Detached Solutions (DS)

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detached-solutions-logo.png

Site URL

http://www.detachedsolutions.com

Founders

Dan Englender
Jason Kovacs
Brandon Sterner
Andrew Magness
Scott Dial

Founding Date

May 1st, 2000

Years Active

2000 to Present(?)

Programmed For

TI-83+, TI-89, TI-92+

Languages

Flash

Aliases

DS

Affiliations

TCPA

Detached Solutions was a group of highly skilled programmers that released some amazingly complex and professional-quality programs for the TI-83+, TI-89, and TI-92+ while they were active. The group was founded by former members of the TI Calculator Programming Alliance (TCPA), and decided to branch out on their own. They specialize in making Flash applications, which require you to get your program signed using the signing key released by TI.

Group Significance

Detached Solutions is responsible for some of the best, most useful flash applications available for the TI graphing calculators. Their first release, in particular, was the MirageOS shell, which was revolutionary and set the new gold standard for assembly shells. Their Puzzle Pack application was redesigned and recoded for Texas Instruments at TI's request, and was the first thirty-party application to be bundled with each TI-83/84/+/SE calculator.

Their other flash applications are equally as impressive: Emu8x allows you to emulate the other TI graphing calculators; Omnicalc adds additional functionality to the operating system, such as custom menus, new TI-Basic commands, and external font sets; and Graph^^3^^ allows you to do 3D graphing on the TI-83/84/+/SE with all of the graph manipulation features that go with that.

Here is a complete list of the flash applications that they have released so far:

Group Staff

Site Info

(Taken from Detached Solutions about page)

Our company name, Detached Solutions, comes from the fact that we program for portable devices, and our software is made in hopes to enhance the usage experience for owners of these hand-held consoles.

The original URL for Detached Solutions was simply http://www.detacheds.com. This can be seen on the start screen in the different applications that they released. In July 2002, Detached Solutions had an issue with their web hosting company, and their domain name lapsed. Subsequently, a squatter from Japan took over the domain, and wanted a rather large sum of money before they would return it. So, a new domain name was chosen instead, which is the current one that they are still using today.

Group History

(Taken from Detached Solutions about page)

Detached Solutions was formed on May 1st, 2000 by Dan Englender, Jason Kovacs, Andrew Magness, Scott Dial, and Brandon Sterner, who were previously and are currently involved in a group of Assembly programmers called the TI-Calculator Programming Alliance (TCPA). This group has existed for over four years now, producing quality ASM programs for the TI public during that time and gaining a profound reputation for themselves. We had met through this group and built up its standings in the programming world; however, the TCPA has and continues to exist as an association of people programming as a hobby. We have chosen to progress and establish this software company, so that outside interests may view us as a serious organization and recognize the professional software that we strive to create.

This step to professionalism started when Dan Englender, Jason Kovacs, and Andrew Magness became involved in a Beta-Testing team for Texas Instruments Incorporated, which was centralized around the Software Development Kit for Flash Applications on the TI-83 Plus. This Beta period occurred in the Fall of 1999 and continued until the Spring of 2000, at which point TI released the ability for the public to purchase SDK's and produce Flash Applications. Being on the Beta team allowed us to do this in advance and attain licenses for Flash Development. It also allowed us to become more familiar with the TI-83 Plus and establish contacts with the personnel at Texas Instruments Incorporated.

As part of the TCPA, Dan and Jason created two FlashApps, CalcSys and PuzzPack respectively, and decided to keep pursuing this sort of development under the terms of being a software company. Andrew Magness mainly programmed in 68K Assembly for the TI-92 Plus, but assisted us with our efforts on the TI-83 Plus even though it uses a different type of Assembly language. Once Dan, Jason, and Andrew decided to create this company, Scott Dial and Brandon Sterner were asked to join due to their programming talents and long-term association with the TCPA. We hoped to combine our abilities and create large Flash Application group projects, along side any individual projects our staff would choose to develop.

Detached Solutions was announced and opened to the public on July 25th, 2000 upon the completion of our first major development, MirageOS, which is a Flash Application Shell for the TI-83 Plus. We hoped for this shell to become a great success among the TI users and ASM developers, and this turned out to be so with a lot of interest and support for MirageOS. Our webpage layout and content was created for the initial release, which included immense information concerning the shell, as well as information about our other FlashApps and upcoming products. The MirageOS Homepage is located on our website, which hosts all the User and Developer documents that we have provided for the TI-83 Plus public.

