Yesterday, I made some major updates to Tharify in addition to writing the AbiatharOS build script. The /levelsonly switch has been added; this is necessary for games that have Vorticons-style levels but other-style graphics. It causes only level files to be generated; the user must supply the graphics and create the ADEPS manually. That ADEPS's filename must then be supplied when detharifying even if /conf is used to load the settings from a configuration file.
Last night as I was falling asleep, I had a great idea for a simple yet immensely useful Abiathar feature, which I implemented this morning. I call this feature "mini-palettes." It adds a small repository of 10 tiles for each plane that can be accessed by pressing Alt+Up or Alt+Down. Doing so produces a little floating panel above the current plane's selected tile image, with a 3x3 grid plus one. The extra tile, slot 0, is automatically set to the previously selected tile when a tool (e.g. the Tile Tweaker) changes the selected tile. (I call it the history tile.) Each of the tiles in the mini-palette has a number assigned to it, arranged like the keys on the numeric keypad (as opposed to the number keys on a phone).
The mini-palette pop-up has two modes, storing (Alt+Up) and retrieving (Alt+Down). In storing mode, mini-palette tiles can be clicked to replace them with the main selected tile or right-clicked to replace them with the history tile. In retrieving mode, tiles can be clicked to make them the main selected tile.
While the pop-up is showing, the Left and Right arrow keys show the mini-palette for the plane to the left or right, as appropriate. Up and Down switch modes, updating the text appropriately. This feature addition was bundled with v2.4.
I released Abiathar v2.4, AbiatharOS, and Tharify on the PCKF at different times throughout the day. There have also been some interesting releases by other people, which I will check out more thoroughly tomorrow. And, I expect another release or two when it's day over in Australia/NZ. An exciting Keen Day indeed!
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