Otter 1.1.0 - Online Table Top Environment Renderer

[Ian Jackson]

I am pleased to announce Otter 1.1.0.

Otter 1.1 has several significant new features:

 * Dice.  (Previously you would have to use "random deck" mechanics.)

 * Currency-like pieces, that can be split and merged.  (Previously
   you would have to fixed denomination pieces, and players would have
   to manually make change just as in a physical game.)

 * New features in bundles, particularly in shape libraries.

1,1 also has many other bugfixes and improvements.
For the full changelog, see below.

Otter 1.1 introduces bundle format version 2.  The version from Otter
1.0 is hereby designated format version 1.  Format 1 bundles are still
supported.

I am not aware of any format 1 bundles in the wild.  If you have (or
are preparing) a format 1 bundle (ie one based on Otter 1.0 and its
bundle documentation) please let me know.  If there are no users of
format 1 I will retire the compat code.


Otter is a system for playing board games online, but it is not like
most other such systems.  In the words of the README:

  It does not know (nor does it need to know) the rules of the game you
  are playing.  Instead, it lets you and your friends play with common
  tabletop/boardgame elements such as hands of cards, boards, and so on.

Full information can be found in the online README and documentation:
  https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ianmdlvl/otter/docs/README.html
  https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ianmdlvl/otter/docs/

Otter can be obtained via git:
  https://salsa.debian.org/iwj/otter
For the release, there is a PGP signed tag there, `otter-0.5.0`.

When I made the first public release, I blogged about it here:
  https://diziet.dreamwidth.org/8121.html
  https://diziet.dreamwidth.org/tag/otter



Version 1.1.0 - 2022-05-26
==========================

Bundle format
-------------

Introduced bundle format versions, and bundle format version `2`.
Bundle format version `1` is still supported.  There are significant
changes and improvements in version `2`, available by writing
`format=2`.  See "Bundle compatibility" in the documentation.

 * Handling of piece size and angle specification overhauled.
 * New and better template substitution syntax.
 * Fixed piece angle specification in game specs.

Breaking change to otterlib CLI program
---------------------------------------

 * otterlib (the library preview utility, not normally needed for bundle
   development) now needs to know the nwtemplates directory (so it can
   properly process etc. magic library items).

New features
------------

 * Dice, via the `Die` piece type.
 * Currency (money, and similar things), via the `Currency` piece type.
 * Shape libraries can provide canned "magic" items
   (which are then based on the library's own image(s).
 * `stack_pos` parameter for `PickupDeck` pieces, specifying where the
   "neat pickup deck" should appear, so it doesn't have to central.
 * otter CLI client: Allow uploading a directory directly as a
   bundle zipfile (helpful for bundle development).
 * Include piece description in some log messages.

Fixes and improvements
----------------------

 * Do not randomly panic when trying to print truncated debug output
   for non-ASCII piece HTML.
 * Set default fonts for SVG processing: in bundle SVGs, at all (so
   that text is not elided); in builtin libraries, more widely
   (without effect on the existing pieces).
 * Notice errors during JS startup, and display them.
 * Correct sense of pin/unpin log message.
 * Shape library previews: fix (and improve) the HTML (from otterlib).
 * Fix a tiny rendering error in arrowheads.
 * Test suite: `childio`: work around a Linux kernel race bug: you can
   sometimes reap a child and then write to its pipe without EPIPE.
 * Build system: run miri with +nightly, so that tests work when stable
   Rust is the default.  Document that these tests require nightly.
 * Correct an error message about JSON serialisation.
 * Remove some direct stderr debug prints from production code.
 * Log message colourisation on a tty now leaves the logs more readable.
 * Some improvements to bundle/shapelib loading error messages.

Docs
----

 * Dcouemnt the semver stability promises.
 * Publish the docs to an Otter-version-specific directory, so that
   old docs versions are retained.
 * Fix some formatting errors and typos.
 * Correct some leftover todos.
 * Clarify extra field syntax in shape library catalogue `files` entries.

Protocol and model enhancements
-------------------------------

 * `multigrab`: pieces that can capture the number of pieces the user
   says to grab, and instead handle the whole multigrab operation.
 * `fastsplit`: pieces that can be split and merged during play
   without having to rewrite the aux save file (containing SVG images).
 * Non-mixing OccultIlk, for pieces which always remain distinguishable.
 * Special rendering instructions, for pieces whose display involves
   bespoke code in the TypeScript.
 * OpOutcomeThunk system to allow piece implementations to be reinvoked
   with an ability to make much wider mutable borrows.

Build system, internal changes, etc.
------------------------------

 * Update to Rust 2021.
 * Break out an additional `otter-support` crate (to try to
   improve incremental build times).
 * Use `ambassador` macro crate to help delegate trait impls.
 * When formatting the Rust docs, pass `--document-private-items`.
   (The Rust doc tree is for Otter developers.)
 * Rationalised and sanitised the item import (`use`) practices.
 * Refactoring in the test suite to support new tests.
 * Fake time facility for testing.
 * Concrete protocol: more Quiet PieceUpdateOps.
 * Work around inkscape extension fail-to-save bug (seen in recolour).
 * Reorganised and shuffled about `Outline` types.
 * Avoid saving various things to savefiles that aren't needed
   (mostly `None`s).
 * Add some internal documentation about `ModifyingPieces`.
 * Code motion to better organise shapelib.rs and utils.rs
 * Centralised some UI properties in ui.rs.
 * Made some type names more consistent (eg `GOccults`, `Catalogue`).
 * Renamed some PacketFrame types etc. from MgmtChannel.
 * Other minor improvements.


-- 
Ian Jackson <ijackson at chiark.greenend.org.uk>   These opinions are my own.  

Pronouns: they/he.  If I emailed you from @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk,
that is a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.