Esoteric Update #334 - Phrases Revisited

This week was a little bit rough for me. Despite this, I believe I've made some decent progress. I just don't feel like taking the time to write this specific update, as I'm feeling extremely unwell. It'll be a bit laconic.

So, firstly, the Language step revision is now conceptually finished, though I need to write and implement some phrase generation for the previews.

This is based on some new UI elements that I've prepared, which will also be helpful in other places. It also implements the process as described under the help button.

I've also started revising the Appearance step with Bear, and we're trying to make some critical user experience improvements to it. As before, I'm a bit reluctant to talk about what we're trying until we figure out what we can do/what will work.

In the meantime, I've looked into a few other things, primarily a now-completed revision of phrases (though I need to start slowly transferring the old phrase files into the new system). I really like this solution (and more about it can be found on my Discord), due to the way it leverages extensions and non-terminals at the same time. It employs an approach where a non-terminal is wrapped by an extension, allowing the extension to provide parameters and memory boxing, while the non-terminal handles the generation.

To facilitate this efficiently, I introduced the biggest engine extensions in a while. When defining an extension (oh good, an extension extending extensions, pure poetry right here, cat), constants can be introduced into the parameters. While this may not seem like it has massive implications, it serves as the basis for the new phrases.

Apart from that, I did the usual round of UI polishing. The only other thing worth highlighting is that we now have a UI definition for a translated phrase. This was, of course, essential for things like code switching/mixing by the PC and NPCs.

Oh, and writing. I did some writing. I hear it's good, allegedly, hard to say.

Right, you'll have to excuse me now. I just feel too weak to keep writing. I have no more enthusiasm to discuss this, even though I would like to delve a bit further into a few things.