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According to this meta post, TI-BASIC is scored in tokens rather than characters, to more accurately reflect the byte count in-memory.

On my graphing calculator (TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition), the memory menu displays a slightly larger number than this would suggest. This number counts the length of the program name, and an apparent nine-byte header: an empty program with a one-letter name shows up as ten bytes in that menu. As such, I've been listing the length of my programs as memory usage - length of program name - 9.

However, I recently realized that this "header" includes the first colon in a program, and as such I haven't been counting that. Should it be counted?

On one hand, it is part of the program text, and necessary headers in other languages generally count towards program length. On the other hand, in most other languages it is possible to give the compiler/interpreter a file without this header and you just get an error; for TI-BASIC, this leading colon cannot be deleted.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Not really a full answer, but if people haven't been counting it and it's basically a +1 to every program I don't think we should start. It seems not counting it isn't causing any problems, counting it could create a hidden rule. Even if the ideologically pure thing to do is to count it, it might be better to make an exception. \$\endgroup\$
    – Wheat Wizard Mod
    Apr 5 at 18:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ I haven't been counting it in my own answers, but I don't know whether other people who use TI-BASIC do or not. If it weren't for this uncertainty I would completely agree and continue to not count it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bbrk24
    Apr 5 at 18:11

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