November is here and the ghosts have gone to bed, so it's time to focus on what's important: getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I discovered this week that replacing my Christmas tree's lights, due to one of the strands having some weird "blips" the last couple of years that concern me, is not going to be so simple. Philips apparently no longer makes the nice 200-count multicolor LED set I had, and based on what I'm seeing I think I'm gonna have to settle for a decent warm white and color them with Sharpies, like an animal.

Two new beta releases for 515 went out this week: one on Monday (Halloween) and one late last night. The big bugs appear to be slowing down, and that's a good thing, so it's allowed me to do a little more prep work for the SendMaps() threading project. But of course I expect there to still be a few hiccups for the next few versions, so that will chug along at its own pace while the more immediate issues get worked out. Right now my main priority is to get as many bugs as possible confined to new functionality rather than things that broke along the way.

Space Station 13 coders had a major issue with the changes to call() in 515, not because of call_ext() but because call() now uses actual proc refs, and they were using a weird and (of course) slightly cursed method of verifying procs' existence at compile-time while still wanting to call them by name like normal. Thus after some frenetic brainstorming, the new nameof() proc was born. Its uses appear to be fairly limited outside of SS13's situations, but there was no better way to solve their problem.

Since a number of bugs related to refactors that were done behind the scenes, I'm also using the opportunity to continue moving toward the goal of a Z-linking feature. I want that a lot, and it seems like it'll be much more achievable once more and more code is brought into compliance with the idea. But that's a subject for another time.

Thanks to all the BYOND Members who keep this platform going through your support, and to all the supporters on our other donation platforms too.

Next week is looking surprisingly clear of distractions, so I'm curious how life is going to screw that up. But the important thing is that it's okay to play Christmas music now, although you may still be a pariah if you don't wait another three weeks. Sharpen up your wish lists. I'll be back next week.