Chapter 11. Using hybrid TI-BASIC libraries
This chapter covers
- Understanding the xLIB, Celtic III, DCSB, PicArc, and Omnicalc libraries
- Using sprites and tilemaps in hybrid TI-BASIC, demonstrated with a full game
- Manipulating programs and data files via hybrid libraries
The TI-BASIC language provided by your calculator has been the focus of the chapters thus far. We’ve been working with only the capabilities that your calculator included when you first bought it, and you’ve seen many features you can use in your programs, from simple to complex. You’ve been able to do math, write games, get input and display output, and work with graphics. But if you’ve tried to get particularly advanced with your graphics as in figure 11.1, you may have found that it’s impossible to make an extremely graphical game also be very fast. If you’ve investigated working with subprograms, you may have been frustrated to find you have no way of moving files between RAM and Archive. The limitation of having only 10 picture variables to use might have led you to scale back ambitious program designs. Around 2004, TI-BASIC coders just like you decided to do something about those limitations, and hybrid BASIC was born.
