Ti-83 Programming

This is a tutorial I wrote last year as a resource for my schools programming class. It should be used as an introduction to programming using TI-BASIC. Attached are two programs I've written. You can transfer them to your calculator using TI-Connect software, or look at them for a reference. ALGEBRA2 is the largest program I've written so far, at about 1,320 lines. Note: The Basic used on TI-83, 83+, 84, 84+, 86, and 86+ is all compatable.

CREATING A PROGRAM

Press the [PRGM] key. You should now see the Program Menu.
The list of names shows what programs are on your calculator. You might have no items here, you might have a lot. It all depends on what programs you have on your calculator. But what you want to do is press the right-arrow button twice so that NEW is highlighted.

Then your screen should look like this. Press [ENTER] to select item #1, Create New.

The calculator will ask you for a name for your program. The name must:

Start with a letter
Be between 1 and 8 characters long
Use only the letters A-Z, numbers 0-9, and the greek letter theta O (above the "3" key).
For the sake of this program, use the name PROG1.

Then press [ENTER] to confirm the name. You should then see the Program Editor screen.

Boom! Now you're ready to start writing your program.

EDITING A STORED PROGRAM

Now let's say that you want to edit a program that you've written, but you're not in the Program Editor. To edit a program, press [PRGM], then press the right-arrow button so that EDIT is highlighted and press [ENTER]. Select the name of the program you want to edit and press [ENTER]. Now you can edit your program.

RUNNING A PROGRAM

Right now, our program is empty, so nothing will happen when you run it. To run a program that has already been written, press [PRGM]. EXEC should be highlighted. Select the program you want to run and press [ENTER].

EMERGENCY! If you accidentally get stuck in a program that you can't get out of, press [ON] to "break", or stop, your program.

Cool! Now you've mastered the Program Menu. Now you get to learn how to program.

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Variables

STORING A NUMBER IN A VARIABLE

Right now we shouldn't be in the program editor, we should be at the home screen. We're going to put aside programming for a minute

Let's say you want to put the number 10 into the variable A. (By the way, the variables you can use are A-Z and theta.) This is easier than you think:

Enter the number 10. After that, we enter the store symbol by pressing [STO>]. A little arrow pointing right should appear on your screen. Then enter an A by pressing [ALPHA] [A]. Finally, press [ENTER].

You don't have to put a plain number into a variable. If you wanted, you could do (100+200)/3-90 and put it in A.

Now the number 10 is in A.


DISPLAYING A VARIABLE

Now let's say you want to display what's in the variable A. To do that, simply enter the name of the variable (A) and press [ENTER].

DOING MATH WITH VARIABLES

If you wanted to know what A+2 is, you can simply enter A+2 and press [ENTER]. You should get 12. In fact, you can use a variable just like any other number.

So let's say you want to know what A*3+100 is. Just enter A*3+100 and press [ENTER].
In fact, you can even perform math on variables and put the result back into another variable, or even the same variable! So you could do A*3+100->B or Q2->X or W+70->W or anything else your little mind can think of.

NOTE: When I tell you to type "->", I want you to type the store symbol (by pressing [STO>]), not a minus sign and a greater than sign.


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Display

HOW TO USE THE PROGRAM EDITOR

OK. Take a look at your screen. At the top you see the name of your program, and then on the next line you see a colon. Each colon represents one command line. A command line is simply one command. Each command has its own semicolon.

ENTERING A COMMAND INTO THE PROGRAM EDITOR

To enter a command into the program editor, select it from a menu. Press [PRGM]. You'll see a menu of commands. If you want to enter the command Disp, press the right-arrow to highlight the PRGM I/O menu, then select Disp by highlighting it with the arrow keys and pressing [ENTER] or by pressing its number (3).

CLEARING THE SCREEN

This is probably one of the most important commands ever. To clear the screen, use the ClrHome command. After you've got it in your program, press [ENTER].

DISPLAYING STUFF ON THE SCREEN

Yes, now we're going to learn another command, Disp. This command tells the calculator to display something on the screen. But you have to tell it what to display. It can display a number, a variable, text, or many things. Consider the following uses:

Disp 1 ----- Display a number

Disp A ----- Display a variable

Disp A+2+B ----- Display an expression

Disp "HELLO" ----- Display text

Disp "HELLO","1 PLUS 1 IS",1+1 ----- Display multiple things

Now that you know how to use the Disp command, you can put it in the program editor.

After that, let's say you want to display the word HELLO. To do this, simply type [2nd] [ALPHA] ["] [H] [E] [L] [L] [O] ["]. Then press [ENTER] to start a new command line.

ENDING A PROGRAM

The command that ends a program is Stop. If the calculator encounters a Stop anywhere in your program, it immediately ends the program.

RUNNING YOUR PROGRAM

Press [2nd] [QUIT] to exit the editor. Press [PRGM] and select your program from the list. Press [ENTER] to run your first program!
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User Input

SIMPLE INPUT - The prompt command

The simplest way of getting input is the Prompt command.


Examples: Prompt A or Prompt X,Y,Z

What Prompt does is that it asks the user to enter a value for a variable or variables.

Here is a little program using Prompt that asks the user to enter a number and it displays the number.

:ClrHome
:Prompt X
:Disp "X IS:",X
:Stop

Any feedback anyone?

Jareds~ you nasty little toad................I haven't played with that toy for years :D damn fine programmable calculator as it goes...............I have about 6 replacement chips and a box of little magnetic cards to store my proggies on.........

Takes me back a few years (mine is a Ti-59 :eek: )

I need to get a new NiCad and then I can give it to my cousin's second cousin................he is well into that sort of thing..............liked the cylindical slide rule I gave him :D

This tutorial makes me sad. I had a TI-83+ for a long time, and about a week or two ago it either got stolen or I just lost it. :(. someone send me another one :D. Nice tut.