Talk:TI-86

Kilobyte/Kibibyte

Is "KB"/"kilobyte" being used in this article to mean a kilobyte or a kibibyte?? 66.245.115.34 22:44, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

It's kilobyte, but it's likely the 1024 bit definition, considering this is the only place I've ever seen kibibyte used. BioTube 01:25, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Kibibyte is the 1024 byte definition, and that name is the IEC standard. WP:MOSNUM suggests using KiB (kibibyte) but doesn't forbid kB. Other articles do use KiB, but clearly not enough of them. --StuartBrady (Talk) 15:19, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

True, but RAM isn't measured in decimal kilobytes. In fact, the only problem with kilobyte meaning 1024 bytes is hard drives being labeled with the 1000 unit. The IEC's inexplicable decision to rename the more used unit has been almost completely ignored. Firefox doesn't even recognize kibibyte as a word. BioTube 22:58, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

TiCalc.org no longer points to a useful site, so I have removed its link in the TI-86 article. -Chrono 04:17, 2 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sources

I can't find a source to verify how grayscale works. The closest I could find was: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:lFBIX1sVldIJ:ti86.acz.org/grayscale.htm+%22ti-86%22+grayscale+flicker&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=9 but as you can see the original website is down. Only the google cache of it is up.

Turning on and off pixels (and varying the amount of time spent in each state) is indeed how grayscale is emulated on the TI-86. An explanation and sample Z80 assembly code can be found here: Grayscale explanation. As a sidenote, the site that you found in the Google cache is that of one of the earlier TI-86 assembly programming groups, although it would seem that they've been inactive for a while. --Arabani (Talk ∞ Contribs) 04:53, 9 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sources or not, I think this section needs to be corrected. The greyscale is not a result of an optical illusion, but the screen's very slow response time (24.99.192.9 16:13, 19 November 2006 (UTC))[reply]

It's not due to Persistence of vision? 67.187.122.6 (talk) 01:03, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've altered the passage, is it better now? Threefingeredguy 10:35, 14 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, thanx for satisfying this pharisee (user hiding behind IP 24.99.192.9)

Implementing grayscale

Is the part about grayscale noteworthy enough to keep, and if so is there information somewhere about how the average user might be able to make use of it? Dlrohrer2003 (talk) 23:22, 13 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well its been over a year with no major edits to the paragraph in question, and since it didn't seem to add to the encyclopedianess of the article, I just deleted it. - Dlrohrer 2003 16:43, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As the device has been discontinued and the community of users and developers around it has been dissipating, any such interesting information deserves to be preserved. It's easier to destroy and delete than create and contribute. UncleSaysWho (talk) 18:58, 14 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The information about grayscale seems a little bit esoteric to the average user. And besides, grayscale is probably only used in assembly games on most graphing calculators anyway, not for every day calculations. So unless you can find information and citation about how grayscale has been implemented on the TI-86 specifically, saying that this information is 'deserving' is beside the point - Dlrohrer 2003 19:39, 14 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It is not besides the point, it is interesting information and as such it deserves to be mentioned in this article. There is no need to be so strict, these calculators have been put to numerous other uses besides performing calculations. UncleSaysWho (talk) 18:47, 15 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As long as it is well sourced and notable, I'll go with it. Otherwise if the information is only of interest to a small subset of users, then it might not be notable enough for inclusion. And even if it is notable, it should be sourced. So even if you might think it is deserving, if it doesn't meet those two criteria it will be deleted again. You seem new here so please familiarize yourself with the reliable sources and notability guidelines before continuing further - Dlrohrer 2003 00:03, 16 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]