Weekly update: Zircon

This week was mainly spent with preparing for the next major release and upgrading stuff:

• The code underwent some optimization so framework overhead dropped from 0.5ms to 0.3ms
• The API was “sanetized” which means that it is not a bit easier and more straightforward to use
• We had some extra time to create some new fancy Modifiers:
  • This is a Fade-in effect with some Glow at the end
  • This is a stochastic text glitch effect
  • This is very similar to the previous one and it is a static effect
• Great thanks to /u/coldwarrl who contributed the LogArea component: screenshot here it supports all elements which is supported by TextBox (Header, Paragraph, ListItem)
• /u/coldwarrl also contributed the Delay modifier which delays displaying a Tile. This can be used to great effect for a typewriter effect
• The TextBox was retrofitted to support this typing effect and also to support inline Components like in this example
• Also here is a scrolling LogArea example.
• The Modifier interface was separated to two parts: TextureTransformer modifiers (which is the old way of modifying things) and TileTransformer modifiers which can tamper with Tiles before rendering textures (this is what Delay uses for example)
• The getTile/setTile (and their relative counterpats) methods were also “sanetized” so it is now pretty straightforward to use them.
• TileGraphics now provides a proper Snapshot object when snapshot() is called instead of just returning a Map<Position, Size>. This makes it more flexible and useful later when we properly implement multi-sized tiles.
• We made great progress this week and now only 2 tasks remain for the release (excluding testing / documenting)!

A next major release is coming up for this Autumn, so stay tuned.