Entry 208

"The table generator: the title rebuilt on typed per-volume tables"

2026-09-26volumes

Filestools/static.pytools/static_manifest.pycrates/piney-data/src/tablescrates/piney-data/src/world.rscrates/piney-demo/src/newgame.rscrates/piney-demo/src/dialog.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/dtmenu.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/kanji.rscrates/piney-game/src/loaddisp.rsplans/volumes.md

After 0207 nothing read the executable's data. This entry builds the generator plans/volumes.md describes, and rebuilds the first system on it: everything the title reads.

The generator

tools/static.py writes crates/piney-data/src/tables from the manifest tools/static_manifest.py. The plan's "The generator" section has the rules. Most of them came from the owner reviewing the first output:

• The game's own types. The first cut kept a character's row as 92 raw bytes. Rows are now structs built from Infection's DWARF: a character's row is SpcParamData { base: CharBaseParam { name, level, gold, height, .. }, elm: CharParamElement { battle_ability, attribute, tolerance }, equipment, velocity, job, friendship }, and a trade is a TradeList { lst: ItemList { id, category, num }, sw }. Each such struct lays itself into the save (write).
• Text as text. Strings are Rust &str, checked to encode back to the game's Shift-JIS byte for byte, with no terminators or escapes: a server's symbol reads "Δ", a menu row "セーブ選択". A copy's limit ("at most 20 bytes, a NUL if it fits") is the reader's (newgame::copied). The game's fixed-width menu strings are their words (["OK", "Cancel"]); dtmenu::slots rebuilds the slot text the drawing code copies.
• Enums for closed sets. piney_data::world holds Server and Town. The load screen's town cards and server symbols are methods on them (Town::MacAnu.card(), Server::Delta.symbol()).
• Written once. A value the four volumes hold alike is one module item. Only what differs is per volume, behind of(volume). A whole row some volumes share is written once and named by its place. Floats print as plain decimals. A trade list's trailing empty slots are left out.

The title's tables

The readers now take these tables:

• InitText::of, DialogAssets::read, Fonts::of;
• LoadDisp::new, NewGameTables::of and new_game, which writes each typed member into the save's ccSpcParam;
• DtMenu::new, SaveTexts::of.

The desktop's and the top page's assets carry the disc's volume. Tests and probes no longer read SLUS_202.67.

All nine of piney-demo's title tests pass again (they failed after 0207), and the save and desktop suites pass.