Quote from: shmibs on April 05, 2011, 12:23:07 am

it's 84+ only, juju (as is most stuff the penguin writes)

Aww...

That is amazing.

Sorry about that. I could add in support for 1.19 without to much difficulty, and the only thing that wouldn't work is the 8 level grayscale. But I hate the fact that the 83+BE doesn't map outputs to port (06) to pages that it actually owns. If you output $7F, you don't get redirected to $1F, instead it goes somewhere random and this means that for every single write to a port, I would have to add in 83+BE detection. It is just stupid to have to add in all kinds of checks just to avoid crashing the calculator by asking for features that don't exist. I think even trying to enable fast mode will cause some problems. [/83+BE rant]

@Darl:
I made your picture for you, it was only 7 colors, so I added in a random light gray dot.

From the future: To get the latest version of zStart, click on the link in my signature.

---

I've been needing to make this topic for about a year, I just never did because it was started before I joined omni.

Features:
zStart is a really cool app made by me that enables all kinds of things within the calculator. These include:
-setting degrees/radians
-enabling diagnostics
-MathPrint/Classic
-Kill the 2.5x popup
-Enable/disable stat wizards
-Enabling an 8 level grayscale picture on startup (which can and should be in the archive)
-Enabling the CtlgHelp app
-Enabling Omnicalc
-Setting contrast
-Calibrating the screen driver (ALCDFIX)
-Setting custom fonts (which can and should be in the archive)
-Creating and editing custom fonts
-A molar mass calculator for the homescreen
-A hex/binary converter for the homescreen

And some silly stuff:
-An unfinished Solver++ (I wanted to have one side equal the other side, but I got bored with it)
-The ability to use long tokens (sin( = sine(, tan-1( = arcTangent(, ln( = naturalLogarithm( )

But most importantly, it runs on ram clears. This means, once you set an option in zStart, it is essentially permanent. I haven't had to deal with MathPrint in probably 6 months. Also, since its name is zStart, it will probably be the last app in the app menu for quick access.


Using the Homescreen tools
Most of the options are pretty easy to find as they are actually options. The only two you might have trouble finding are the molar mass calculator and the hex/binary converter. To enable these, while turning on the calculator, hold + for the hex calculator and - for the molar mass calculator.

To use the molar mass calculator, put a ?, then your equation, then another ?. The ? act like parenthesis, so you don't actually need the last one. For instance, ?Ca(NO3)2 will return 164.1.

To use the hex/binary convert, just follow a number with either a h or a b. So FFFFh returns 65,535 and 10101010b returns 170.

These tools don't really like basic programs and both can be disabled by running something that enables a parser hook (zStart if you selected Omnicalc, or DCS)


Running on Ram Clears:
   Here's the cool part. I currently have support for OS's 2.43, 2.53, and 2.55. Just enable the Run on Ram Clears option and you're good to go. If for some reason something should go wrong and you enter a boot loop, (with about 100 people running this for about a year I've only heard of 2, and I caused one of them) hold [VARS] while restarting the calculator. zStart will not run and you can figure out what you screwed up.


For best results, I say use MirageOS because I have designed it mostly for that. The only reason I say this is because DCS and zStart both use OFFSCRPT and the parser hook, so whichever one you run last will have it's stuff enabled.


Technical Stuff:
    To make the calculator run on ram clears, it first found the call that displayed "RAM cleared." Then I routed this to the end of that page and added my own code to set a getCSC hook that points to $4083 in zStart. ($4083 so it will never move) Then when zStart gets control, it closes the edit buffer and does it's thing. It then returns control back to the OS with all the settings now in place.

During the whole 2.71 thing, I disassembled the entire boot sequence and found a much better place to install all the features, the only problem is that I don't really want to have to make an unpatcher for all the previously patched calcs.

Solver++ was my attempt at a true TI app. It uses a lot of semidocumented bcalls to make the edit buffer happen. I got the top part completely done, but the bottom part will probably crash.

zStart never actually disables hooks, it only enables them. This is to prevent it from disabling hooks other programs set. The only downside is that if you disable a feature, the hook is still there so it's still going to work.


Included:
For this first post, the file is the whole thing I tried to upload to ticalc.org. (It wouldn't accept it) It includes:
-the app
-the source (~8500 lines)
-the versions of the apps its compatible with (Omnicalc + CtlgHelp)
-the font I currently use on my calculator (smaller basically, all caps are same height and lowers are too)
-some sample pictures along with the converter
-outdated readme  (it's not too old, it has good instructions on how to make pictures)

So try it out, it might be the most useful app on your calculator

Quote from: Ashbad on April 02, 2011, 10:25:02 am

Hmm, I forgot to say, but when I first saw this thread I assumed the first picture would a good looking one of the real zeda, but I was quite... Well, surprised to see David's sketch . Loli

I'd be careful with uploading your own picture though.  I personally would never upload oneto facebook -- though I think I could trust this place.  Though, it's more of an issue for females, though. I knew one girl who put up a normal pic of herself and some creep photoshopped it to look like she was half naked.  Amazing MS paint user, amazingly ultra creepy senior. O.o

If you don't put pictures of yourself on facebook, then what do you put on it? I thought that was one of the whole reasons for its existence.

Back in January, DJ came to me with a PM and asked me if I wanted to add make a fake OS for April fools day. This was after a whole bunch of OS mods by me so of course I said yes. Now 3 months later it has finally arrived.

Official list of things changed:
-OS 2.71
-Parser Hook bcall disabled
-USB hook bcall disabled
-Asm(, AsmComp(, and AsmPrgm tokens removed and deactivated
-Crash if ( (apdSubTimer) * (R & %00111111) ) == 0 when a key is pressed
-ClrHome, Output(, Disp, and ClrDraw are slowed down with a halt looop
-Apps over 2 pages throw Err:Invalid
-Output( won't display in row 8
-Asm(, AsmComp(, and AsmPrgm no longer appear in the catalog
-The CX ad

These started out as easy mods like changing all the 55's to 71's. But then things started requiring extra code, like the delays and such. So I made a reverse bcall routine at the end of page 0. It jumped to the end of page $73 where it check to see what address you jumped there from. Then depending on where you came from, it routed you to a subroutine. This meant all I had to do was insert a CALL into the regular code and I could mod it.

After the OS was good and dead came the whole converting it to an OS. I exported it from wabbitEmu and used some of brandonW's OS2Tools. While they did a good job of making an 8xu, it wasn't signed or compatible. So I then had to send it through RabbitSign and Packxxu to get it to it's final state. But unfortunately as Critor so well pointed out, RabbitSign doesn't add that ending to the 8xu which I didn't notice.

Anyways, hope you had fun. And I learned enough from this that I can probably free up about 64kb from OS's >=2.53.

Patcher | patch file

Quote from: thepenguin77 on April 01, 2011, 07:08:16 pm

I've been working on this all day and I think I've cleaned up the mess. This patch should fix 2.71MP.

Did you actually track down and fix each bug, or just run a differencing program, and then have the program patch the differences?

Let's just say I know what was changed.

Why change the version to 2.71? Once you take out all the updates, it is 2.55.

Sorry for wasting an entire flash page, but here is an app that will run DCS for all those die hards out there.

I think DJ faked that one 

Qwerty, what are you talking about. I think you are the one that faked having this OS. I have the one I got from education.ti.com on my calculator right now and it has the ad.