Author Topic: Status of the TI community (Read 25084 times)

tifreak · « **Reply #30 on:** October 24, 2005, 08:52:00 am »

I have been told I have no life since I am a calc programmer, which upsets me. http://tifreakware.calcgames.org/wrecks.htm says otherwise...

I just wish there was a way to get n00bs to program something decent. I will have to contemplate this...

MathStuf · « **Reply #31 on:** October 24, 2005, 08:56:00 am »

I've been caught up with a lot of things recently (like figuring out a program to do projectiles with air resistance (which, by the way, is mostly bug free, but the brute-force, one function method takes first order differential calculus, something I don't know yet)) and other school-related projects. Pok

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #32 on:** October 24, 2005, 09:00:00 am »

thats a pretty bad wreck you have here

I also have a life, and lot of other ppl have one, but everyone think we dont since we dont talk about it. I think I should have talked about some stuff of my life earlier to the TI community though, since that stuff had lot of repercussion on how I act today (especially the fact I care so much about other ppl being flamed)

MathStuf · « **Reply #33 on:** October 24, 2005, 02:59:00 pm »

Some say I don't have one, but it's just that I'm bored during half of it and I end up programming during that time. When I finally get my license, I probably will be doing less programming/wasting time.

Ranman · « **Reply #34 on:** October 24, 2005, 03:25:00 pm »

QuoteBegin-alex10819+24 October 2005, 14:26-->

QUOTE (alex10819 @ 24 October 2005, 14:26)

...and noobs seem to either fade away or get ignored quickly.

:?

We don't want them to fade away or be ignored.

We were all noobs once... Take it easy on them and help them out whenever you can. That is how we can get this community growing again.

QuoteBegin-alex10819+24 October 2005, 14:26

-->

QUOTE (alex10819 @ 24 October 2005, 14:26)

...will be labeled as geeks for it... whats wrong with that?

Ain't nothing wrong with that. When you start making the "big bucks" as a software engineer... You can throw it back in their face.

Madskillz · « **Reply #35 on:** October 24, 2005, 04:42:00 pm »

First off let me start by saying great article Kevin. I have been saying something needs to be changed for a while now. I even remember posting something about this very subject at MC.

When I was in 7th grade, I went out and bought an 83+, scrounging up all my birthday money and loose change. After spending over a hundred bucks, I think about 125, something changed in me. Like everything that I spend my money on, I plan to use it and learn from it in all the ways I can. That included development. I had had this itch to develop games since I was a little kid playing Mario for the NES...this was my tool to get me into it. I programmed for two years in BASIC impressing my friends at school. In 9th grade, I got into the community, with a small two man team including me and a friend from school. X-productions. He became inactive and I just started learning ASM, I felt BASIC just didnt have the power that I needed. I still feel that way, however, I think the gap between the power and speed is defenitly getting smaller. Thanks due in part to ASM and BASIC coders coming together helping each other out. xLIB xLIB Revolution, Aura, and Contra come to mind of games that have wowed me in the past two years.

I have been in the community back when Sam still worked on Zelda and void was pretty active, and I became active in the community when Drubu productions was in their infancy, and that is were I first introduced the community to Cobra. My baby. I have seen high and low periods of inactivity, amazing projects and complete bombs.

Being a founder of a group is tough stuff. Staying active and keeping the people interested is a challenge. I applaude all the old timers, Alien, Cobb, Coelurus, Kozak, and all the others I forgot! You guys for the most part spent your time working with a programming group or help mainting one by providing interesting ideas and bring forth new challenges! For me finding just a little time to keep the Revolution Software going is a challenge, finding even more time to code is proving to be even harder with work and school and a daily life of my own!

Something I think needs to be done, I dont think the community will die, but for z80's sake and for future games/projects of any type, I think some sort of discussion needs to be done. This right here, may be a way for people to post ideas on how we can improve our future.

Groups of the past when they were faced with this issue, decided to do nothing and let it resolve itself. I like to see new members joining forums or groups, that bring with them a fresh perspective on things, and perhaps a nifty project too!

So here it goes, here is one way I feel we can improve the community and get new and old members involved. I was thinking perhaps a community wide contest, open to coders of all types of calcs and languages.

We could get some of the big shots, MC, EPS, UTI, Omnimaga, RevSoft, and groups for other calcs, the ones I listed are mainly for the 83/84+ family. Macross, Time to Team and others.

