cstdotnet/README.md

🔠 CST.NET

CST.NET is a library for parsing Maxis' key-value pair format. It can be used in conjunction with your own custom frameworks, or the original UIText APIs.

Caret-Separated Text (or CST) is a key-value pair format represented by digits or words as keys and the value as text enclosed between carets. (e.g. <key> ^<text>^) Any text which is not enclosed with carets is considered a comment and ignored. Neither strings nor comments may use the caret character.

🛠 Features

• Native support for Sims Online's .cst files.
• UIText Support
• Variable support

📅 Support & Update Cadence

Type	Frequency	Notes
Minor Update	Every 3–6 months	Small enhancements, non-breaking changes
Patch Update	Monthly or as needed	Bug fixes, security updates
Major Update	As needed	Framework upgrades, major refactors

• Reserve months: June (Mid-Year Chill) & December (End-Year Freeze)

🧘 Sustainability Practices

• 20% creative/recovery space built into development
• Mandatory cooldowns after major launches (minimum 1 week)
• Crisis Mode Activates if:
  • Critical vulnerabilities
  • Framework-breaking issues

🛡️ Support Levels

• Active Support
• Limited Support (Security patches only)
• Maintenance Mode (Dependency-only updates)
• Archived (No active work planned)

⏰ Project Timeline

Milestone	Target Date	Status
First Stable Build	12/13/2020	Done
Feature Complete	N/A	Planned
Maintenance Phase	N/A	Planned

📓 Project Notes

• This all began as a "what if?" What if I could make my own? So, I did. First from a Jupyter notebook and then a full-fledged project that technically has a support cycle.
• While this project is technically feature complete, it is not a full drop-in replacement as it lacks variable (%[digit]) parsing.

📄 License

I license this project under BSD-3-Clause license — see the LICENSE file for full text.