Waves OS User Manual (Waves OS v1.62M):
Contents:
I: Start Using Waves OS
II: Keystroke Commands
III: The Waves OS GUI
IV: Capabilities of Waves OS
V: EHT Wav Player
VI: EHT Advanced
VII: EHT Office
VIII: Hex -> Asm Compiler
IX: Chronograph Timer
X: Ion
XI: EHT Program Manager
XII: EHT Text
XIII: Troubleshooting
XIV: Credits
I: Start Using Waves OS:
To start using Waves OS, you must first upload
Wavesxxx.8xg (Waves151.8xg, Waves16M.8xg, etc. depending
on what version you've downloaded) via TI-Graph Link,
TI-Connect or whatever link software you use. Next,
you must run the program "TS3BOOT" (prgmTS3BOOT) to boot
up Waves OS. This ensures that all programs needed in
RAM are in RAM for Waves OS. NEVER RUN WAVES OS
WITHOUT STARTING UP TS3BOOT. You will see a title
screen. Press any Key to continue... As soon as you
get to the Mainscreen with the toolbar, click the F3
(Zoom) Button to go to options. Press the
corresponding key to the option number you wish to set.
If you set a password, you will be prompted the next
time you start Waves OS.
Now for the installation part: Click the F1 (Y=)
Button to go to the Games Option. A message will
appear saying, "Installing the Ion Game Shell Requires
Restarting Waves OS". Press Enter - you will return to
TI-OS with a message displaying, "Ion Installed". You
may now launch ION, a shell NOT written by me to play a
variety of games written in assembly. Press Enter
Again or run prgmTS3BOOT again to restart Waves OS.
Waves OS is now fully installed.
II: Keystroke Commands:
The Keystroke Commands are the most important thing
covered in this User Manual. The following key
descriptions describe what action is performed when a
certain key is pressed:
[Y=] (F1) : Games Option, loads Ion
[Window] (F2) : Programs Option, loads a list of
internal/external programs exclusive to Waves OS.
[Zoom] (F3) : Options Menu; Password Options and other
options such as shut down and quit.
[Trace] (F4) and [Graph] (F5) : Goes Back to main menu;
refreshes memory and battery meters.
In every Waves OS menu, there is a number to the left of
every option title. Press corresponding keys to (Press
[1] to go to option "1", [2] to go to option 2, etc.) go
to corresponding option labels. If you can remember
this, Waves OS will be extremely easy to use.
You must also remember that Waves OS was designed to be
easy to use with its keystrokes; the titles for each
option are above the F1, F2, F3, F4 and F5 keys.
III: The Waves OS GUI:
The Waves OS GUI was designed to be easy to use as well.
The Keystrokes are all well coordinated, so even the
newest calculator user can figure out how to use Waves
OS. Otherwise, there are 3 important things you need
to pay attention to in this GUI.
The first is the Icon that appears in the bottom-right
hand corner of the screen. It either looks like an "="
sign or a "doesn't equal" sign. An "=" sign means your
batteries are at a good power level. A doesn't equal
sign means your batteries are at a low power level and
will probably only run for a week longer, and some
functions that your calculator normally performs may
become impossible (garbage collecting, archiving,
unarchiving, etc.). PLEASE NOTE THAT THE PROGRAM
"ZBATTCHK" MUST CALIBRATE ITSELF AND WILL PROBABLY
DISPLAY THAT YOUR BATTERIES ARE LOW THE FIRST TIME YOU
LOG ONTO WAVES OS. TO FIX THIS, EXIT WAVES OS, TURN
THE CALCULATOR OFF AND RESTART WAVES WITH TS3BOOT.
The 2nd is the number located just to the left of the
battery status icon. This displays the amount of free
RAM you have left on your calculator. Although Waves
OS makes sure you have enough RAM to execute all Waves
OS programs, it is important that you don't let your RAM
fall too low (preferably below 9k) or your entire
calculator will start to run A LOT SLOWER than normal.
