ID:2647226
 
Welcome to 2021! We made it through the other side and... wait, everything still sucks? I guess we'll have to wait for things to get better. Maybe this year we can have a summer.

I was able to start the new year strong, where development is concerned, busting out of the gate with a number of bug fixes for a 513 maintenance release. Yep, we're gonna have one more before 514, but my goal is still to get 514 into beta this month. I have a few more of those issues on my plate that I want to get taken care of, but I feel really good about how they've been going.

Before the break I was working on new feature documentation for 514, but I didn't mention that it also added some items to my to-do list—but thankfully minor ones. There are some features I wanted for particles that will have to wait for a later release, but no worries. It'll be easier to see what needs to be done next based on how people use them.

I also decided to throw in another (surprisingly) quick feature after a discussion in Discord, which led to adding splicetext() and list.Splice() procs to 514. Some of this kind of fell naturally, as did the discussion itself, out of fixes I was already doing with replacetext(). The idea behind this is that a splice will do a cut and insertion at the same time, so splicetext() can replace two copytext() calls and two string additions with a single operation. This is a big deal for text because it means fewer adjustments to the string tree. Naturally I had to do the same thing for lists.

F0lak is looking into some Steam plans so I'm in the process of revisiting BYOND's Steam integration support and seeing if I can make it easier to handle things like Steam DLC. Any new functionality will go into the 514 beta.

So really it's been an incredibly productive week. Things are on track, even though my personal mobility is a question mark.

Speaking of strong starts out of the gate, my great thanks to everyone who either helped finish December strong or has come out swinging in 2021 to support BYOND through Memberships or on Patreon or SubscribeStar. I'm grateful for your contributions that keep things going.

Winter is of course still upon us, and being fickle about whether it plans to set in or not, the same way I'm being fickle about whether I'm really craving those donuts enough to be worth it. But whether you're struggling with a resolution or like me you resolved nothing but you're struggling all the same, the very best of luck to you. Reward yourself with some gaming. Unless your resolution was to do less gaming, in which case screw your stupid resolution and do some gaming anyway.