Inform
julie whitmore
I am havin a lot of trouble with writing in Inform. I am trying to write a
game a game but so far only done 2 locations. Can someone please please give
me a few tips and describe about the parser???
Mark
Wendy Shaffer
<ju...@jwhitmore12.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:
There's an awful lot that could be said about Inform. You might want
to post about specific problems that you're having - specific
questions here seem to get a prompt response.
Having said that, as a relative newbie myself (I've been playing
around with Inform for the past 3 or 4 weeks), basically what I've
done so far is the following:
I read through the first part of the manual, which describes the syntax,
and read the first couple chapters of the second part.
I typed in the code for the first couple of rooms in the example Ruins
game, as described in those chapters. I fiddled around with it a bit,
adding a couple of things to the before and after routines for the
mushroom, and stuff like that.
I downloaded the source code for Toyshop.inf, and looked at how some
of the objects in that worked.
Once I decided that I understood how to do simple objects, at least,
I set myself an exercise - I decided to code up a basketball and a
basketball hoop that the player could throw the basketball through.
I started simple - with just the basketball and the hoop, with
descriptions attached. I messed around until I had a suitable
set of before routines on the ball and hoop to produce a reasonable
response to "Throw ball at hoop." (Actually, one of the biggest
problems I had here was not realizing for awhile that type 3 verbs
like ThrowAt and ThrownAt don't have an after stage - I was trying
to use an after routine at first.)
And then I decided that I wanted the player to be able to bounce
or dribble the ball, so I sat down and figured out how to write
a verb.
And then I got annoyed at the game responding to "take basketball"
with "Which do you mean, the basketball or the basketball hoop?",
so I figured out how to write a parse_name routine to fix that.
By then I decided that I understood simple objects, and decided to
work on understanding containers and supporters, so I added a billiard
table (a supporter) with pockets (containers). Of course, that
opened up all kinds of silly possibilities like "Put basketball in
right corner pocket" so I'm tweaking the billiard table right now.
Um, this is getting a bit longwinded, so I'll try to boil it down to
some basic advice:
1. Try to start simple and work your way up to more complex objects.
Inform seems less overwhelming when you can tackle just one feature
at a time.
2. Look at other people's source code. It's quite likely that someone
else has done something similar to what you want to do. Source code
for a number of Inform games is available for download on the
IF-Archive.
3. As far as understanding the parser, I don't think I fully under-
stand it myself yet. Reading the file grammar.h can help, although
it's kind of rough going. When I was trying to figure out how to
write a parse_name routine, I read the chapter in the manual on
"How nouns are parsed" about 5 times, and then looked at all of
the parse_name routines in all the source code I had available at
the time. At some point, all became clear, or at least clear enough
for me to do the (not terribly difficult) thing I needed to do.
Hope this helps somewhat.
---wendy
iantri
It isn't quite as powerful but you should be able to master it in under a
week. Make sure to get the standard library too or else you will be left to
define simple commands like north.
--
- Ian Trider
- ian...@attcanada.ca -or- ian...@mailandnews.com
"julie whitmore" <ju...@jwhitmore12.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8n1hu7$196$1...@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...
Kevin Forchione
"Wendy Shaffer" <wsha...@uclink4.berkeley.edu> wrote in message
news:wshaffer-393172...@agate.berkeley.edu...
> Hope this helps somewhat.
An extremely sensible approach!
--Kevin
Alex Warren
<blatant off-topic-really plug>
With all this hassle to code a simple adventure game it always surprises me how
many people persist with more complicated IF languages when there are much
simpler alternatives which, despite rumours, DON'T limit your creativity, AREN'T
underpowered, and in addition to this WON'T cause headaches in the people who
try to learn them.
Just one of these systems is called Quest, and it's available at
http://www.axeuk.com/quest.
Quest - Is Easy and Powerful
Alex Warren - Is Not Afraid to Plug his Product
</blatant off-topic-really plug>
Wendy Shaffer
<S...@THE.SIG.COM> wrote:
> <blatant off-topic-really plug>
>
> With all this hassle to code a simple adventure game it always surprises
me how
> many people persist with more complicated IF languages when there are much
> simpler alternatives which, despite rumours, DON'T limit your
creativity, AREN'T
> underpowered, and in addition to this WON'T cause headaches in the people who
> try to learn them.
>
> Just one of these systems is called Quest, and it's available at
> http://www.axeuk.com/quest.