I also think a website with ASM (maybe BASIC) knowledge, readmes, how-to, links to great sources, downloads, etc to help beginning developers have a place to learn and thus excelerate or community in a positive way... All of this will take time. I know, but we can always try right?

My friends, we must not repeat the past, we can right a wrong, and go down as an era that cared to bring the community out of a low spot. Now it is up to us to set things right...

-Travis Supalla (co-founder of Revolution Software: www.revsoft.org)

Ranman · « **Reply #36 on:** October 24, 2005, 05:13:00 pm »

QuoteBegin-Madskillz+24 October 2005, 22:42-->

QUOTE (Madskillz @ 24 October 2005, 22:42)

I was thinking perhaps a community wide contest, open to coders of all types of calcs and languages.

Nicely put Madskillz.

Although I could not compete (too busy with Ultima), I would be willing to donate for a prize. Prizes make things so much more fun. :gift:

Not to mention, they provide an incentive to work hard. :ru13z:

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #37 on:** October 25, 2005, 01:38:00 am »

I think contests are a great way to encourage people for programming, I was planning about having one at the beginning of school year here but I lacked the time to do so, also most people at Omnimaga program z80 BASIC or 68k C, we dont have much ASM programmers at all. I also liked how BASIC was competing with ASM at MC programming contest, because this make BASIC programmers who participate work even harder on their entries and we often get good results *points to Senilym by DarkAuron*. I think we also need a "the basics of ASM game making" tutorial with collision detections and such things like TI-Freak8x BASIC tutorial and ETP studio for 68k

Spellshaper · « **Reply #38 on:** October 25, 2005, 03:04:00 am »

*agreeswithKevinandMadskillz*
though I won

0oruneo0 · « **Reply #39 on:** October 25, 2005, 12:18:00 pm »

First post

Obviously there's been a decline in activity with many of the older, more experienced programmers moving on to other interests. Hehe, I remember thinking the summer would re-energize the TiCalc submissions, and it kind of did but not much.

What we need is a way to get people interested in calcs again, I know many of Kevin's games inspired me to make my own RPGs, contests would help too. Look at UTI's BASIC contest, it brought in some new programmers.

I joined the TI community in 2003, by that time many big TI sites had shut down and I remember thinking "I missed all the good stuff". But there have been new sites to come along, Omnimaga, Revsoft, Calcwebzine, the reincarnation of Ti-News, and more. I think the community is far from dead, it just needs a kick-start.

crzyrbl · « **Reply #40 on:** October 25, 2005, 01:02:00 pm »

QuoteBegin-MathStuf+24 October 2005, 14:56-->

QUOTE (MathStuf @ 24 October 2005, 14:56)

I've been caught up with a lot of things recently (like figuring out a program to do projectiles with air resistance (which, by the way, is mostly bug free, but the brute-force, one function method takes first order differential calculus, something I don't know yet))...

sorry to go a little off topic, but im in calculus now. what do ya need to know?

MathStuf · « **Reply #41 on:** October 25, 2005, 02:20:00 pm »

What level calc? I've taken stuff, but this is very intertwined. There's some pretty freaky stuff that my friend in his 3rd level of college calc (first order differentials) can't solve. I'll make a PDF file of the equations and the order of solving that I need.

crzyrbl · « **Reply #42 on:** October 25, 2005, 04:49:00 pm »

oh, i just started calc in high school, so unless my teacher is teh one looking at it, i dont think i could solve it...make it a topic and maybe some one might be able to help.

Ranman · « **Reply #43 on:** October 26, 2005, 11:57:00 pm »

From Oct 16th to Oct 27th... 10 programs added/updated for the TI89

While 87 programs were added/updated for the TI83+

(to the Ticalc archives)

It's looks like the 68K calcs need to pick up the pace.

Lionel Debroux · « **Reply #44 on:** October 27, 2005, 01:28:00 am »

Have you also seen how low is the activity on TI-News ? I guess this is partly because of their conglomerate, which is an extremely useful tool to get news about the community (I knew of this topic there), but is causing the site to have few visits.

Author Topic: Status of the TI community (Read 25084 times)

MathStuf

MathStuf

0oruneo0

crzyrbl

MathStuf

crzyrbl