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The "USEFUL PROGRAMS" thread!


Omega-TI

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This thread is for USEFUL PROGRAMS, that do not fall into the game or system maintenance utility categories.  They can be in BASIC, any version of Extended BASIC, Forth, Cobol, Snobol or what the hell ever language.    They can be compiled, T80XB, E/A5, cartridge .BIN you name it.  HOWEVER, if it requires an esoteric setup of specialty files, they must be included with instructions that even NOOBS can follow, otherwise.

 

 

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On 10/15/2020 at 6:07 AM, atrax27407 said:

What program are you trying to find? Why not just ask for it instead of starting another thread.

I'm not trying to find any particular program.  Most things here seem to revolve around games and I figured a new thread might get some conversation started, bring some new programs to light and people, including myself might "discover" something new or old that they could use and enjoy. 

 

Is starting a new thread a problem?

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One example of useful program(s), are the Weather 40 and Weather 80 programs.  I use them daily on my TI's to get a quick and concise reading on the current weather conditions. I'm a little unclear on it's full pedigree, but I know @arcadeshopper did some work on it, then @Vorticon improved it with the F18A compatible 80 column version.  Also @dgrissom made two different 40 column versions with enhanced visuals and a couple of extra features depending on which 40 column version you use.  All three versions are available for download below.

 

Along these same lines, @dgrissom also mentioned the possibility of using this same kind of program for news headlines, sports and other information.  I suppose the hardest thing would be to find a suitable text source for information to use in this day and age.

 

NOTE:  All three downloads require a TIPI

 

 

 

 

 

WEATHER80.dsk WX40-REGXB.zip WX40-XBGEM.zip

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I am always interested in software that runs on my actual TI console (with appropriate peripherals)!

 

jedimatt42's Force Command is my ABSOLUTE favorite piece of software!  If you are not using Force Command and decide to try it you are in for a treat!  It works with most if not all TI storage systems.  I use it with my nanoPEB and my TIPI (I actually access both at the same time!).

 

With that said, I believe that the "Weather" program in its original or modified form is one of my favorite pieces of "daily use" software! 

I use it because it provides very accurate CURRENT local weather information.   Too many pieces of PC and phone-based software apps will give you outdated projections, throw lots of ads, and sometimes won't update easily, etc.   This software provides "just the current NOAA facts".

 

During the recent hurricane ("Sally") in my area, I was able to track the current wind conditions at our location.  Knowing this information could be the difference in how to act in emergencies  (… although I continue to use my weather radio as well!).

 

With that said (and mentioned by Omega-TI in the above post), if anyone knows of other similar data sources that will utilize the TIPI's web interface, I know I would love to add it to my TI/TIPI and/or Force Command.  I've searched for stock, news, horoscopes, tips and quotes of the day among others.  So far, I've had no luck ?.  I believe that these types of data would be fun and useful information to add to "TI" formatted WEB,  BBS's, or FTP sites (if it is not already available!).

 

DG

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7 hours ago, dgrissom said:

jedimatt42's Force Command is my ABSOLUTE favorite piece of software!  If you are not using Force Command and decide to try it you are in for a treat!  It works with most if not all TI storage systems.  I use it with my nanoPEB and my TIPI (I actually access both at the same time!).

 

With that said, I believe that the "Weather" program in its original or modified form is one of my favorite pieces of "daily use" software! 

I use it because it provides very accurate CURRENT local weather information.   Too many pieces of PC and phone-based software apps will give you outdated projections, throw lots of ads, and sometimes won't update easily, etc.   This software provides "just the current NOAA facts".

 

Yup, Force Command is also my ABSOLUTE favorite piece of software as well, although I'm still currently holding at version 0.M.  Being able to jump into and out of BASIC programs as easily as an E/A5 is freaking awesome in my book.  Having programs that work with TIPI is great and all, but I still remember some awesome programs in the past that performed specialized tasks for the user, like an Automotive Maintenance package.  My 2 & 3 would probably have to be Version 9.4 of Stuarts browser and the TELNET program on the TIPI, 4 would be the Weather 80 program, although I have Weather 40 running on my portable TIPI too.  I have another older program I like, but it's too slow in BASIC, and I'm doubtful it could be compiled.

 

Yes, abso-freaking-lutely no advertising!

 

When I have more time, I'm going to have to peruse the old catalogs to lookup some of the better old programs.  Of course there are programs I will probably never see again in my lifetime.  Of the home grown programs I remember a nice logbook program for Amateur Radio, a propagation program and even a decent CW generator for practice.  There are probably so many programs out there that have been lost over the decades written by people for their own use and since they were not games, thrown out.

