5 ms·

KnightOS – An open-source OS for calculators

148 points by ddevault 12y ago

q3sniper 12y ago
Ha! Preemptive multitasking and a rotating cube as a demo. Nice work. Would love to see this ported to something else constrained like the Pebble Watch.
th0br0 12y ago
I like the ?sneaky-repost ;)
sysk 12y ago
I can see this being used to cheat in exams ;)
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  The facilities of the TI are generally usefull for that. Which is why TI added a key combo that erases the memory.
  - ANTSANTS 12y ago
    Except most teachers only cleared the RAM because they didn't know any better, so you could "archive" whatever you wanted in the flash...
listic 12y ago
I wish there was an open-source OS supporting phones like Nokia 1202 http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_1202-2573.php http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_1202-2573.php or cycle computers http://www.sigmasport.com/en/produkte/bikecomputer/topline_wired/bc1106/?punkt=details http://www.sigmasport.com/en/produkte/bikecomputer/topline_w... - tiny devices with dot matrix displays and traditionally limited capabilities. I thought it's never going to happen (unless I get wealthy and support creating such a device, of course) but this one is close.
- striking 12y ago
  You certainly could replace the memory chip of whatever device you want. Chances are, as long as it has a few necessary components (or code to emulate them) Linux will run pretty well.
- maxerickson 12y ago
  Rockbox is also sort of close: http://www.rockbox.org/ http://www.rockbox.org/ I guess it already supports more chips and screen sizes than something aimed at TI calculators would.
  - listic 12y ago
    But can it really be called an operating system?
    - maxerickson 12y ago
      I think so. There's a gameboy emulator in there: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginRockboy http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginRockboy I guess it would be more applicable to the bike computer use case than a phone. But who knows.
striking 12y ago
Holy heck, an in-browser demo. I've always wanted to try KnightOS but the TI-Nspire steadfastly refuses to run it.
- Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
  You're in luck! www.omnimaga.org/ti-nspire-projects/z80e-for-nspire/
ne0phyte 12y ago
Neat. I sold my TI-84 Plus in favor of a HP RPN calculator: It's not really comparable, but there are more open source projects around calculators like the WP34s[1] project which turns a cheap HP business calculator (HP 20b/30b) into a RPN calculator with a lot of features. [1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/wp34s/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/wp34s/
Pxtl 12y ago
I'd just love to see a solid open-source standard graphing calculator app for the common tablets - something like a more user-friendly version of gnu octave or something. The vendor lock-in by the education industry and TI is absurd.
- ibrahima 12y ago
  Seriously, the few times a month I need to crunch numbers I reach for my phone, then get frustrated and just use Google because my TI83's batteries have been dead for years. I don't know what it is but I haven't seen a touch calculator interface anywhere near as good as a standard graphing calculator for just banging out some computations.
  - bane 12y ago
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.supware.tipro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.supware.ti...
internetisthesh 12y ago
This makes me so sentimental. My parents did not let me have a computer when growing up, but they did let me have a calculator. So I did what I had to do to buy a ton of them (TI82, HP48GX etc). At some point I purchased a TI92 but when reading about that now I see it was classified as a computer and not a calculator.
Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
If anyone here is interestd in helping with the project, we just made this tool inspired by Mozilla's "What can I do for Mozilla" tool: http://www.knightos.org/contributing/what-can-i-do.html#!/progornoprog/support http://www.knightos.org/contributing/what-can-i-do.html#!/pr... It's not just assembly!
the_imp 12y ago
@Sir_Cmpwn, you should document somewhere that at least the TI-83+ ROM will run fine on Android using the Andie Graph emulator. :)
- Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
  Send a pull request! We're very open to them. Also accepting patches on the mailing list as of today if you prefer.

148 points by ddevault 12y ago

Ha! Preemptive multitasking and a rotating cube as a demo. Nice work. Would love to see this ported to something else constrained like the Pebble Watch.

th0br0 12y ago

I like the ?sneaky-repost ;)

sysk 12y ago

I can see this being used to cheat in exams ;)

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
The facilities of the TI are generally usefull for that. Which is why TI added a key combo that erases the memory.
- ANTSANTS 12y ago
  Except most teachers only cleared the RAM because they didn't know any better, so you could "archive" whatever you wanted in the flash...

listic 12y ago

I wish there was an open-source OS supporting phones like Nokia 1202 http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_1202-2573.php http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_1202-2573.php or cycle computers http://www.sigmasport.com/en/produkte/bikecomputer/topline_wired/bc1106/?punkt=details http://www.sigmasport.com/en/produkte/bikecomputer/topline_w... - tiny devices with dot matrix displays and traditionally limited capabilities. I thought it's never going to happen (unless I get wealthy and support creating such a device, of course) but this one is close.

striking 12y ago
You certainly could replace the memory chip of whatever device you want. Chances are, as long as it has a few necessary components (or code to emulate them) Linux will run pretty well.
maxerickson 12y ago
Rockbox is also sort of close: http://www.rockbox.org/ http://www.rockbox.org/ I guess it already supports more chips and screen sizes than something aimed at TI calculators would.
- listic 12y ago
  But can it really be called an operating system?
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    I think so. There's a gameboy emulator in there: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginRockboy http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginRockboy I guess it would be more applicable to the bike computer use case than a phone. But who knows.

striking 12y ago

Holy heck, an in-browser demo. I've always wanted to try KnightOS but the TI-Nspire steadfastly refuses to run it.

Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
You're in luck! www.omnimaga.org/ti-nspire-projects/z80e-for-nspire/

ne0phyte 12y ago

Neat. I sold my TI-84 Plus in favor of a HP RPN calculator: It's not really comparable, but there are more open source projects around calculators like the WP34s[1] project which turns a cheap HP business calculator (HP 20b/30b) into a RPN calculator with a lot of features. [1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/wp34s/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/wp34s/

Pxtl 12y ago

I'd just love to see a solid open-source standard graphing calculator app for the common tablets - something like a more user-friendly version of gnu octave or something. The vendor lock-in by the education industry and TI is absurd.

ibrahima 12y ago
Seriously, the few times a month I need to crunch numbers I reach for my phone, then get frustrated and just use Google because my TI83's batteries have been dead for years. I don't know what it is but I haven't seen a touch calculator interface anywhere near as good as a standard graphing calculator for just banging out some computations.
- bane 12y ago
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.supware.tipro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.supware.ti...

internetisthesh 12y ago

This makes me so sentimental. My parents did not let me have a computer when growing up, but they did let me have a calculator. So I did what I had to do to buy a ton of them (TI82, HP48GX etc). At some point I purchased a TI92 but when reading about that now I see it was classified as a computer and not a calculator.

Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago

If anyone here is interestd in helping with the project, we just made this tool inspired by Mozilla's "What can I do for Mozilla" tool: http://www.knightos.org/contributing/what-can-i-do.html#!/progornoprog/support http://www.knightos.org/contributing/what-can-i-do.html#!/pr... It's not just assembly!

the_imp 12y ago

@Sir_Cmpwn, you should document somewhere that at least the TI-83+ ROM will run fine on Android using the Andie Graph emulator. :)

Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
Send a pull request! We're very open to them. Also accepting patches on the mailing list as of today if you prefer.