Inform 7 Designer's Manual - An Interactive Fiction Archive Mirror

761 Pages·2006·6.99 MB·English

2006
In
Inform 7 Designer's
Manual
Public Beta Release 3R85

As converted to PDF by Mikael Segercrantz
Graham Nelson and Emily Short
6/26/2006

Inform 7 Designer's Manual i

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CHAPTER 1: WELCOME TO INFORM 1
1.1. PREFACE 1
1.2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2
1.3. THE FACING PAGES 3
1.4. THE GO! BUTTON 3
1.5. THE REPLAY BUTTON 4
1.6. THE INDEX AND ERRORS PANELS 5
1.7. THE SKEIN 5
1.8. THE SKEIN CONTEXT MENU 6
1.9. THE MOUSEOVER BUTTONS IN THE SKEIN 6
1.10. THE TRANSCRIPT 7
1.11. THE INSPECTOR 7
CHAPTER 2: THE SOURCE TEXT 9
2.1. CREATING THE WORLD 9
2.2. MAKING RULES 9
2.3. PUNCTUATION 9
2.4. PROBLEMS 10
2.5. HEADINGS 11
2.6. WHY USING HEADINGS IS A GOOD IDEA 12
2.7. THE SHOWME COMMAND 12
2.8. THE TEST COMMAND 13
2.9. MATERIAL NOT FOR RELEASE 14
2.10. INSTALLING EXTENSIONS 14
2.11. INCLUDING EXTENSIONS 15
2.12. ACCENTED LETTERS 15
2.13. UNICODE CHARACTERS 17
2.14. USE OPTIONS 20
2.15. BUMPING INTO LIMITS 21
2.16. WHAT TO DO ABOUT A BUG? 22
2.17. DOES INFORM REALLY UNDERSTAND ENGLISH? 22
CHAPTER 3: THINGS 25
3.1. DESCRIPTIONS 25
3.2. ROOMS AND THE MAP 26
3.3. ONE-WAY CONNECTIONS 29
3.4. REGIONS AND THE INDEX MAP 31
3.5. KINDS 33
3.6. EITHER/OR PROPERTIES 35
3.7. PROPERTIES DEPEND ON KIND 36
3.8. SCENERY 37
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3.9. BACKDROPS 39
3.10. PROPERTIES HOLDING TEXT 40
3.11. THREE DESCRIPTIONS OF THINGS 40
3.12. DOORS 43
3.13. LOCKS AND KEYS 45
3.14. DEVICES AND DESCRIPTIONS 47
3.15. LIGHT AND DARKNESS 48
3.16. VEHICLES AND PUSHABLE THINGS 49
3.17. MEN, WOMEN AND ANIMALS 50
3.18. ARTICLES AND PROPER NAMES 51
3.19. CARRYING CAPACITY 52
3.20. POSSESSIONS AND CLOTHING 52
3.21. THE PLAYER’S HOLDALL 53
3.22. FOOD 54
3.23. PARTS OF THINGS 54
3.24. CONCEALMENT 58
3.25. THE LOCATION OF SOMETHING 60
3.26. DIRECTIONS 62
3.27. REVIEW OF CHAPTER 3 63
CHAPTER 4: KINDS 67
4.1. NEW KINDS 67
4.2. DEGREES OF CERTAINTY 68
4.3. PLURAL ASSERTIONS 69
4.4. DUPLICATES 71
4.5. ASSEMBLIES AND BODY PARTS 72
4.6. NEW EITHER/OR PROPERTIES 76
4.7. NEW VALUE PROPERTIES 77
4.8. TEXT WITH SUBSTITUTIONS 78
4.9. TEXT WITH NUMBERS 81
4.10. TEXT WITH LISTS 82
4.11. TEXT WITH VARIATIONS 84
4.12. LINE BREAKS AND PARAGRAPH BREAKS 86
4.13. TEXT WITH TYPE STYLES 86
4.14. KINDS OF VALUE 88
4.15. USING NEW KINDS OF VALUE IN PROPERTIES 88
4.16. CONDITIONS OF THINGS 91
4.17. VALUES THAT VARY 91
4.18. POSTSCRIPT ON SIMULATION 93
CHAPTER 5: DESCRIPTIONS 95
5.1. WHAT ARE DESCRIPTIONS? 95
5.2. ADJECTIVES AND NOUNS 95
5.3. SOURCES OF ADJECTIVES 96
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5.4. DEFINING NEW ADJECTIVES 96
5.5. WHICH AND WHO 97
5.6. TO BE ABLE TO SEE AND TOUCH 98
5.7. ADJACENT ROOMS AND ROUTES THROUGH THE MAP 99
