Glossary

Below is a glossary of common used terms along with their meanings relating to the coding side of SS13. If you notice any missing terms of discrepancies in descriptions, feel free to contribute to the list! Feel free to ask any questions in #coding-chat on the discord. Non-coding related Glossary can be found on the wiki. More in depth information can be found at BYOND’s official documentation.

.DM

DreamMaker code files, or .dm files are the file format for BYOND source code. These files must be “ticked” in the .dme file for them to be included in the game.

.DMB

“DreamMaker Build” or DMB files are compiled DME files and are used with Dream Daemon to run the server.

.DME

“DreamMaker Environment” or DME files are what BYOND uses to compile the game. It is a list of all .dm files used in the game, if you add a new file you will need to “Tick” it or add it to this file manually.

.DMI

DreamMaker images or DMI files is how BYOND stores images (also known as icons), these can be edited with BYOND’s tools or external tools.

.DMM

DreamMaker maps or DMM files is how BYOND stores maps. These can be edited with BYOND’s tools or something like StrongDMM

Area

From the BYOND documentation:

“Areas are derived from /area. Regions on the map may be assigned to an area by painting it onto the map. Areas off the map serve as rooms that objects may enter and exit. For each area type defined, one area object is created at runtime. So for areas on the map, all squares with the same area type belong to the same instance of the area.”

In SS13, this is often used to delineate station departments and station systems such as power and atmospherics networks.

Atmos

The atmospherics system in SS13, which is very often old and confusing and/or broken code.

Atom

From the BYOND documentation:

“The /atom object type is the ancestor of all mappable objects in the game. The types /area, /turf, /obj, and /mob are all derived from /atom. You should not create instances of /atom directly but should use /area, /turf, /obj, and /mob for actual objects. The /atom object type exists for the purpose of defining variables or procedures that are shared by all of the other ‘physical’ objects. These are also the only objects for which verbs may be accessible to the user. /atom is derived from /datum, so it inherits the basic properties that are shared by all DM objects.”

Baseturf

An SS13 variable that saves the data of what is underneath if that that is removed. For example, under station floors there would be a space turf and under Lavaland turfs there would be lava.

Bitflag

A single variable made of individual TRUE/FALSE values. See Bitflags for an introduction on how to use bitflags.

Buff

A buff is a change to a gameplay mechanic that makes it more powerful or more useful. Generally the opposite of a nerf.

Commit

A record of files changed and how they were changed, they are each assigned a special ID called a hash that specifies the changes it makes.

Config

The config.toml file for changing things about your local server. You will need to copy this from the config/example folder if you haven’t already.

Datum

From the BYOND documentation:

“The datum object is the ancestor of all other data types in DM. (The only exceptions are currently /world, /client, /list, and /savefile, but those will be brought into conformance soon.) That means that the variables and procedures of /datum are inherited by all other types of objects.”

Datums are useful to represent abstractions that don’t physically exist in the game world, such as information about a spell or a Syndicate uplink item. They are also useful for vars or procs that all other data-types use.

Define

A way of declaring variable either global (across the whole game) or in a whole file using DM’s #DEFINE macro syntax. They should always be found at the beginning of a file. Defines should always be capitalized (LIKE_THIS) and if not global should undefined at the end of a file.

Fastmos

Fast atmos, usually featuring explosive decomposition and lots of in game death. Fastmos is not used on Paradise.

Garbage

The garbage collector handles items being deleted and allows them to clean up references, this allows objects to delete much more efficiently.

Head Admin

Head of the admin team and overseeing overall changes and the direction for the entire Paradise codebase and server. Contact them or the Balance team about large changes or balance changes before making a PR, including map additions, new roles, new antagonists, and other similar things.

Icondiffbot

A tool on GitHub that renders before and after images of BYOND icons. It can be viewed on any PR by scrolling down to the checks section and clicking details next to it.

LGTM

“Looks Good To Me”, used during code reviews.

Local

Your copy of your remote repository on your local machine or computer. Commits need to be published to your remote repo before they can be pushed to the upstream repo for a pull request.

Maintainer

A no longer used title, previously used for people who made sure code is quality. Maintainers were split up into the Balance Team, Design Team, and several other groups. Check PR #18000 for more information.

Map merge

Tools that automatically attempt to merge maps when merging master or committing. Map merge is a work in progress and may require manual editing too.

Mapdiffbot

A tool on GitHub that renders before and after images of BYOND maps. It can be viewed on any PR by scrolling down to the checks section and clicking details next to it.

Master Controller

The Master Controller controls all subsystems of the game, such as the garbage collector.

MC

Short for Short for Master Controller.

Merge Master

The process of merging master into your PR’s branch, often to update it.

Mob

Mobs are “mobile objects”, these include players and animals. This does not include stuff like conveyors.

Nerf

Nerfs are changes to a gameplay mechanic that make it less powerful or decreases its utility, typically done for the sake of improving game balance and enjoyability. Generally the opposite of a buff.

NPFC

“No Player-Facing Changes”, used in the changelog of a PR, most often in refractors and exploit fixes.

Object

Objects are things you can interact with in game, including things that do not move. This includes weapons, items, machinery (consoles and machines), and several other things.

Origin

Typically another name for your remote repo.

PR

Short for Pull Request.

Proc

Procs or Procedures are block of code that only runs when it is called. These are similar to something like functions in other languages.

Publish

Uploading your code from your local machine.

Pull Request

A request to the Paradise Github Repository for certain changes to be made to the code of the game. This includes maps and sprites.

Pulling code

Pulling is transferring commits from the main repo to your remote repo, or from your remote repository to your local repository.

Pushing code

Pushing is how you transfer commits from your repository to the Upstream repo.

qdel

A function, qdel(), which tells the garbage collector to handle destruction of an object. This should always be used over del().

QDEL_NULL

A qdel function which first nulls out a variable before telling the garbage collector to handle it.

Remote

Your forked copy of the upstream repo that you have complete access over. your clean copy of master and any published branches you’ve made can be found here.

Repo

Short for repository.

Repository

A collection of code which tracks the commits and changes to it. There are three main types you will find the upstream repository, your remote repository, and your local repository.

Runechat Chat

Chat messages which appear above player’s characters, a feature added by #14141. Often a joke about players now missing important things in the chat window since they no longer have to look there for reading messages from people.

Runtime

Runtimes most often refer to runtime errors, which are errors that happen after compiling and happen in game.

StrongDMM

A robust mapping tool that is highly recommended over BYOND’s DMM editor, as it is much quicker and has much more options. Using any version below 2.0 makes your PR very unlikely to be accepted as it messes with variables.

TGUI

A JavaScript based format for displaying an interface. It is used for our user interfaces (except OOC stuff like admin panels), or are planned to be converted to TGUI. TGUI uses InfernoJS (based off of reactJS) which is an extension to JavaScript. More information can be found at the TGUI Tutorial.

Turf

Turfs are floors, stuff like space, floors, carpets, or lava, or walls. This does not include windows, as they are objects.

Upstream

The original repo that you have forked your remote repository from. For us, it is ParadiseSS13/Paradise.

Var

A variable, used for temporarily storing data. For more permanent data, check out defines.

Verb

A special type of proc, which is only available to mobs.

View Variables

An admin tool that can be used in game to view the variables of anything, giving you more information about them. Very useful for debugging.

VSC

Short for Visual Studio Code.

VV

Short for View Variables.

WYCI

“When You Code It”, a joking response to someone asking when something will be added to the game.