Hey everyone!
It's been a while since the last Mudlet update, but here we are again! It's great to see that many people still value a free, open-source, and cross-platform desktop client and continue to make it their choice for playing MUDs to this day.
As we're getting into making releases again, please forgive us if this one is a little rusty. The idea of this release is to get back to a regular schedule and get closer to the 3.0 Mudlet final.
Since the last delta release, a lot of work has gone into improving the mapper, with our contributor Stephen Lyons doing the lion's share of work. This release and the tidiness of Mudlet's forums would not be possible without him.
A lot of the mapper code has been improved and optimized to run faster, both when speedwalking and when editing maps. In addition to performance improvements, a whole host of functions have been added to the API to ease scripting and allow you to get more done with less work!
The mapper is now more strict on area names and now allows unique area names only, as having duplicate area names was problematic for scripting and UI dropdowns. Along with this, map auditing has been introduced, which auto-corrects duplicate area names and a few other things. Upon loading Mudlet on an old map for the first time, you might see this:
Don't be concerned about it, it's just Mudlet cleaning up the map for you. You can see a more detailed report of the audit in the errors.txt file that is mentioned at the bottom of the message.
The mapper widget's area list has been improved and now updates more dynamically to any map changes. To make map editing easier, the room selection widget is now editable, allowing you to exactly select the rooms you'd like to modify at once.
Many mapper functions now also allow using names in other than English, as part of the work that has went into making Mudlet more friendly to MUDs in other languages.
Mapper API function improvements:
Mudlet 3.0.0-delta had an issue where the main window would resize whenever text got too big for the input line. This has now been fixed.
IRE maps are now downloaded over HTTPS, and the downloadMap() function now supports downloading over HTTPS as well. loadMap() has also been improved to handle importing IRE XML map files in addition to Mudlet map files, so should the URL change in the future, you can still load maps in without waiting for a Mudlet update.
You can now trigger on grey (light white) and cyan colours - colour triggers previously did not differentiate between them properly. Additionally, a few colours weren't rendered exactly right when coming in from the MUD - this has now been fixed as well.
Scripts can now set text to be striken-out via the newly-added setStrikeOut() function, both in the main and console windows. Labels have already supported this feature through CSS formatting.
sysProtocolEnabled and sysProtocolDisabled envets have been added to let your scripts know when MDSP, ATCP, GMCP, MXP, or channel102 data protocol has been enabled.
The raiseEvent() function has been improved and now supports passing nil and boolean arguments.
Lastly, a lot of Mudlets code has been improved - dead code removed, better coding style and practices applied. Anyone wishing to get into improving Mudlet is welcome to join us on the Gitter chat.
In order to release the 3.0 final, we need to clear off the last remaining issues that we've introduced since 2.1, and any issues found during testing of 3.0.0-epsilon. Please report any problems you find to our forums or directly on the bugtracker, and a big thank you for taking the time to do so! We strive to ensure that Mudlet is always in good quality.
Big thanks to Stephen Lyons, chrio, Chris Mitchell, Eric Wallace, keneanung, and Zahatric for making this release possible. We look forward to more regular releases in the future!
Comments
I'm on Linux and was curious if we have any updates in store.
Anyway, props to all involved in the development. I really love mudlet, even version 2.1!
Edit: just kidding!! What!?? I'm really excited to get the newest version finally for Linux. Can't wait to get home now and test it out.
Oh the latest is Iota too.
If so I got an alias called fix map which merely does raiseEvent("mmapper map reloaded")
I think the events have changed. Or is it the the fact getRoomUserData returns nil instead of "" ?
getRoomUserData was fixed in iota but the other one I didn't know about. good idea, will try, thanks