Also, some other programs outside of Waves OS may not
run at all. Even though TS3BOOT archives a lot of
programs when you exit Waves OS, you can free up RAM
yourself in TI-OS. To do this, (in TI-OS) press [2nd],
[7], [2], and scroll down the list of all programs and
variables. If an aestrix (*) appears to the left of
the program/variable's name, then it it is already
archived. If nothing but a space appears, then the
program is in RAM and should be archived. HOWEVER, YOU
SHOULD NEVER ARCHIVE prgmTS3BOOT, list WOSP or prgmPTOOLS;
these programs must always remain in RAM for Waves OS to
work at all.
The 3rd and final thing you need to remember about Waves
OS is that if you guess wrong in the password prompt, you will be
automatically logged off and TS3BOOT will de-boot Waves OS (Archive all
mainframe programs). You will have to reload everything in order to
retype your password. This was installed as a security measure, not
an annoyance.
IV: Capabilities of Waves OS:
Waves OS has many technical advantages over many of the
other shells available for the TI-83 Plus/SE. First of
all, it is the most memory-efficient shell available.
Using the extremely powerful TS3 engine, RAM is always
plentiful and never runs out unless Flash ROM (Archive)
is so low that TS3 cannot archive anything. This also
means that although Waves OS is a large program, the
size of memory being occupied at once is larger than the
RAM limit of 24k.
The 2nd advantage over many other shells is that Waves
OS can "multitask". Multitasking is being able to run
multiple programs at once. However, Waves OS does not
actually multitask, it semi-multitasks. You can
execute Waves OS routines via an external program with
the multitasker. This is most important when you are
in an external program like "EHT Office" and you want to
play some games. You don't have to exit EHT Office,
you just click on the "Games" button and TS3 will do the
rest. More efficient multitasking is under development
and is scheduled to be released with Waves OS NT Patch
(1.7M). The multitasker is also enabled in all
internal programs, allowing easy access to all of the
Waves OS options.
The 3rd advantage of Waves OS is that it is written
mainly in BASIC, meaning there has been a lot of
code-cleanup and time to test for bugs. Waves OS is
probably one of the most stable shells for the TI-83 Plus, too.
V: EHT Wav Player:
The EHT Wav Player plays programs of sound data. .WAV
files are created into .db files and are inserted into
an ASM program's code. EHT Wav Player plays these
files with an easy-to-use GUI. All you have to do is
type in the parameters (name of the sound program you
wish to play), plug in your speakers and press enter.
Pretty straightforward.
VI: EHT Advanced:
This is a program that adds MANY extra features to Waves
OS. Although not actually needed for Waves OS, EHT
Advanced extends the users control over the shell.
Many features such as link port communication, account
clearing, ROM cleanup, Lowercase Lettering Toggling,
Calc Status Viewer, and a program that re-installs the
ION game browser are included in this easy-to-use
program. The multitasker has been turned off in this
program to save battery power because the functions in
EHT Advanced require more power than some of the other,
more minor functions of Waves OS. The TI-OS GUI of EHT
Advanced also saves A LOT of memory, keeping the program
under 2k in size.
VII: EHT Office:
EHT Office is a very complex program that contains a
simple page-editor (EHT Pagemaker), a picture manager
(Picture Viewer) for viewing and deleting pictures and
EHT Word, an advanced text-editor. The Waves OS
Multitasker is enabled in all EHT Office programs except
EHT Word.
EHT Pagemaker is a simple picture-editor that allows you
to insert lines and text into your pictures. A great
tool for sprucing up your pictures.
Picture Viewer allows you to view and/or delete all
pictures in RAM. (Pictures you want to view or delete
must be unarchived) To select a picture, press the key
that contains the corresponding number of the picture
you would like to manage (Press, [1] for Pic1, [2] for
Pic2, etc.) Press [1] if you would wish to view the
selected picture, [2] if you wish to delete that
picture.
EHT Word is a text editor with no encryptions. There
are 3 save slots for text, and since there is no
encryption, saving and loading texts is very fast.
However, all string files must be kept in RAM or EHT
Word will not function right. This is a major upgrade
over the internal program for Waves OS titled, "Notepad
Organizer".
