Using ":" notation to treat functions as methods is now deprecated

in favor of more normal "." notation.

In the process, I have renamed a few functions in favor of
more meaningful names (see API.txt), and provided
"compatibility shims" for old mods where needed, with warnings.

API.txt

@@ -1,30 +1,28 @@
 This document describes the Plantlife mod API.
 
-Last revision: 2015-02-16
+Last revision: 2021-04-20
 
 
 =========
 Functions
 =========
 
-There are three main functions defined by the main "biome_lib" mod:
+There are two main functions defined by this mod:
 
-spawn_on_surfaces()
-register_generate_plant()
-grow_plants()
+biome_lib.register_active_spawner()
+biome_lib.register_on_generate()
 
 There are also several internal, helper functions that can be called if so
 desired, but they are not really intended for use by other mods and may change
 at any time.  They are briefly described below these main functions, but see
 init.lua for details.
 
-Most functions in plants lib are declared locally to avoid namespace
-collisions with other mods.  They are accessible via the "biome_lib" method,
-e.g. biome_lib:spawn_on_surfaces() and so forth.
+Most functions in biome_lib are either declared locally or kept within its
+own namespace to avoid collisions/conflicts with other mods.
 
 =====
-spawn_on_surfaces(biome)
-spawn_on_surfaces(sdelay, splant, sradius, schance, ssurface, savoid)
+biome_lib.register_active_spawner(biome)
+biome_lib.register_active_spawner(sdelay, splant, sradius, schance, ssurface, savoid)
 
 This first function is an ABM-based spawner function originally created as
 part of Ironzorg's flowers mod.  It has since been largely extended and
@@ -220,7 +218,7 @@ checking is disabled.  Same holds true for the nneighbors bit above that.
 
 
 =====
-biome_lib:register_generate_plant(biome, nodes_or_function_or_treedef)
+biome_lib.register_on_generate(biome, nodes_or_function_or_treedef)
 
 To register an object to be spawned at mapgen time rather than via an ABM,
 call this function with two parameters:  a table with your object's biome
@@ -336,16 +334,16 @@ will be called in the form:
 
 
 =====
-biome_lib:grow_plants(options)
+biome_lib.update_plant(options)
 
-The third function, grow_plants() is used to turn the spawned nodes above
-into something else over time.  This function has no return value, and accepts
-a biome definition table as the only parameter.  These are defined like so:
+This third function is used to turn the spawned nodes above into something
+else over time.  This function has no return value, and accepts a biome
+definition table as the only parameter.  These are defined like so:
 
 options = {
 	label = string,		-- set this to identify the ABM for Minetest's
 						-- profiler.  If not set, biome_lib will set it to 
-						-- "biome_lib grow_plants(): " appended with the node
+						-- "biome_lib.update_plant(): " appended with the node
 						-- in grow_plant (or the first item if it's a table)
 	grow_plant = "string" or {table}, -- Name(s) of the node(s) to be grown
 						-- into something else.  This value is passed to the
@@ -426,7 +424,7 @@ and grow_result is ignored.
 
 
 =====
-find_adjacent_wall(pos, verticals, randomflag)
+biome_lib.find_adjacent_wall(pos, verticals, randomflag)
 
 Of the few helper functions, this one expects a position parameter and a table
 with the list of nodes that should be considered as walls.  The code will
@@ -438,7 +436,7 @@ random wall it finds adjacent to the target position.  Defaults to false if
 not specified.
 
 =====
-is_node_loaded(pos)
+biome_lib.is_node_loaded(pos)
 
 This acts as a wrapper for the minetest.get_node_or_nil(node_pos)
 function and accepts a single position parameter.  Returns true if the node in
@@ -446,7 +444,7 @@ question is already loaded, or false if not.
 
 
 =====
-dbg(string, level)
+biome_lib.dbg(string, level)
 
 This is a simple debug output function which takes one string parameter.  It
 just checks if DEBUG is true and outputs the phrase "[Plantlife] " followed by
@@ -463,8 +461,8 @@ ought always be shown, 1 for errors, 2 for warnings, 3 for info, 4 for verbose
 spammy stuff.
 
 =====
-biome_lib:generate_tree(pos, treemodel)
-biome_lib:grow_tree(pos, treemodel)
+biome_lib.generate_ltree(pos, treemodel)
+biome_lib.grow_ltree(pos, treemodel)
 
 In the case of the growing code and the mapgen-based tree generator code, 
 generating a tree is done via the above two calls, which in turn immediately
@@ -472,13 +470,13 @@ call the usual spawn_tree() functions.  This rerouting exists as a way for
 other mods to hook into biome_lib's tree-growing functions in general,
 perhaps to execute something extra whenever a tree is spawned.
 
-biome_lib:generate_tree(pos, treemodel) is called any time a tree is spawned
+biome_lib.generate_ltree(pos, treemodel) is called any time a tree is spawned
 at map generation time.  'pos' is the position of the block on which the tree
 is to be placed.  'treemodel' is the standard L-Systems tree definition table
 expected by the spawn_tree() function.  Refer to the 'trunk' field in that
 table to derive the name of the tree being spawned.
 
-biome_lib:grow_tree(pos, treemodel) does the same sort of thing whenever a 
+biome_lib.grow_ltree(pos, treemodel) does the same sort of thing whenever a 
 tree is spawned within the abm-based growing code, for example when growing a
 sapling into a tree.
 
@@ -487,22 +485,6 @@ sapling into a tree.
 There are other, internal helper functions that are not meant for use by other
 mods.  Don't rely on them, as they are subject to change without notice.
 
-
-===============
-Global Settings
-===============
-
-Set this to true if you want the mod to spam your console with debug info :-)
-
-	plantlife_debug = false
-
-To slow down the playback of the queue (e.g. for really slow machines where
-the 0.2 second max limiter isn't enough), set:
-
-	biome_lib_queue_run_ratio = <some value 1 to 100>
-
-Default is 100 (basically percent of maximum runtime)
-
 ======================
 Fertile Ground Mapping
 ======================