Public Release
Two months ago I posted my latest blog post. Since then I have been paid full attention to try to finalize a releasable version for PixelMap which both is stable enough, and makes it possible for me to release more efficiently in the future. Of course, all these new mechanics and features I have added to the build system will eventually be discussed in more detail, but for now I will skim the surface of what I did and the main focus on this post: Public release and pushing open source.
First off, I have just released version 1.21.4 of PixelMap. This includes primarily all changes I have been discussing the last 18 months or so. It also contains loads of tiny changes, fixes and improvements that makes it easier to use. It is far from perfect, and lacks loads of desirable features other mappers has. However, the biggest change the last 2 months was to make it possible to build and test it deterministically for any other developer. As I have mentioned in other posts, I took the route to utilize cmake even more, and therefore I integrated their functionalities even further, strengthening my resolve regarding keeping to cmake as my main configuration system.
Furthermore, I added a system which will make it even easier to publish binaries, especially on multiple platforms. This includes packaging DEB 1, RPM 2, ZIP 3 and EXE 4 respectively. On top of that, all generated packages are then pushed to my mirror either continuous for each commit, or specifically when releasing. As all this is (semi)automatic, it takes away a huge load from me to make sure that the build process is identical when testing and releasing.
What more, while I cannot guarantee perfect code quality, at least I managed to clean up some of it, making it a bit easier to understand, and removing redundant code snippets. I have ideas for the future on how to make it easier to maintain and less prone to errors, but I had to leave the idea for now as it took too much of the valuable time to put into releasing the program. Also, releasing the source takes my project back to being a FOSS 5, with the exception that the license is more strict than the initial one. It is a bit scary, but when doing so, I am relieved.
Source: https://git.aposoc.net/McTwist/PixelMap
Forum: https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding-java-edition/minecraft-tools/1260565-pixelmap-1-21