VIII: Hex -> Asm Compiler:
Useful only to ASM programmers, this tool converts HEX
into Assembly. The HEX program must be named prgmZ in
order for the compiler to work. The product program
will be prgmZ1. The size of the finished product (ASM)
will be smaller than the original (HEX) program.
IX: Chronograph Timer:
This program is very old, and used to be inaccurate and was part of the
Original Waves OS (been around and finalized since v0.5A
and not updated since until v1.61M). Waves OS v1.61M and higher
includes Timer v8.15, with increments MUCH more accurate than they were
before. Increments now almost mimic that of an actual
second. This was done by slowing the timer down to 1/5 of its
original speed.
X: Ion:
This is the secondary shell to all Waves OS versions
spanning from 0.1A-1.51M. Using a very nice GUI, this
allows one to execute assembly programs ported to the
shell. Being a very popular (and small) utility, this
was selected over all the other ASM shells for the
TI-83+/SE to be the secondary shell for Waves OS.
XI: EHT Program Manager:
The EHT Program Manager serves as a very important tool for managing programs. Program Manager can archive, unarchive, lock, unlock and delete any program, and run any program not ported to a specific shell. This is an advanced shell that is the first of its kind; a "type in parameters" and choose option GUI. Although in v1.6M Program Manager (v0.9) has a TI-OS Menu GUI, future versions may support the traditional Waves OS style GUI for multitasking purposes. The future version with the Waves OS GUI will be called the "Hornet Game Shell"... This is one of the 2 secondary shells to Waves OS.
XII: EHT Text:
EHT Text is a simple text editor with 3 save slots and is very similar to EHT
Word BASIC from EHT Office BASIC edition. However, EHT Text encrypts
string data to a list form, making it easier to manage and store your text
data. Due to the slow clock speed of the TI-83 Plus' CPU, EHT text
takes some time to load and save documents. A must for Silver
Edition users, though.
XIII: Troubleshooting:
Okay, welcome to the troubleshooting section. This
section covers many of the possible ways to fix Waves OS
if it doesn't work properly on your calculator.
1: Ungroup Wavesxxx (Waves151, Waves16M, Waves162, Waves17M,
etc.). This will refresh all your programs and will
recover any that have been lost if your RAM was cleared.
I recommend you reinstalling ION (just type in,
"prgmION" and press enter. This will ensure that ION
is installed; if ION was deleted and the Main program,
"Waves OS" and/or list WOSP wasn't, no errors will
occur. You can also do this in the program EHT
Advanced using the option, "Reinstall Ion".
2: Unarchive all strings, pictures and lists. This is
the most common error in Waves OS. Without all the
strings, list WOSP, and any existing picture in RAM,
Waves OS cannot access these variables; and therefore an
error message will appear.
3. Download the internet version.
Downloading the internet version ensures that you have
all the files needed for Waves OS. A lot of the time,
unofficial distributors will only give you prgmTS3BOOT
or prgmWAVES. These programs have NO capabilities by
themselves, but together they form the advanced shell,
Waves OS. Your version may also be outdated and buggy.
Downloading the latest version ensures that you have the
most effective, safest version available to the public.
4. Calibrating the Battery Checking Program:
The 1st time you run Waves OS, your battery status icon
will most likely display a "low battery" icon. To
calibrate the battery checker, exit Waves OS, turn the
calculator off, turn it back on again and restart Waves
OS. Your battery checking program has been calibrated.
5. Free up Archive Space: Without a sufficient amount
of archive available, TS3 cannot archive and unarchive
program variables while running Waves OS, therefore
Waves OS will not work properly. Deletions from your
archive are recommended, especially if you have a bunch
of programs that you do not use/unimportant programs.
Waves OS will not only run, it will run faster.
XIV: Credits:
Jim Miller: Main Programmer, Author of this long user
manual.
Special Thanks:
Joe Wingbermuehle for the Ion game shell (Waves OS would
suck without it)
David Lindström (Cirrus Programming) for PTOOLS
Michael Vincent for the assembly tools (ZBATTCHK, MEM,
CONTRAST, etc. from the "Basic Tools" library)
Brandon Sterner for the PLAYWAV program
You for downloading my shell