Is the Swissmicros DM42 still supported?

[grsbanks]

@SammysHP - zeno333 has a track record of moaning about the DM42 not receiving an update within minutes of a new feature being added to Free42.

The DM42 is still very much supported. There are additions planned that will be released soon and Free42 V2.2 will be in the new version unless testing throws up problems related to the new features ("unlimited" RTN stack, local variables, YMD mode) but that and local variables have been working so far in our testing.

What we are not prepared to do is drop our own development of new features just so we can shoehorn in a new version of Free42 to satisfy some users who can't wait for development to take its normal course.

There is much more to adding a new version of Free42 into a self-built firmware than just grabbing the updated source from Thomas's site. Patches have to be applied to Free42 to get it to build properly in the DM42 environment, for example, and while those patches are of course released, the one we've been working with up until now no longer works with Free42 V2.2, so more work is required there before it can be released.

So, the latest Free42 is coming to the DM42, but other stuff (in particular in the screen refresh routines) needs to be finalised before that happens. I don't have an ETA for that but we have been testing alpha releases of it that are still a bit rough around the edges (that's why they're alpha releases!).