Source : ct|23.04.08

< Tutorials Computer, Multimedia, Chinese

Emulating a graphing calculator TI89 or TI92
with TI Flash Studio

You can need to emulate, on your computer, the working of a Texas Instrument (TI) graphing calculator for diverses reasons :
- By convenience when you work on your computer, your TI calculator serving you especially during your travels;
- To see how work the TI graphing calculators, before buying one;
- Because you create programs, destinated to those calculators (with the help of a software development kit- SDK), and that you want to test those programs directly on your computer;
etc...

To the date of writing those lines, Texas Instrument proposes, in free download on his site, a SDK permitting to realize programs for TI89 and TI92 calculators (the TI92 looks like the TI Voyage 200 calculator). This SDK, is contained in an file named "finst exe", wich include an emulator software of those calculators.

We will see how to download, install and use this tool. For that we will have to :
1) Download then to install TI Flash Studio;
2) Install the Java virtual machine;
3) Create a new TI project.

Download then install TI Flash Studio

If you type "TI" in the textbox of the Google motor search, you will find easily the french Texas Instrument site consecrated to TI calculators. On this site, choose the link "calculatrices graphiques" in the heading "Produits".

Choose a calculator, the TI Voyage 200 for instance , and click the link "détails".

In the information zone of the product, click the link named "SDK" then the link named "TI89/TI92 Plus SDK".

After this, click the link named "TELECHARGER", then the link named "TI FLASH Studio (tm)"

The file to download ("finst exe") is then presented to you. Click "Enregistrer" and save the file on your hard disk.

To install TI Flash Studio, it suffices to click on the icon of this file and to follow given indications in the different screens. Once this operation is terminated, the files constituting TI Flash Studio are present in the directory "C:/Program Files/TI Flash Studio" on your hard disk .

Install the Java virtual machine

To this step, run TI Flash Studio. It is very possible (under Windows XP for instance...) that an error message of style "Unable to start the application - the Java Virtual Machine cannot be loaded !" display on your screen. That significate this ? This message indicates you simply that the program requires the presence of another program ("Runtime") called "Java virtual machine" which has not been found on your computer.

In that case open the Windows configuration panel ((Démarrer/Panneau de configuration) and look if an icon containing the drawing of a cup of coffee is visible. If this icon is present, this significates that the Java virtual machine is already installed on your computer.

In the contrary case you can go on the SUN web site and install this runtime program. Once you will have verifyed that the Java virtual machine is well installed on your computer, run TI Flash Studio.Then you will probably always see the same error message, wich will continue to appear. This is a little irritating is'n it... What is happened ? Why TI Flash Studio continues to display this message and why refuses it to run when the Java virtual machine is well installed on your computer ? The answer is very simple : The version of TI Flash Studio, proposed in download on the Texas Instrument site, is a relatively old program (2002). It requires to work the presence of the virtual Java machine in the ancient version of Microsoft.The problem is that the corresponding Microsoft program (called "msjavx86.exe") is not very easy to found. If you do not have an exemplar of this program, you can search him on internet (with the Google motor search, type "msjavx86 exe" ).

Once this program is installed, it will be asked you to start again your computer.

Create a new TI project

You can now start TI Flash Studio which must run normally. Choose the menu option "File/New Projet".

Choose "TI-92 Plus-RAM Application" for instance and click the button "Create".

Reduce the window of the project in icon, and it will only remain, on the screen, the emulator of the TI-92 graphing calculator (which look almost like the TI Voyage 200 graphing calculator). You can now use it.