United-TI
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
United-TI is a programming group for Texas Instruments graphing calculators. It has a forum that discusses programming in general the TI calculator community, computer advice, and anything else of interest ('Open Topic'). There is a browser-based Java client to connect to the IRC channel #UnitedTI.
Contents |
[edit] UTI History
Around December of 2002, many members of Cirrus, Calcbasic, and The Calc Site realized that the Webmasters David, Justin B., and Alan (in respective order) were really acting as one large group because they were as active at other sites as their own. Site Visitors and members believed they should join forces since they already had an indirect affialition.
It did not take long for an agreement towards consolidation in the effort to improve the efficiency of all sites by optimizing the presentation of information. After some time, a unanimous decision was made to call the new site United-TI. Each affiliated site would be granted one administrator. This made the main goal of UTI to be a place for all programmers to help each other, share ideas, and discuss anything.
Not everything went according to plan. The original plan was to merge Cirrus Programming, Calcbasic, and The Calc Site into one efficient, consolidated group. However, the webmaster of The Calc Site pulled out to commit to personal obligations and Outer Limit Software requested to join.
It was agreed the best way to handle the drop of The Calc Site was to accept The Outer Limit Software with Bryan, its webmaster. Realization that another problem stood in the way of success sunk in: there was not a web host for the new merger. However, as luck would have it, there was another calculator website who wished to join: Prokul Interactive founded by Glen. Prokul also came with Justin W. as a co-founder.
On May 20, 2003, United-TI officially came into existence. The first step was to consolidate the discussion forums from all sites into a single forum to prevent having duplicate threads at multiple sites to maintain the same posted information. It didn't take long before the forum started gaining momentum. After a couple of weeks on, Jon, a member from Prokul, became quite active (after taking a 3 year vacation from the TI scene) and, being completely behind hosting, was quickly promoted from member to moderator of the Open Topic and Web Design forums and shortly thereafter to full Administrator.
At this point, UTI still did not have a domain registered so a vote was held as to what it should be out of a few choices featuring the name United-TI. Once the majority decided United-TI.org, Jon registered it and quickly set everything up.
Although not exactly as planned, everything was starting to fall into place. Unfortunately, one great stumbling block stood in the way: the main page was merely a blank white page with a link only to the forum and the forum contained a couple of threads talking about what the main page soon would be. A thread was started to get feedback on this item, and post the ideas the United-TI Staff had for what should be made for the main page. After a few months, Jon put his project Zabotage in place of the homepage, as it was certainly better than a near-blank white page. As updates have come out for Zabotage, they have been added to the United-TI main page, more so then even on the official Zabotage project page.
Over the course of time, changes occurred. On December 14, 2003, Glen resigned as an administrator. This action was followed a few months later by David who saw it fit to retire from United-TI for personal reasons (he returned a year and three days later, on May 23, 2005, however not acting as an admin despite still bearing the title. He apparently vanished after November 9, 2005, although his profile indicates he has been online recently.). Both of these great men have contributed with their time to further help UTI. In order to keep the future of United-TI alive, on May 31, 2004 Chris was appointed as an Administrator with the primary responsibility of global forum moderation, however he stepped down on October 5, 2005 for personal reasons, naming Sir Robin (now Darker Line) his successor.
[edit] Major Projects
- By far the most famous programming project by a United-TI member is Bryan Thomas's port of Contra to the TI-83 Plus. This platform game was programmed entirely in TI-BASIC without the aid of an assembly library, which was considered impossible until then. It can be found here.
- Sonic (a port of the famous arcade game). This project is still being worked on by several of United-TI's members. A progress site, with screenshots and a list of the programmers working on the project, can be found at http://sonic.unitedti.org/.
- NimbusOS, a shell for the TI-83 series calculators in application form. This project is still under development, but a beta version has been released, available here.
- Robot War, an RPG in z80 assembly for the TI-82 by DigiTan. It's your job as the player to stop a powermad scientist and his deadly weather control system with your telepathic control over war robots. Released November 15, 2005, the final version can be obtained here
- Fate By Fire, an assembly RPG by Justin Wales and Pascal Miller. This project is still under development.
- DragonOS, an operating system by Darth Android. This project is still under development.
- Destiny Realm, an assembly RPG by Leofox. This project is on hold right now.
- CSX, a console-based operating system by Sigma. Version 0.27 beta is available for download.
- A port of Final Fantasy to the TI-83 Plus by babyboy. The latest version can be obtained here.
- Gravitation Laboratory (Gravlab), an assembly physics library and demonstration program by Leofox. This project is processing nicely, and a sonic-like demo has been made.
[edit] Programming Contests
- Asteroid Belt (z80 assembly). United-TI's first programming contest, it began on March 1, 2005, and ended on June 14 (after a two-week extension from June 1). A total of 17 contestants registered, and four programmes were submitted before the contest deadline. On July 28, Sigma was declared the winner and received a brand-new TI-84 Plus Silver Edition. His entry, as well as another entry (submitted by Leofox), are available for download from United-TI's program archive.
- Strategy Game (TI-BASIC). United-TI's second programming contest, it began on September 1, 2005, and ended on January 9, 2006. Over 100 contestants registered, and 12 of them submitted finished programs. The results were announced on March 20. The winner was alexrudd, with his entry "Pathways."
