond that:

cygwin
JS99er.net
Classic99 (this trades off as #1)
Notepad++
Tidir

WinCUPL

Convert9918

 

[Tursi]

Classic99

TI99Dir

Convert9918

 

Since it was "3 favorite", that's it. I know there are now more capable tools than TI99Dir, but I'm just so used to it, even the UI decisions that infuriate me.

 

Magellan is super helpful for me, even for just trying things out to see what they look like. xdt99 is definitely the toolchain I like the most (I wrote Dragon's Lair with it), but I still use Asm994A too often, again, just because I'm used to reaching for it.  Likely, eventually that will replace Asm994A and Ti99Dir completely for me.

Technically, "in support of" would also include my PDF reader, since I always have a least a couple of manuals open.

 

[sometimes99er]

xas99, cross-assembler
Classic99, test and debugging
MAME, playtest
 

 

[mizapf]

No surprises from me, sorry. 🙂

 

1. MAME

2. TIImageTool

3. jEdit (+further tools for development: git, gcc, make,...)

[jrhodes]

. Classic99, whats not to love? Well, other then garbled speech.

. TIDir, allows me to rummage through a folder of .dsk files looking for goodies.

. TIPI web interface (that counts, right?), for getting the goodies over to my TI.

. CS1er, for those times i just want to go "bare console" like the old days. Not many people would bother with tape now days, but i find it enjoyable to keep a modest selection of goodies on tape i can fire up from time to time. Plus, if i ever get tapes with a TI purchase i can attempt to dump them to PC with this program.

 

Edited November 24 by jrhodes

[Firefly]

Classic 99,

JS99er,

Magellan.

 

 

[+FarmerPotato]

Subject said PC, but, I have my MacBook Pro in between the PC workstation and my 4A. 

 

Mac top 3:

 

BlueWizard

TIImageTool and dd

xdt99

iTunes

 

MacOS X runs all the Unix based stuff better than Cygwin on the PC. Also TIImageTool lets me write to the CF card with dd. I got that working on the Mac. 

BBEdit takes the place of NotePad++. I've been using BBEdit since 1994 for everything. (Ooh.. back in 1994 I even used ResEdit to make 4A bitmap tiles and sprites, convert to chars, sent text docs via XModem. Nice to have Magellan now.)

 

I have the cassette version of Line-by-Line-Assembler in iTunes. For some reason, the 4A will load fine from the line out from the MacBook, but not my PC's sound card.

 

xdt99 is Python and for speech project I've just been running it on the Mac, because CF card. Only the Mac runs BlueWizard for LPC encoding.

Also on the Mac are iverilog and the IceStorm toolchain, because they're wonky on the PC, but that's not really 4A, it's BlackIce attached to the 4A sideport.

 

I keep everything synchronized with GitLab, so technically git is a must-have.

 

 

[1980gamer]

V9T9  - Got me back into the TI.   As painful as it was to configure it!  Oh and my slow computer running it! 

CLASSIC99 - Without it...  I wouldn't be in this forum.

Magellan - Almost everything I do in the TI realm begin with Magellan.

 

XB256 and the compiler kept me here.  I know they are TI native, but had to give a shout-out!