I have no knowledge of the development schedule, but I would say “not soon”, based on a quick review of the number of outstanding bug reports on Mantis. (Every previous release has always closed all previous known bugs, and it’s not likely that this release will be any different.)
Thanks for the observation/guess, Erik. I’m not going to worry about it, then. If and when there’s a new version, I’ll roll up my sleeves and dig into it. Maybe, probably. Heck, at that point I might get inspired to make a printed version available on Lulu.
Regardless of whether the Inform Handbook is 100% current, it has helped me a lot, especially with understanding tables. So thanks for taking the time to write it, Jim, and I look forward to taking a look at the next edition, whenever that comes out!
For the record, I’ve been wondering about this, too, but just assumed there was so much to do, with both patching up bugs and technical developments that are either progressing or are in the works (like Quixe, Parchment, Vorple, Threaded Conversations, etc.) that it become a little overwhelming to the Inform 7 authors, who I assume have lives. Still, it would be nice to get a small official heads-up on where the next release is at, even if things haven’t quite reached fruition.
I think the Inform team may not like to give tentative dates for upcoming updates from far out, because people don’t treat them as tentative – it was IIRC a couple updates ago that they said that they’d have an update by date X, and when it rolled out a week late or so someone was very upset on rec.arts.int-fiction. So, better to give no estimate than one with big error bars.
(I’ve also noticed that when Graham resolves bugs he resolves a huge number of them at once, FWIW.)
Right on both counts. The reason he’s reticent about making announcements is because of the grumbling that ensues when the date gets pushed back. And fixing bugs is not the only thing he’s doing. My guess is, there will be some new features as well, which are being tested quietly.
Yay! It’s gonna be great!
Quoted for truth.
Until you see it, how do you know?
What does “reform the library message system” mean, though? Does this mean making it more extendable? More consistent? Will extensions like Custom Library Messages still be needed or is that being built in? For those of us who don’t know what problem the solution is solving, it would be cool to hear things about this. I did a search for “library message system” on uservoice and found some things: four declined, two planned, and two completed. Is that the place to go to get a feel for what’s up and coming?
Yes. If it’s marked “completed” but not yet available in the old build, that means it’s something that’s done for the new version.
To answer your question directly, no, Custom Library Messages will not be needed, nor is it being built in. There is a new, more integrated method of handling output that we hope will also make it easier for authors to replace messages in other people’s extensions (selectively or completely), allowing for smoother customization and translation.
As far as I’m concerned, this is the Big Deal about the next release. I’m so curious to find out how it works!
Oh 6M59 you are the finest,
you bring my stories to life.
Oh 6M59 you are the lightest,
you speed through my words with east.
Oh 6M59 you are the greatest,
at least that’s what I want to see.
David C.
You know something we don’t?
If you look at the history of Inform 7 updates on rec.arts.int-fiction, you will also note a somewhat dubious pattern of bad poetry preceding hopeful announcements of a new version.
I could not resist when this topic came up.
David C.
Well, well, well! This AND making it easier to make games in other languages (as discussed in another, older, thread)? Outstanding!
Those are in fact related developments, both to do with the way output is handled.
But yes. Both of those things.
It’ll be interesting to see how these work out!
I was informed by way of someone else that David Kinder felt that the next release was gong to be out before
the end of the year. It appears that may not be the case.
Or we’re in for a christmas treat …
Rumor can go halfway around the world while Santa is still putting his boots on.
What I would really welcome is a maintenance release. Seeing we have gone for almost two years without a release, if there is a new version in a foreseeable future (implying, inevitably, new bugs), it would be painful to wait two years again for bug fixes. Not having maintenance releases worked fine as long as the release cycle were short.