In December of 2000, our staff was asked by Texas Instruments Incorporated to develop a second version of our popular Puzzle Pack application, giving us the privilege to have the app packaged with their newest line of graphing calculators, the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition. We spent a few months recoding much of PuzzPack to improve its layout, appearance, functionality, and usage as well as making it completely free of bugs. PuzzPack v2.0 was eventually released on May 13th, 2001, near the release of the TI-83 Plus SE. We currently hope that this product will attract the attention of many calculator users and lead them to support our future software developments.

Within the time period that PuzzPack v2.0 was started and released, several other major events occurred for our organization. Jason Kovacs had been developing and released Calendar v1.0, which is an innovative program for MirageOS that serves as an great organizational utility for TI-83 Plus users. Detached Solutions also held an Application Programming Contest for the TI-83 Plus, which turned out to be a great success and allowed for its seven winners to develop their entries into full applications. Texas Instruments sponsored the prizes for this contest, including a TI-83 Plus SE, Software Development Kits, and individual signings, as well as calculator Slidecases with the DS logo on it that was given to every participant. Among these exciting events, we had also produced a Guestbook for our website where visitors can post entries to show their support for our organization.

On May 25th, 2001, Michael Vincent was recruited onto the Detached Solutions staff, and his immense skill and enthusiasm for developing ASM programs and Applications for the TI-83 Plus has shown that he is a great asset to our organization. In June 2001, we held our second contest called the Detached Solutions Test of Knowledge, and the Top 20 winners of this contest received the last of our limited-edition DS Slidecases. In August 2001, Michael developed and released an app called Virtual Calc that extended the functionality of the TI-83 Plus SE to have a second, completely separate state of the OS using the extra RAM on the Silver Edition.

During the Summer of 2001, Texas Instruments contracted with several of our staff and other independent developers to create TI-83+ applications in order to enhance the amount of software titles available to the public. You may download these apps through TI's Online store and should notice the names of our staff as the authors for some of these applications. In the Fall of 2001, Texas Instruments held an App Development Contest of their own for anyone to enter and win fabulous prizes. Brandon Sterner submitted his Symbolic Differentiation app for the TI-83+ that had been in the works, and he tied for 1st place on the Z80 platform. Jason Kovacs submitted an application version of his TI-83+ program, Calendar, and won 2nd place on the Z80 platform. Michael Vincent entered his Hook Manager application for the TI-83+ (later to become Omnicalc) and won 2nd place for the Z80 platform in the Under-16 Development Contest section.

Brandon Sterner released Symbolic v1.0 to the public on December 14th, 2001. This application was an instant success since it was the first to allow differentiation and other symbolic manipulation functions on the TI-83+. In January 2002, Michael Vincent announced his Omnicalc project and released it on April 11th, 2002. This has been one of the most innovative applications created for the TI-83+/SE since it extends the functionality of the OS to include things such as a Custom menu, clipboard, past entries menu, parentheses assistant, external font sets, memory backups, and many new functions for users. On July 6th, 2002, Detached Solutions changed domain names from the old address of detacheds.com to our new address of detachedsolutions.com. We also installed a new Forum to the website so that visitors could participate in discussions about our organization and software.

On August 11th, 2002, Kirk Meyer joined the Detached Solutions staff to produce quality software through our organization for the TI-83+, TI-89, and Voyage 200 platforms. His impressive background of development for the Z80 series of calculators makes him an invaluable addition to our staff, and he has already made a great contribution to us with the release of Graph³ v1.0 on August 14th, 2002. Greg Dietsche joined the staff on August 27th, 2002, and with his extensive knowledge of 68K and C programming for the TI-89, TI-92+, & Voyage 200, he will now be producing quality software for those platforms through our organization. Kirk released DAWG v1.0 for the TI-83+ series on October 28th, 2002, and Greg released Command Post v1.0 for the TI-89/92+/Voyage 200 on February 16th, 2003. Our other staff members continue to work on their calculator projects along side their many other personal obligations, and we expect to have some exciting releases for the summer.

On December 28, 2007, Brandon Wilson joined the Detached Solutions staff, having worked with Dan and Michael previously on projects. Brandon brings a great deal of expertise on the TI-83 Plus series calculators, particularly in the lower-level of operation, and we look forward to him becoming a valuable contributor to our staff.

This is the stage that Detached Solutions is in, and our history is not much, but we will progress and expand as time goes on. Our continuing developments for current calculator platforms will allow us to become more well-known among TI users, and hopefully our popularity and position in the programming world will rise. We plan to expand our influence onto other portable platforms, in order to spread out our programming talents into other markets. We aspire to gain the support of the public in our efforts, but only time will tell…

Miscellaneous