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1 hour ago, Omega-TI said:

 

Yup, Force Command is also my ABSOLUTE favorite piece of software as well, although I'm still currently holding at version 0.M.  Being able to jump into and out of BASIC programs as easily as an E/A5 is freaking awesome in my book.  Having programs that work with TIPI is great and all, but I still remember some awesome programs in the past that performed specialized tasks for the user, like an Automotive Maintenance package.  My 2 & 3 would probably have to be Version 9.4 of Stuarts browser and the TELNET program on the TIPI, 4 would be the Weather 80 program, although I have Weather 40 running on my portable TIPI too.  I have another older program I like, but it's too slow in BASIC, and I'm doubtful it could be compiled.

 

Yes, abso-freaking-lutely no advertising!

 

When I have more time, I'm going to have to peruse the old catalogs to lookup some of the better old programs.  Of course there are programs I will probably never see again in my lifetime.  Of the home grown programs I remember a nice logbook program for Amateur Radio, a propagation program and even a decent CW generator for practice.  There are probably so many programs out there that have been lost over the decades written by people for their own use and since they were not games, thrown out.

Amateur radio was always big. 

 

Years ago, I remember one of group member's intense interest in genealogy.  He searched for, bought, typed in everything he could find in the TI world.  Since my interest was primarily in the computer itself, almost anything would make me happy! 

 

Things that I have little interest in, include most business applications (word processing, spreadsheets, databases, etc.)  These things remind me of work, memories I choose to leave behind!  ?

 

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Here are some programs I use all the time:

Boot Disk Changer(BDC)

Allows you to change the "boot" drive from DSK1 to just about anything - changes XB program files and most DF/80.

Also on the BDC disk is PagePro changer - does about the same as above but for PagePro files.

Docs for both on disk - DV/80 files.

 

XB Detective (XBD)

Does all kinds of things in the XB environment

No docs, but easy to figure out.

BDC.dsk XBD.dsk

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As a blind computer user, we often need  way to review the screen.

 

Formerly, I just dumped the whole screen with a program to the rs232 or speech device.

 

I thought I'd write a quick-and-dirty review program that works a little like screen readers on other systems.

 

Unfortunately, it's still in TI Basic, because I wanted it to work with the TE2, since that's the easiest way to have Text-To-Speech.

 

I figure I could load it up when I wanted to write another program and just move it up into the higher line numbers.  That way, if I got an error, I could say something like "RUN 10000" and it would put me in review.

 

The way it works is this.

 

It comes up and says "Review, A To X, Z to exit."

 

You enter a line number from A to X, representing lines 1-24.  It reads the line number and then reads the entire line.

 

Pressing FCTN-X (Down Arrow) moves the review one line down and speaks it. FCTN-E (Up Arrow) moves it to the previous line and speaks it.

 

I tried to catch invalid key presses, but, the way I've got it right now, makes it reset the review line to the beginning or the end.

 

Any improvements or suggestions are welcome.

 

It's been more than 30 years since I've messed with this stuff

 

Here's the listing, thanks to Classic99:

 


10 OPEN #1:"SPEECH",OUTPUT
20 PRINT #1:"REVIEW:A TO X, Z TO QUIT"
30 CALL KEY(0,K,S)
40 IF S<=0 THEN 30
50 IF K=10 THEN 80
60 IF K=11 THEN 100
70 GOTO 120
80 CL=CL+1
90 GOTO 130
100 CL=CL-1
110 GOTO 130
120 CL=K-64
130 IF K=90 THEN 160
140 PRINT #1:CL
150 GOTO 180
160 PRINT #1:"EXIT"
170 END
180 IF CL<1 THEN 210
190 IF CL>24 THEN 230
200 GOTO 260
210 CL=1
220 GOTO 240
230 CL=24
240 CALL SOUND(1,218,0)
250 GOTO 30
260 A$=""
270 FOR I=1 TO 32
280 CALL GCHAR(CL,I,L)
290 A$=A$&CHR$(L)
300 NEXT I
310 IF A$="                                " THEN 330
320 GOTO 340
330 PRINT #1:"//50 128":"BLANK":"//43 128"
340 PRINT #1:A$
350 GOTO 30

 

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The post from jenorton above made me remember a program that could assist a blind or sight impaired person.

SPEAKDV80 loads from disk one and will speak the DV/80 file to you.

Program name is SPEAKDV80

Requires Extended Basic and a Speech Synthesizer.

 

SPEAKDV80.dsk

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3 hours ago, sparkdrummer said:

The post from jenorton above made me remember a program that could assist a blind or sight impaired person.

SPEAKDV80 loads from disk one and will speak the DV/80 file to you.

Program name is SPEAKDV80

Requires Extended Basic and a Speech Synthesizer.

 

SPEAKDV80.dsk 90 kB · 5 downloads

 

?  Neat little program...

 

 

 

 

 

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