nStudio

About

nStudio is an ARM assembly editor for the TI-Nspire CX and CX II calculators running Ndless. It lets you write, edit, and navigate ARM assembly source directly on the calculator.

Features

• Gap-buffer text editor: Insert and delete without rewriting the whole buffer on each keystroke.
• Syntax highlighting: ARM mnemonics, registers, immediates, labels, comments, directives, and string literals. Classification uses the same keyword tables as the companion nasm assembler, so what highlights is what assembles (both pre-UAL LDMEQFD and UAL LDMFDEQ/SUBSEQ suffix orders are recognised). Following nasm/nAssembler syntax, a label is any identifier in column 0 with no trailing colon, and instructions must be indented.
• Editing: Undo/redo (coalesced by word), cut/copy/paste, select all, block indent/outdent, and search / replace (with case toggle and Replace All).
• Line Endings: Detects and preserves LF or CRLF; the current mode is shown in the status bar and can be toggled from the File menu.
• Read-only Guard: Files that do not match your ASM source extension open read-only (shown as [RO]); the first edit asks before enabling editing, so binaries are never accidentally corrupted.
• Assemble: Invoke the nasm assembler on the current file directly from the editor (Ctrl+B), if its path is configured in Settings. When assembly fails, nStudio reads nasm's structured diagnostics and jumps the cursor to the first error in the current file, showing the message in the status bar.
• File browser: Navigate the Ndless filesystem to open existing files and save your work.
• Instruction & syscall catalogs: Offline reference for ARM instructions (signatures, descriptions, CPSR flag effects) and the full Ndless syscall list; insert or view details in place.
• Navigation: Jump to a specific line, browse all defined labels, or jump straight to a branch target.
• Themes: Dark and Light presets, or a custom color scheme. Settings are shared with the nasm assembler.
• Character map: Insert special symbols that are not on the physical keypad.

Controls & Shortcuts

Editor: movement

• Arrows: Move cursor
• Ctrl + Left/Right: Jump by word
• Ctrl + Up/Down: Page up / Page down
• Home / Doc: Start / end of line
• Ctrl + Home: Top of file
• Ctrl + Menu: Bottom of file
• Shift + move: Extend selection (works with all of the above)

Editor: editing

• Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y: Undo / Redo
• Ctrl + X / Ctrl + C / Ctrl + V: Cut / Copy / Paste
• Ctrl + A: Select All
• Tab / Shift + Tab: Indent / outdent (a selection indents the whole block; otherwise aligns to the next tab stop)
• Ctrl + Del / Ctrl + Shift + Del: Delete previous / next word

Editor: files & tools

• Ctrl + S / Ctrl + Shift + S: Save / Save As
• Ctrl + O: Open File
• Ctrl + F / Ctrl + H: Search / Replace
• Ctrl + G: Go to Line
• Ctrl + L: Label Browser
• Ctrl + Enter: Jump to the label under a B/BL/BX branch
• Ctrl + B: Assemble with nasm
• Ctrl + Trig: Instruction help for the mnemonic under the cursor
• Menu: Open the menu bar
• Catalog (Book Key): ARM instruction catalog
• Shift + Catalog: Ndless syscall catalog
• Ctrl + Catalog: Special character map
• Esc: Quit (prompts if there are unsaved changes)

Search / Replace

• Enter: Next match (Search) / replace this match (Replace)
• Tab: Toggle case sensitivity (Search) / skip this match (Replace)
• A: Replace all remaining matches (Replace)
• Esc: Finish

File Browser

• Arrows: Navigate files and folders
• Enter: Enter folder / Open file
• Tab: Toggle file filter (all files vs .<ext>.tns), or confirm the destination folder in "Save As"
• Esc: Cancel / Close

The directory path shown with a leading double slash (e.g. //documents) marks a filesystem root folder; this is the calculator's own convention.

Catalog / Cheatsheet

• Arrows: Navigate categories and instructions
• Enter: Insert the selected mnemonic into the editor
• Shift + Enter: Show detailed information about the selected instruction

Building from Source

To build nStudio from source, you will need the Ndless SDK installed and properly configured on your system.

1. Clone the repository.
2. Ensure the Ndless toolchain binaries (nspire-gcc, nspire-ld, genzehn, make-prg) are in your PATH.
3. Run the following command in the project directory:

make

This will produce the nstudio.tns executable.

Installation

1. Transfer the nstudio.tns file to your TI-Nspire using the TI-Nspire Student Software, N-Link, or TiLP.
2. Ensure Ndless is installed and active on your calculator.
3. Open nstudio.tns from the calculator's native file browser to launch the application. Settings are automatically saved to /documents/ndless/nstudio.cfg.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3).