5.8. ALL, EACH AND EVERY 102
5.9. COUNTING WHILE COMPARING 108
5.10. THE LEXICON 110
CHAPTER 6: BASIC ACTIONS 111
6.1. GIVING INSTRUCTIONS 111
6.2. SAY 111
6.3. ACTIONS 112
6.4. INSTEAD RULES 113
6.5. BEFORE RULES 114
6.6. TRY AND TRY SILENTLY 116
6.7. AFTER RULES 117
6.8. READING AND TALKING 118
6.9. THE OTHER FOUR SENSES 121
6.10. RULES APPLYING TO MORE THAN ONE ACTION 122
6.11. ALL ACTIONS AND EXCEPTIONAL ACTIONS 123
6.12. THE NOUN AND THE SECOND NOUN 124
6.13. IN ROOMS AND REGIONS 126
6.14. IN THE PRESENCE OF, AND WHEN 126
6.15. GOING FROM, GOING TO 128
6.16. GOING BY, GOING THROUGH, GOING WITH 132
6.17. KINDS OF ACTION 133
6.18. REPEATED ACTIONS 135
6.19. ACTIONS ON CONSECUTIVE TURNS 142
6.20. POSTSCRIPT ON ACTIONS 142
CHAPTER 7: CHANGE 143
7.1. CHANGE OF VALUES THAT VARY 143
7.2. CHANGING THE COMMAND PROMPT 143
7.3. CHANGING THE STATUS LINE 145
7.4. CHANGE OF EITHER/OR PROPERTIES 146
7.5. CHANGE OF PROPERTIES WITH VALUES 147
7.6. WHOSE PROPERTY? 149
7.7. MOVING THINGS 150
7.8. MOVING THE PLAYER 151
7.9. REMOVING THINGS FROM PLAY 153
7.10. NOW... 154
7.11. CHECKING ON WHEREABOUTS 156
7.12. MORE FLEXIBLE DESCRIPTIONS OF WHEREABOUTS 156
7.13. CALLING NAMES 157
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7.14. COUNTING THE NUMBER OF THINGS 158
7.15. LOOKING AT CONTAINMENT BY HAND 159
7.16. RANDOMNESS 159
7.17. RANDOM CHOICES OF THINGS 162
CHAPTER 8: TIME 165
8.1. WHEN PLAY BEGINS 165
8.2. AWARDING POINTS 165
8.3. INTRODUCING TABLES: RANKINGS 166
8.4. DISPLAYING QUOTATIONS 167
8.5. WHEN PLAY ENDS 167
8.6. EVERY TURN 169
8.7. THE TIME OF DAY 174
8.8. TELLING THE TIME 176
8.9. APPROXIMATE TIMES, LENGTHS OF TIME 176
8.10. COMPARING AND SHIFTING TIMES 176
8.11. CALCULATING TIMES 177
8.12. FUTURE EVENTS 177
8.13. ACTIONS AS CONDITIONS 181
8.14. THE PAST AND PERFECT TENSES 182
8.15. HOW MANY TIMES? 186
8.16. HOW MANY TURNS? 187
CHAPTER 9: SCENES 189
9.1. INTRODUCTION TO SCENES 189
9.2. CREATING A SCENE 189
9.3. USING THE SCENE INDEX 192
9.4. DURING SCENES 194
9.5. LINKING SCENES TOGETHER 198
9.6. MORE GENERAL LINKAGES 200
9.7. MULTIPLE BEGINNINGS AND REPEATS 202
9.8. MULTIPLE ENDINGS 206
9.9. REVIEW OF CHAPTER 9 215
CHAPTER 10: PHRASES 217
10.1. FITTING VALUES INTO PHRASES 217
10.2. THE PHRASEBOOK 218
10.3. PATTERN MATCHING 218
10.4. CONDITIONS AND QUESTIONS 219
10.5. IF 221
10.6. WHILE 222
10.7. BEGIN AND END 222
10.8. OTHERWISE 224
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10.9. REPEAT 224
10.10. REPEAT RUNNING THROUGH 226
10.11. PHRASE OPTIONS 228
10.12. LET AND TEMPORARY VARIABLES 231
10.13. NEW CONDITIONS, NEW ADJECTIVES 233
10.14. PHRASES TO DECIDE OTHER THINGS 235
10.15. THE VALUE AFTER AND THE VALUE BEFORE 238
10.16. IN WHAT ORDER? 240
10.17. AMBIGUITIES 241
10.18. REVIEW OF CHAPTER 10 241
CHAPTER 11: ADVANCED ACTIONS 245
11.1. A RECAP OF ACTIONS 245
