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

🗓️ Update Cycle

Type	Frequency
Minor Update	Every 3–6 months
Patch Update	Monthly or as needed
Major Update	As needed

🛡️ Support

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

🧰 Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the latest versions of the following installed:

• .NET 8.0

📓 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.