Hacker News Reader

Comment by bragr | Hacker News Reader

TIL: The TI-84 got an upgrade since I was in school. I guess it was time to trade in that best of 1985 technology for the best of 2005 :)

View on HN

I have a hard time calling these "upgrades". I had a TI-83 (not Plus) in high school - the Plus gave us ROM, the TI-84 gave us USB, and the TI-84 CE gave us a color screen, which are all creature comforts at best. It's on par with what we'd think of "upgrades" circa Apple II -> Apple IIe.

I _would_ call moving from a TI-83 to the TI nSpire CAS an upgrade - there's a whole host of things that the nSpire can do which the TI-83 can't, like symbolic calculations and matrix math with complex values. I'd also bet it can emulate a TI-84 faster than a native TI-84.

I have a nSpire CAS. While those features are really, really good, it does have a significant flaw compared to older graphic calculators (including the TI-89, which is probably more of a predecessor to the nSpire CAS than the 84 is as the 89 also has CAS): actual boot up time.

The 84 and 89 are instant on while the nSpire has significant boot time. I guess you are suppose to leave it on but let it “sleep” like a modern smartphone, but the battery life is bad even when the screen is off. I’m not sure how the 84 CE compares, if it’s “just” and 84 with color or it’s something much more modern locked to running an 84 emulator.

The boot-up time is really a killer. I also just can not get used to the input/keyboard of the nSpire.

My actual workflow is to use DM42/HP-35s for anything I can do with those, and if it's more complicated, I'd rather launch Octave or MATLAB. I just can't make my nSpire work for me.

> I _would_ call moving from a TI-83 to the TI nSpire CAS an upgrade

Having used all of TI-83, TI-84, and TI nSpire, I can say that unless you need and are allowed to use the CAS portion of the nSpire, it is a downgrade in almost every way.

In calculus, I could be done with a calculation on the TI-83 before my classmates in on the nSpire even got to the relevant screen - the UI makes molasses look fast. It may have more features, but at least at high school levels, you just straight up don't need them.

Looking at the newer models, it is pretty neat they can run Python. Some of my earliest programming experiences were playing with TI basic on my TI84 while bored in class so it is nice to see them stay relevant in that regard for today's students.

Python on the TI-84 series is run on a separate ARM Cortex-M0+ micro-controller with 256 KiB of Flash and 32 KiB of RAM, hooked to the ASIC with what appears to be a UART. In other words, it's just about the worst performing Python implementation in a graphical calculator to date: https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=285853#285853 (alongside a rant about removal of C/ASM support, some points about it being outdated).

Not really an upgrade... the Silver Edition (the earlier one) was just built better. I seem to remember a student who left one on the roof of his car when leaving school... It not only survived the fall, but was just fine the next day.

Not to mention the fact that the newer software (from which you cannot downgrade) introduced a significant lag / delay, even on the same hardware.

The silver edition is a power black hole. Mine would need to change battery every week.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com