11.2. HOW ACTIONS ARE PROCESSED 245
11.3. GIVING INSTRUCTIONS TO OTHER PEOPLE 247
11.4. PERSUASION 249
11.5. UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS 251
11.6. SPONTANEOUS ACTIONS BY OTHER PEOPLE 254
11.7. NEW ACTIONS 258
11.8. IRREGULAR ENGLISH VERBS 261
11.9. CHECK, CARRY OUT, REPORT 263
11.10. MAKING ACTIONS WORK FOR OTHER PEOPLE 267
11.11. CHECK RULES FOR ACTIONS BY OTHER PEOPLE 272
11.12. REPORT RULES FOR ACTIONS BY OTHER PEOPLE 274
11.13. OUT OF WORLD ACTIONS 277
11.14. REACHING INSIDE RULES 278
11.15. CHANGING REACHABILITY 279
11.16. CHANGING VISIBILITY 282
11.17. GUIDELINES ON HOW TO WRITE RULES ABOUT ACTIONS 283
CHAPTER 12: RELATIONS 287
12.1. SENTENCE VERBS 287
12.2. WHAT SENTENCES ARE MADE UP FROM 288
12.3. WHAT ARE RELATIONS? 290
12.4. TO CARRY, TO WEAR, TO HAVE 290
12.5. MAKING NEW RELATIONS 292
12.6. MAKING RECIPROCAL RELATIONS 292
12.7. RELATIONS IN GROUPS 296
12.8. THE BUILT-IN VERBS AND THEIR MEANINGS 302
12.9. DEFINING NEW ASSERTION VERBS 303
12.10. THE INVENTION OF LOVE 308
12.11. DEFINING NEW PREPOSITIONS 311
12.12. INDIRECT RELATIONS 318
12.13. RELATIONS WHICH EXPRESS CONDITIONS 321
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12.14. RELATIONS INVOLVING VALUES 322
12.15. WHAT ARE RELATIONS FOR? 323
CHAPTER 13: UNITS 327
13.1. THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS 327
13.2. NUMBERS 327
13.3. WHEREABOUTS ON A SCALE? 329
13.4. COMPARING OBJECTS 330
13.5. SUPERLATIVES 330
13.6. UNITS 331
13.7. MORE ON SPECIFICATIONS 333
13.8. MULTIPLE-NUMBER SPECIFICATIONS 333
13.9. THE PARTS OF A NUMBER SPECIFICATION 334
13.10. UNDERSTANDING SPECIFIED NUMBERS 335
13.11. LIMITS ON THE SIZE OF NUMBERS 337
13.12. ARITHMETIC WITH UNITS 337
13.13. MULTIPLICATION OF UNITS 343
13.14. TOTALS 345
13.15. MAKING THE VERB TO WEIGH 351
CHAPTER 14: TABLES 353
14.1. LAYING OUT TABLES 353
14.2. LOOKING UP ENTRIES 353
14.3. CORRESPONDING ENTRIES 354
14.4. CHANGING ENTRIES 358
14.5. CHOOSING ROWS 359
14.6. REPEATING THROUGH TABLES 360
14.7. BLANK ENTRIES 362
14.8. BLANK COLUMNS 363
14.9. BLANK ROWS 364
14.10. ADDING AND REMOVING ROWS 366
14.11. SORTING 367
14.12. LISTED IN... 370
14.13. TOPIC COLUMNS 376
14.14. ANOTHER SCORING EXAMPLE 382
14.15. VARYING WHICH TABLE TO LOOK AT 388
14.16. DEFINING THINGS WITH TABLES 391
14.17. DEFINING VALUES WITH TABLES 396
14.18. TABLE CONTINUATIONS 397
CHAPTER 15: UNDERSTANDING 399
15.1. UNDERSTAND 399
15.2. NEW COMMANDS FOR OLD GRAMMAR 402
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15.3. OVERRIDING EXISTING COMMANDS 406
15.4. STANDARD TOKENS OF GRAMMAR 407
15.5. THE TEXT TOKEN 408
15.6. VISIBLE VS TOUCHABLE 410
15.7. ACTIONS APPLYING TO KINDS OF VALUE 412
15.8. UNDERSTANDING ANY, UNDERSTANDING ROOMS 415
15.9. UNDERSTANDING KINDS OF VALUE 417
15.10. COMMANDS CONSISTING ONLY OF NOUNS 418
15.11. UNDERSTANDING VALUES 420
