From 7d4885e2fd76b7a0526df1d867f71f9cd716d972 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: nhmall Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2026 20:06:20 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] updated Guidebook.mn history text --- doc/Guidebook.mn | 66 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 66 insertions(+) diff --git a/doc/Guidebook.mn b/doc/Guidebook.mn index 3ac3b7481..9023fb885 100644 --- a/doc/Guidebook.mn +++ b/doc/Guidebook.mn @@ -6777,6 +6777,72 @@ some bug fixes. NetHack 3.6.7 was released on February 16, 2023 containing a security fix and some bug fixes. .pg +Development work for the major release to follow NetHack 3.6 begain in 2015 +around the same time as NetHack 3.6.0 was being released. That development +work continued in parallel to each of the NetHack 3.6 releases from 2015 +through 2023, and continued until the end of April 2026. For the first time, +that development was shared publicly on GitHub and SourceForge as it occurred. +It was done under the label NetHack-3.7 work-in-progress (WIP), although the +version number for the next release had not yet been solidified. +.pg +Exposure of the development to the public brought many good things, and some +challenges. People were able to observe and critize changes and new features +almost immediately, and they often did. The GitHub pull request system made +it straightforward for people to contribute directly to development. +Contributions resolved many, many bugs in the game and we thank all the +contributors. +.pg +In early 2026, with the game development getting stable enough to consider +initiating an official release, the devteam reviewed the nature and number of +changes in the game. It was clear that there was sufficient depth and +breadth to warrant a major release and version 5.0 was decided on. +That's a new major release over 3.x, without opening up any ambiguity +or confusion with existing variants that there might have been had it +been released version 4.0. +.pg +NetHack 5.0.0 was released on ???? ??, 2026. +.pg +The source code for NetHack 5.0.0 was modified and modernized to be +compliant with standard C99. +.pg +NetHack 5.0 was the first version to replace the lex and yacc level +and dungeon compilers of past versions, with a new Lua interpreter-based +approach to provide those elements. Lua is also used for the quest texts +in NetHack 5.0.0. The entire development team acknowledges the work +done by \fBPasi Kallinen\fP to make that happen. +.pg +At the time of the NetHack 5.0 release, the core development team, +active and alumni, included \fBWarwick Allison\fP, \fBMichael Allison\fP, +\fBKen Arromdee\fP, \fBDavid Cohrs\fP, \fBJessie Collet\fP, \fBBart House\fP, +\fBKevin Hugo\fP, \fBPasi Kallinen\fP, \fBKen Lorber\fP, \fBDean Luick\fP, +\fBPat Rankin\fP, \fBDerek S. Ray\fP, \bBAlex Smith\fP, \fBPatric Mueller\fP, +\fBMike Stephenson\fP, \fBJanet Walz\fP, \fBPaul Winner\fP. +.pg +\fBKen Lorber\fP, \fBPat Rankin\fP, \fBPatrick Mueller\fP and +\fBMichael Allison\fP helped ensure that NetHack 5.0 would run +on macOS. +.pg +\fBIngo Paschke\fP somehow managed to revive a NetHack 5.0 port for the Amiga, +using a cross-compiler on a modern platform to do so. His work was shared so +other's can straightforwardly produce NetHack 5.0 for the Amiga thanks to his +efforts. +.pg +\fBRay Chason\fP contributed the majority of maintenance work for the +NetHack 5.0 MS-DOS port, including porting the curses interface to it. +\fBMichael Allison\fP ensured that NetHack 5.0 core changes continued to +work with the msdos port and keep it alive. Cross-compiling the MS-DOS +port has helped make that possible and mostly painless. +.pg +People that contributed to the Windows port of NetHack 5.0 since the +development of NetHack 5.0 begain over eleven years ago, included +\fBMichael Allison\fP, \fBDavid Cohrs\fP, \fBBart House\fP, +\fBPasi Kallinen\fP, \fBAlex Kompel\fP, \fBDion Nicolaas\fP, +\fBDerek S. Ray\fP and \fBYitzhak Sapir\fP. +.pg +With sadness, the devteam would like to acknowledge and remember the past +contributions from the late \fBRon Van Iwaarden\fP, who was the sole maintainer +of NetHack for OS/2 for several past NetHack releases. Ron will be missed. +.pg The official NetHack web site is maintained by \fBKen Lorber\fP at .UR https://www.nethack.org/ .