Editing TI-BASIC (section)

== Editors and Tools ==
The growth of the hobbyist graphing calculator community in the 1990s brought with it sharing and collaboration, including the need to share TI-BASIC code on mailing lists and discussion forums. At first, this was done by typing out the TI-BASIC code from a calculator screen into a computer by hand, or conversely, entering programs manually into calculators. TI-BASIC programs are stored in a [[Tokenization (lexical analysis)|tokenized]] format, they cannot be edited using standard computer text editors, so as the calculator programming community matured, a need for an automated converter arose. The format for computer-stored TI-BASIC programs generated by Texas Instruments' TI-GraphLink application was eventually decoded, and third-party tools were created to manipulate these files. TI created a BASIC editor that they included in certain releases of the TI-GraphLink linking program, but it has not gained widespread usage. In particular, it used a custom character set that did not display properly when copied and pasted to fora.

In 2005, [[Joe Penna]] created OptiBASIC, a translator tool to convert text from the TI-GraphLink editor into standard Unicode. The project soon expanded to include a regex-based TI-BASIC optimizer.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cemetech – United-TI Archives – Project Ideas/Start New Projects – opTI-BASIC [Topic] |url=https://www.cemetech.net/projects/uti/viewtopic.php?t=3680 |access-date=2012-08-05 |publisher=Cemetech archive of UnitedTI |archive-date=2013-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004214203/http://www.cemetech.net/projects/uti/viewtopic.php?t=3680 |url-status=live }}</ref> Independently, Christopher "Kerm Martian" Mitchell of [[Cemetech]] began creating an online converter to extract plain-text (and later HTML and [[BBCode]]-formatted) contents from tokenized TI-BASIC programs,<ref>{{cite web |author=Michael Vincent |title=Martian Develops SourceCoder; Conquers BASIClings |url=https://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/13/132/132993.html |access-date=2012-08-05 |publisher=ticalc.org |archive-date=2012-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808135408/http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/13/132/132993.html |url-status=live }}</ref> which expanded to include an online program editor, exporter, and TI-83 Plus emulator.<ref>{{cite web |author=Travis Evans |title=Cemetech's SourceCoder Updated |url=https://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/146/146444.html |access-date=2012-08-05 |publisher=ticalc.org |archive-date=2012-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808142420/http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/146/146444.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The SourceCoder project absorbed OptiBASIC at the end of 2005. The only other major TI-BASIC editor currently in use is TokenIDE (or "Tokens"), created by Shaun "Merthsoft" McFall. An offline editor, Tokens can import, edit, and export TI-BASIC programs, includes tools to track program size and correctness, and offers ancillary features such as a sprite/image editor. Built around token definitions stored in [[XML]] files, it is intended to be extensible to work with any user-specified token mapping.<ref>{{cite web |author=Ryan Boyd |title=TokenIDE / Shaun McFall Interview |url=https://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/148/148184.html |access-date=2013-01-18 |publisher=ticalc.org |archive-date=2013-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202034057/http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/148/148184.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Programmes on the NSprire series as well as TI 92 plus and Voyage 200 calculators can be transferred and saved in flat clear text (Ansi/Ascii/ISO 8859-*) format and there are several IDEs for TI calculator programming.  A series of [[TextPad]] syntax definitions, code snippets, and charts are available for the TI calculators, and the syntax definitions have also been converted to the format used by the [[Zeus Editor|Zeus editor]].<ref>TextPad site</ref><ref>Programming - ticalc.org</ref>  The clear text format is also used for the Lua interpreter on the calculator.

An independent project exists for developing a PC-side interpreter for the TI89-92-Voyage 200 variant of TI Basic that would allow programmes for the calculator to be run directly<ref name=cptpage5>"Calculator Programming Today", The Spreadsheet Vol VI, No 14, 23. November 2004 pp 5</ref> as well as combined programmes of other languages which call this interpreter.  The interpreter uses standard input, output, error and specifiable log and configuration files in console mode under Windows, and a second programme to replicate the graphics used on the calculator would be related to it in the same way as the Tk tools which are integrated with [[Tcl]], [[Perl]], [[Rexx]], [[C (programming language)|C]] and other languages.  A related project for developing a Tk kind of tool for use by VBScript is the source of this tool.<ref name=cptpage5 /> A third tool which integrates the PC-side TI Basic with spreadsheet and database programmes via VBA and WSH engines is also envisioned. This project also involves a calculator-side Unix-style shell and Rexx and Perl interpreters, a Fortran 77 interpreter, as well as converters to go back and forth amongst the various Casio, HP, Sharp, and Texas Instruments calculator programming languages and to and from those and various [[scripting languages]].<ref name=cptpage5 />