TI-Basic Developer Portal

Welcome to TI-Basic Developer (TI|BD), the premier source for TI-Basic information! The site covers how to make TI-Basic programs using the many different TI-Basic commands, while discussing proper programming design and showing several techniques that can be incorporated into programs. After going through all of the information on this site, the reader should be a competent TI-Basic programmer.

The site is split up into two separate sections based on the version of TI-Basic that is used in the different TI graphing calculators. Specifically, the TI-83 and 68k series of calculators each have their own version of TI-Basic. It is recommended that you have one of the calculators that the respective version of TI-Basic exists on, so that you can actually use the information contained in that section of the site.

TI-83 Basic TI-83 Basic is the programming language that is built-in to the TI-83 series of calculators, which includes the TI-83, TI-83+, TI-83+ Silver Edition (SE), TI-84+, and TI-84+SE. This version of TI-Basic is the most commonly used, considering most high schools students buy a TI graphing calculator for math and science class, and the TI-83 series of calculators are considerably cheaper than their 68k counterparts. At the same time, it is much less powerful than 68k TI-Basic, lacking many of the complex math commands and other important programming capabilities. Go to TI-83 Basic

68k TI-Basic 68k TI-Basic is the programming language that is built-in to the 68k series of calculators, which includes the TI-89, TI-89 Titanium (Ti), TI-92, TI-92+, and V200. This version of TI-Basic is much more powerful than TI-83 Basic, and includes support for calculus, as well indirection, local variables and functions, advanced picture manipulation, and several other features that make it a very rich language. At the same time, it isn't used nearly as much as TI-83 Basic, so it doesn't have as big of a community developed around it (which means there aren't that many 68k TI-Basic games). Go to 68k TI-Basic

Site Goals The main goal of this site is to teach TI-Basic programming. This site is targeted primarily at the beginner programmer (those with little or no programming experience), but it has information for almost everyone. We believe that if you can teach a beginner programmer good programming habits and skills, they will incorporate those habits and skills into the programs they create. The result will be higher quality TI-Basic programs. Related to the first goal, the second goal of this site is to be the nexus for TI-Basic information. There are many different design concepts and techniques to learn and master, which are all part of the rich heritage of TI-Basic. Unfortunately, when programmers leave the TI community, they often forget to write down their programming innovations, and that information gets lost to the community. We encourage all programmers to contribute their TI-Basic knowledge to the community to prevent this from happening. The third goal of this site is to present TI-Basic in a more connected and beginner-friendly format. The TI-Basic information is spread out across several TI forums, sites, and among individual tutorials and guides, and this problem is made even worse because of how cumbersome and confusing the information is presented. For a beginner TI-Basic programmer, it is especially hard to read through and follow. The result is a challenging barrier for learning TI-Basic. The last goal of this site is to create more TI-Basic programming documentation. The one major underdeveloped area in the TI community is quality documentation. We believe that this is because writing tutorials is not really a fun activity, and it does not receive the same recognition as creating a program or game. Nonetheless, documentation is essential to the success of the TI community. Contact Information If you wish to contact the administrators for any reason, you have a few different routes you can take: Create a Wikidot account and send a private message (PM) to the administrator of your choice. Just click on the arrow at the top right corner and select "private messages". Find the email address of each administrator on their profile page and send them an email with your question. Of course, this only works if the administrator lists their email address. Start a new topic in the discussion forums. This method works well if you don't care which administrator responds, but you should know that everyone can see this forum. If you have a personal question you want to ask, sending a PM is the way to go. As all of the administrators frequent the United-TI (UTI) forums, you can create a UTI account and then post in the TI-Basic topic associated with this wiki. We will try to respond in a timely manner, hopefully in a day or two. Please just be patient.