Back From the Dead

So, first off, my apologies to anyone who was looking forward to more posts here during the last several years.  I was overwhelmed with some of the big changes I wanted to make to Roodylib to begin with, and then first my grandmother and then my father had health issues that took up all of my attention.  Sadly, they both passed away last year, but I'm thankful for all of the time I was able to spend with them.

I've had more time to get back to Roodylib in recent months, and I'm happy to be able to share the results.  I've uploaded a new version of Roodylib here.  I've also updated the Hugo Notepad++ bundle and the Hugo Notepad++ add-on (for preexisting Notepad++ installations).

As issue-tracking and version-numbering aren't really my forte, I have bumped this new release up to Roodylib 4.1.9, as it's basically an alpha I'd like to get out into the open (and my juvenile sense of humor thought it would be stupidly funny to put out a final 4.2.0 release later this month).  I've run it through a bunch of games with pretty much no issues except for changing how files are included, but one never can tell with these things.

Changes in this new release:

• Right after the last official release, I noticed that Roodylib didn't handle multiple AGAIN/Gs in multi-command input.  Originally, I thought it was something I broke, but it seems that Hugo's library never handled it quite like I would want.  Anyhow, that's working now.
• I moved whatever I could back to extensions for overall better code-readability for both Roodylib and the extensions themselves.  As much as I have loved the simplicity of just adding a flag to include functionality in my games, I decided that I have to keep future authors in mind so it's easier for them to see how each system works.  One side effect of this is that certain routines had to be broken up even further, so this new version of Roodylib grows in routine declaration despite being pared down in size.
• Similarly, I redesigned some of the Hugofix stuff so extensions can easily add more debugging options without having to replace the entirety of some Hugofix routines.
• I added some pronoun-choosing helper routines so games seem smarter.
• Opcode functionality should be up to date and working on all existing opcode interpreters.
• Improved some attachables stuff.

I didn't go all-out crazy making the documentation as perfect as possible, but a lot of this is covered in more detail in the Roodylib documentation.

There has been some other exciting Hugo news in recent months:

• Juhana Leinonen released Borogove, which allows people to write Hugo games online (among several other types of game)!
• Tristano Ajmone put The Hugo Book online.  With Kent's permission, updates and fixes have been made, making it the most accurate version of the book available.
• Steps have been made to centralize the Hugo code base, and discussion of Hugo's future is underway.

So yes, exciting times.

Anyhow, to warn you, I don't really see myself updating Roodylib or this blog in the future with the same frequency as I did in years past.  While nothing is ever perfect, this version is basically the culmination of years-spanning intentions, and now that I've reached this point, it's likely that I'll move on to something else- whether that is back to game-writing or something else entirely, we shall see.