Lua Programming

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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:

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