>
> Quest - Is Easy and Powerful
> Alex Warren - Is Not Afraid to Plug his Product
>
> </blatant off-topic-really plug>
Not to detract from your plug, but it wasn't really _that_ much hassle.
My description probably made it sound fairly laborious, because I was
trying to convey some of the thought process that went into it. But
really, the only thing that even remotely approached being a headache
was the parse_name thing, and even that was a few minutes work once
I understood how a few things worked.
Besides, for me, learning Inform is as much a way of giving my
fledgeling programming skills a bit of a workout as it is a tool for
writing a game. I get almost as much satisfaction out of writing a
nice routine as I do out of seeing that routine produce a fun result
in the context of the game.
Obviously, not everyone feels that way. People who just find the
coding a chore might do better with Quest.
I did take a look at the Quest page when I was shopping around for an
IF design system. It looks like a fine system, but as far as I can tell
only runs on PC's. I'm afraid that that rules it out for me, since I'm
working on a Mac.
----wendy
--
Wendy A. Shaffer
wsha...@uclink4.berkeley.edu
M. St. Bernard
> Help Me Please?
> I am havin a lot of trouble with writing in Inform.
I've been working with it for about 3 weeks, and it is beginning to
come together. Here were my steps to understanding it:
1) Read the entire manual, and understand about 1/4 of it. :-)
2) Type in the examples & RUINS stuff from the manual, and play with
it a bit.
3) Read the appendixes of the manual, and try to figure out what the
heck it all means.
4) Download the "house" set of 8 demos from the IF archive, which
helped more than anything else! Get those demos, get them, get them!
5) Read the entire manual again, and understand about 2/5 of it.
6) Start working on my own adventure, consulting the "Toyshop" source
code frequently.
7) Post a specific question or 2 here when I got stuck.
8) Read the grammar.h file! It explains a lot of what goes on "behind
the curtains."
9) Read the entire manual again, and understand about 1/2 of it.
I pretty much know what's going on now, though I'm far from an
expert. If you need any help, I'll do what I can. My email address is
muf...@hotmail.com
Good luck! It's amazing stuff.
Andrew Plotkin
> julie whitmore wrote:
>
>> Help Me Please?
>> I am havin a lot of trouble with writing in Inform.
>
> I've been working with it for about 3 weeks, and it is beginning to
> come together. Here were my steps to understanding it:
>
> 1) Read the entire manual, and understand about 1/4 of it. :-)
> 2) Type in the examples & RUINS stuff from the manual, and play with
> it a bit.
> 3) Read the appendixes of the manual, and try to figure out what the
> heck it all means.
> 4) Download the "house" set of 8 demos from the IF archive, which
> helped more than anything else! Get those demos, get them, get them!
> 5) Read the entire manual again, and understand about 2/5 of it.
> 6) Start working on my own adventure, consulting the "Toyshop" source
> code frequently.
> 7) Post a specific question or 2 here when I got stuck.
> 8) Read the grammar.h file! It explains a lot of what goes on "behind
> the curtains."
> 9) Read the entire manual again, and understand about 1/2 of it.
This is almost a perfect transcription of how I learned Inform. (I skipped
step 4, since it was 1995 and those demos didn't exist yet.)
It seems to be a good recipe.
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
Alex Warren
> I did take a look at the Quest page when I was shopping around for an
> IF design system. It looks like a fine system, but as far as I can tell
> only runs on PC's. I'm afraid that that rules it out for me, since I'm
> working on a Mac.
Well, that's fair enough I suppose :)
There is a DOS/Linux ASL interpreter being worked on (though not by me), I'm not
sure if that may ever be recompiled for the Mac but it's a possibility at some
point in the future.
--
Alex Warren
Al...@AxeUK.com : Axe Software - http://www.AxeUK.com : ICQ 4043750
M. St. Bernard
> This is almost a perfect transcription of how I learned Inform. (I skipped
> step 4, since it was 1995 and those demos didn't exist yet.)
>
> It seems to be a good recipe.
So, what was the next step for you? :-)
Muffy.
Andrew Plotkin
Wrote _A Change in the Weather_, got a first-place prize in the '95
IFComp. :)
Winthir
Winthir
Paul E. Bell
--
Paul E. Bell | Email and AIM: wd0...@millcomm.com | ifMUD: Helios
IRC: PKodon, DrWho4, and Helios | webpage: members.xoom.com/wd0gcp/
Member: W.A.R.N., Skywarn, ARES, Phoenix Developer Consortium, ...
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