TIGCC Programming Lessons

This section of Techno-Plaza is dedicated to helping you learn how to use TIGCC to program compatible and effective programs for the TI-89, 92+, and V200.

The series of lessons that follow are instructions on topics ranging from basic to advanced. These should prepare you with the basic tools you need to write good programs, and give you the knowledge you need to extend from these lessons into making real programs.

Techno-Plaza Lessons

• Lesson 1: A Classic "Hello, World" Example

  Learn the foundations of TIGCC programming with a very simple example designed to illustrate the foundations of the C programming language and introduce you to the basic concepts.

• Lesson 2: Basic Keyboard Input

  Begin to explore the TIOS input handling methods with an exploration of the keyboard and the various functions used to get input from the user. This lesson assumes you understand the basic constructs of TIGCC programming as introduced in lesson 1.

• Lesson 3: An Introduction to Graphics

  Begin to work with graphics in TIGCC and learn how graphical objects can be manipulated. Also get an introduction to sprites, what they are and how to use them in your programs.

• Review 1: Text Display, Keyboard Input Handling, and Sprite Graphics

  Take a review of the first three programming lessons and the concepts of text display, keyboard input, and sprite graphics. This review uses a sliding puzzle game to demonstrate how these concepts can work in tandem to create something useful with only the knowledge of the first three programming lessons.

• Lesson 4: Functions

  Begin to work with functions as you define your own and start to understand the guiding principles behind functions and how they work.

• Lesson 5: Pointers and Arrays

  Begin to understand the most powerful concept in C and use them to make your programs more powerful and efficient. The last lesson you need to learn before graduating as a novice C programmer to an advanced C programmer.

• Lesson 6: Dynamic Memory Allocation

  Work with one of the most fundamental concepts in C, dynamic memory allocation. Learn to allocate memory on demand instead of reserving big blocks. Very useful in overcoming the problems of a limited memory platform.

• Review 2: Functions, Pointers, and Dynamic Memory

  Take a review of the second three programming lessons and the concepts of functions, pointers, and dynamic memory allocation. This review extends the sliding puzzle game from the first review lesson to demonstrate better design techniques through the use of the new concepts we have covered in the fourth, fifth, and sixth programming lessons.

• Lesson 7: Structures, Unions, and Enumerations

  One of the most important concepts in any programming language is how to build larger structures with only a handful of primitive data types like integers and characters. Learn to build those very structures with the C concepts of structures, unions, and enumerations.

• Lesson 8: Bit Manipulation

  One of the most powerful operations in C, bit manipulation allows us to access and manipulate variables at hardware level for maximum efficiency. Learn how to use bit masks, how unmasked sprites work, how to do efficient map drawing and collision detection and more all with these simple processes.

• Lesson 9: Advanced Pointers

  Learn more about pointers as you complete the journey through the basics of C and graduate from the status of beginner programming into real programmer. After this point, everything you learn will be bonus, not groundwork. This is the last lesson in the foundation series, and at this point, your C skills should be ready to work with a program of almost any complexity.

• Lesson 10: File I/O

  A most sorely needed lesson, learn to deal with files and the AMS file system. Persistent storage, storing large maps and arrays outside programs to keep within the memory limits, and maximize compatibility between AMS versions. File I/O is core in C and a useful extension of TIGCC programming, especially for games, or any program that needs to store data from program instantiation to instantiation.

• Review 3: Intro to Graduate Programming

  A review on all the concepts of beginning programming using the Nibbles 68k source code. Marks your completion of Programming 101 and begins your journey into more advanced programming skills.