Lua Programming

The TI-Nspire allows, since OS v3.0, users to run Lua scripts.

Prerequisites

Lua is only supported starting from OS v3.0.1. You can create Lua applications using the built-in script editor in the TI-Nspire computer software or one of the following third-party tools:

For any OS:

• Luna (cross-platform) [forum thread]

For OS < 3.0.1: these tools won't work with the OS 3.0.2 since the format used is now blocked

• LUAtoTNS.sh (bash script, works on Linux, Mac OS and Unix, or Windows + Cygwin or Windows + MSYS).
• maketns.py (Python script, cross-platform)
• lua2ti (Windows + .NET Framework v4.0)
• lua2ti_linux (Linux (No longer requires Mono, it is now a native Linux binary!))

You may also want to install Lua on your computer: luac -p can be used to check the syntax of your script before running it on a TI-Nspire or an emulator.

API

The documentation is now maintained in the "Inspired Lua Wiki". Please go there in order to have a full detailed documentation based on TI's information.

XML

Basic structure

<wdgt
    xmlns:sc="urn:TI.ScriptApp" type="TI.ScriptApp" ver="1.0">

    <sc:mFlags>1024</sc:mFlags>
    <sc:value>8</sc:value>
    <sc:cry>0</sc:cry>
    <sc:legal>none</sc:legal>
    <sc:schk>false</sc:schk>

    <sc:md>
        <sc:mde name="_VER" prop="134217728">1:1</sc:mde>
        <sc:mde name="TITLE" prop="2147549184">Hello</sc:mde>
        <sc:mde name="TARAL" prop="134217728">2:5</sc:mde>
    </sc:md>

    <sc:script version="33882629" id="1">
	-- Lua script, XML encoded
    </sc:script>

    <sc:state>
        return {} -- Lua save state
    </sc:state>
</wdgt>

Script tags

sc:script

attribute	description
version	taral and reqal versions, one byte per digit (for older OSes?)
id	1 = normal script, 2 & 3 = Question and Answer

Script metadata configuration

Name	Prop	Description	Example
TARAL	134217728	TARget ApiLevel	<sc:mde name="TARAL" prop="134217728">2:2</sc:mde>
REQAL	134217728	REQuired ApiLevel	<sc:mde name="REQAL" prop="134217728">2:0</sc:mde>
_VER	134217728	TNS Version	<sc:mde name="_VER" prop="134217728">1:1</sc:mde>
TITLE	2147549184	ScriptApp title	<sc:mde name="TITLE" prop="2147549184">Hello</sc:mde>
-	270532608	Lua meta script	<sc:mde name="TEST" prop="270532608">--lua code</sc:mde>
BLERQ	134217728	BLE ReQuire - require ble libs	<sc:mde name="BLERQ" prop="134217728">1</sc:mde>
_FFunc	-	FailMe function (error catching)	Not known
_TRACE	-	Trace/log?	Not known