15.12. THIS/THAT 421
15.13. NEW TOKENS 422
15.14. TOKEN CAN PRODUCE VALUES 423
15.15. UNDERSTANDING THINGS BY THEIR PROPERTIES 423
15.16. CONTEXT: UNDERSTANDING WHEN 428
15.17. UNDERSTANDING MISTAKES 429
15.18. PRECEDENCE 432
CHAPTER 16: ACTIVITIES 439
16.1. WHAT ARE ACTIVITIES? 439
16.2. HOW ACTIVITIES WORK 439
16.3. RULES APPLIED TO ACTIVITIES 440
16.4. WHILE CLAUSES 440
16.5. NEW ACTIVITIES 441
16.6. BEGINNING AND ENDING ACTIVITIES MANUALLY 446
16.7. INTRODUCTION TO THE LIST OF BUILT-IN ACTIVITIES 446
16.8. DECIDING THE CONCEALED POSSESSIONS OF SOMETHING 447
16.9. PRINTING THE NAME OF SOMETHING 447
16.10. PRINTING THE PLURAL NAME OF SOMETHING 454
16.11. LISTING CONTENTS OF SOMETHING 455
16.12. GROUPING TOGETHER SOMETHING 456
16.13. PRINTING ROOM DESCRIPTION DETAILS OF SOMETHING 456
16.14. PRINTING A REFUSAL TO ACT IN THE DARK 458
16.15. PRINTING THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF DARKNESS 459
16.16. PRINTING THE NAME OF A DARK ROOM 460
16.17. PRINTING THE DESCRIPTION OF A DARK ROOM 460
16.18. CONSTRUCTING THE STATUS LINE 463
16.19. WRITING A PARAGRAPH ABOUT 465
16.20. LISTING NONDESCRIPT THINGS OF SOMETHING 473
16.21. DECIDING THE SCOPE OF SOMETHING 475
16.22. SUPPLYING A MISSING NOUN/SECOND NOUN 485
16.23. READING A COMMAND 486
16.24. PRINTING A PARSER ERROR 492
16.25. DECIDING WHETHER ALL INCLUDES 493
16.26. PRINTING THE BANNER TEXT 494
16.27. PRINTING THE PLAYER'S OBITUARY 494
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16.28. AMUSING A VICTORIOUS PLAYER 495
CHAPTER 17: RULEBOOKS 497
17.1. ON RULES 497
17.2. NAMED RULES AND RULEBOOKS 498
17.3. NEW RULES 499
17.4. NEW RULEBOOKS 503
17.5. PROCEDURAL RULES 507
17.6. PHRASES CONCERNING RULES 510
17.7. SUCCESS AND FAILURE 516
17.8. CONSIDER AND ABIDE 520
17.9. CONSIDER IS NOT THE SAME AS FOLLOW 521
17.10. IN WHAT ORDER? 536
17.11. FIRST AND LAST RULES 537
17.12. REVIEW OF CHAPTER 17 543
CHAPTER 18: PUBLISHING 547
18.1. FINDING A READERSHIP 547
18.2. HOW A NOVEL IS PUBLISHED 547
18.3. HOW INTERACTIVE FICTION IS PUBLISHED 548
18.4. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA 549
18.5. GENRES 550
18.6. THE LIBRARY CARD 550
18.7. THE TREATY OF BABEL AND THE IFID 551
18.8. THE RELEASE BUTTON 551
18.9. THE JOY OF FEELIES 552
18.10. THE MATERIALS FOLDER 552
18.11. COVER ART 553
18.12. AN INTRODUCTORY BOOKLET 554
18.13. A WEBSITE 554
18.14. WEBSITE TEMPLATES 555
18.15. WALKTHROUGH SOLUTIONS 556
18.16. RELEASING THE SOURCE TEXT 558
18.17. IMPROVING THE INDEX MAP 558
18.18. PRODUCING AN EPS FORMAT MAP 559
18.19. SETTINGS IN THE MAP-MAKER 560
18.20. TABLE OF MAP-MAKER SETTINGS 561
18.21. KINDS OF VALUE ACCEPTED BY THE MAP-MAKER 562
18.22. TITLING AND ABBREVIATIONS 564
18.23. RUBRICS 568
CHAPTER 19: EXTENSIONS 569
19.1. THE STATUS OF EXTENSIONS 569
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