Another update; we're slowly wrapping up all the major changes we want to get merged into a final (or at least semi-final) build of NASSP 8.0. Once that is completed, our intentions are to move forward with the transition to Orbiter 2024. This will include all of the work done to move to the CMake build system, and it also involves switching our automated build system to using GitHub Actions. This removes our dependency on a separate service to generate and publish builds of NASSP.
As an aside, I am discussing with the other developers of NASSP about removing the word "beta" from future versions of NASSP, starting with those made for Orbiter 2024. Every build we release to GitHub these days is typically already tested and expected to work without issue, so there shouldn't be an expectation that staying up to date is going to give you a less stable experience. On the contrary; we typically recommend that users periodically update their installations to the latest version (as long as they aren't in the middle flying a mission), so calling every single new release a "beta" version is contradictory (IMHO) to how we actually want users to treat updating. It's not really
that big of a deal, but it's something that bothers me a little.
But however we decide to tackle things, we're still making progress, slowly but surely. One of the last major things that needs to be done is to re-make all the mission-in-progress save files. The ones currently shipped are many, many years old and don't work very well, because our systems simulation, checklist files, and procedures have gotten out of sync with the way things were when these save files were made. While any new save files made will inevitably start to encounter the same issues over time, by releasing the "final" build of NASSP 8 with brand-new save files means anyone who wants to stick with this version for any reason will have in-progress mission saves that should load properly and be useful for checking out specific segments of any supported mission (and it will also mean that we at least have a much more recent set of saves to use as development continues).
Of course, we personally recommend you all move with us to Orbiter 2024 to experience all the improvements it offers, and all of the continued development we have in store for NASSP 9.0!
github.com
