Release OpenComputers v1.4.2

[Sangar 92]

OpenComputer 1.4.2 is now available. It brings one quite important change, EEPROMs, so be sure to read the information about them below! It also adds two new blocks, the Raid and the Microcontroller, the latter of the two being a device built in the Assembler.

 

As always, remember to make a backup of your world before updating.

For downloads see Curse.

• Added: EEPROM, contains BIOS used to boot computers as of now.
• Added: Microcontroller block, crafted in Assembler. Very limited one-block, non-configurable computer for specialized tasks such as redstone control.
• Added: Raid block, houses three hard drives, provides one filesystem with the cumulative size.
• Changed: The floppy slot in robots' assembler template now takes an EEPROM. That means you'll have to install OpenOS or such on an HDD you install in your robot.
• Fixed: bounding boxes of keyboards and cables leading to movement impediments.
• Fixed: more.lua behaving incorrectly for long lines.
• Fixed: server-internal message relaying for multiple unconnected servers. For real this time. Probably.
• Fixed: tablets only allowing input in the world they were first started in (and possibly other related broken behavior).
• Fixed: some more minor issues.

EEPROM
What is this and why should you care? It's a new item that is required for all devices - computers, servers, robots, tablets - to boot from now on. It contains a piece of code that was previously hard-coded in OC itself, and is the first thing that's run when the computer is powered on. Since there can be only one per computer - unlike file systems - there's no randomness to it. The standard Lua BIOS, crafted from an EEPROM and a book, does what was done before: it looks for a file system with an init.lua script and runs that. So business as usual. However, that also means you can now boot off of non OC file systems now! Such as code provided via the network, or tape drives from Computronics (given you write/find a filesystem layer for them).
To avoid breaking everything left and right, existing devices in the world will automatically have a Lua BIOS EEPROM inserted into the new EEPROM slot. That means all your computers running now will still be able to reboot after upgrading. When building a new computer you'll now also need to install an EEPROM in it, though.
EEPROM can be reprogrammed via its component, i.e. place the EEPROM to reprogram into a running computer, then use component.eeprom.set(newCode), or use the new flash.lua program in OpenOS (reinstall OpenOS if necessary).

 

Microcontrollers
These are low-power, very simple computers. They cannot connect to external components - much like robots - and cannot even have a graphics card. They also cannot have a file system. Their programming must be provided exclusively by the EEPROM built into them! To make this a bit less of a pain, you can recraft them with an EEPROM to swap out the EEPROM installed in them - similar to maps with the Navigation Upgrade.
Unlike computer cases, microcontrollers will keep all their inventory when they are broken. Rather, they don't have any inventory at all. Right-clicking them just toggles whether they're powered or not. These are an answer to the request for tiny special purpose computers that you'll cram into a corner and forget about. So don't come asking for more slots or higher tier components in them. Use a full computer in those cases.
The only thing that is not possible at this point, and I'm unsure if and how I'd add it, is them supporting bundled redstone. For now it's plain redstone only, so get creative ;-)