Battered by infirmity once again, I've made the best of this week and managed to get a lot done.

The biggest major hurdle I had left, making sure that the map editor would handle compilation properly, is finished. The punch list has been getting a lot smaller and I'm close to finally having an early candidate release for the 515 beta. Right now I'm working on some stuff with the find tool, and after that it's just a small and very manageable to-do list.

In the process of testing I did discover that some new icon management code is causing a problem in the icon editor, so that will absolutely have to be addressed before the test releases. Basically I re-engineered some of the code that's responsible for sharing individual frames in an icon, because my first attempt at that was kind of awful and I've been wanting to replace it for a while. Apparently something in the editor didn't like that, but I'll fix it.

As part of the test releases I kind of wonder if I should have a way of spitting out the most recent actions to a temporary text file, as a way of reconstructing any changes in case some buggy behavior is found (or worse, a crash). Having that level of detail could make all the difference when it comes to fixing early bugs, so I think I'm gonna do the smart thing and throw in some changes to that effect.

Looking over this whole project, it's remarkable how much cleaner the map editor code is now. And in some ways it still isn't all that clean, but compared to what it was before it's all shiny, and most things look like they belong. A worthy reorg indeed, even though it's taken a while. But the editor should be a lot easier to handle now, and I'm a lot closer to ditching the software renderer which is a win for all of us.

I want to thank everyone who supported BYOND this past month, and for those who haven't lately, I hope you'll consider a Membership or donation to help the project. You can also donate via Patreon or SubscribeStar if you prefer an ongoing option. Your support means a lot.

Heading into this holiday weekend, I still feel kinda sad I don't have anywhere to launch fireworks now that they're quasi-legal here, nor the unlimited funds to buy them. I'm a serious fireworks junkie but I haven't been to a show in years for various reasons, and it's looking like this weekend will shake out the same way. On my country's upcoming third 244th birthday (I mean we all know 2020 never ended, right?), I like to reflect on what we stand for and hope to achieve; because it's easy to get discouraged by what's wrong in the world, but there's good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for. Which is also one of the reasons I intend to become a beloved supervillain and set it all right. And on that note, I'll see you Tuesday.