MirageOS can execute programs in a variety of formats:
MirageOS,
ION,
BASIC, and
TI-OS ASM
programs. All ION programs should be compatible with MirageOS, but if you
find a program that is not compatible, please let us know at
mirage@detacheds.com.
All BASIC programs should work correctly, which are ones that can run on
the TI-82, TI-83, TI-83 Plus, and TI-84 Plus and can be sent back and forth between
these calculators. MirageOS will only display BASIC programs in its
Interfaces that have a colon (:) for the first character of the program.
Our shell allows for BASIC programs to show a Custom Description string in
the Interfaces by following the colon with a newline-terminated string.
Below, on the left, you can see a Text example of how this is done. To the
right you can see three images, the first being a Basic Program without a
Custom Description, the second picture being a Test Program, and the third
picture showing how that Custom Description shows up in MirageOS.
We chose for Basic programs to be detected by a colon character for
several reasons, one being that other shells have used this method
to make Basic programs viewable from the shell. The colon is a single
byte, and doesnt affect the execution of the program, it will pass
right through. We chose not to detect all Basic programs because only
some are meant to be executable, and other Basic programs are subprograms
that are called from the main Basic program in a set. For the custom
descriptions of Basic programs, we chose to use characters inside a
string since putting it in quotes without storing it will send that
string to the ANS variable. This does not affect the execution of any
programs unless some require for the ANS var as a parameter passed to
a certain program. It is important that the Description string not have
a close quotes (") character, or that will show up in the Description
during the shell, and it is even more important that the string end by
pressing the Enter key. That is the signal our shell has to cut off the
Description, and treat the rest as code. Any character or token, even
lowercase characters, can be used in this Custom BASIC Description.
To run an Assembly program made for the TI-OS, just call it from a BASIC
program using the Asm( command from the Catalog. TI-OS Assembly programs
will not be detected on their own by MirageOS, and must be run from a BASIC
program that can be detected. Even though programming ASM to run in the
TI-OS is possible, we advocate Assembly development be done for ION or
MirageOS, to make use of the specific features ours and the ION shell
allows.
In the Program Manager of MirageOS, we notate what type of program each
compatible file is by marking with a specific letter in its "ATTRIB"
category. The letter for MirageOS programs is "M", ION programs have
an "I", and BASIC programs have a
"B". These types of programs have generic button graphics as well that
Identify what type it is. Only MirageOS programs can have custom Button
Images that can be seen in the Buttons Interface, and in the Program
Manager when you activate the option to "Show Prog Images". Here are
some graphics of the Program Manager showing examples of the 4 categories
of programs that can be detected:
MirageOS Program |
ION Program |
BASIC Program |
