Is Advent any good?
FireHead
I was thinking of using Advent for a game I want to write. Is it worth
using? Is it easy to learn? It seems that it is easier to use than
TADS, since I am not a programmer. Thanks for any input.
--
Darin Johnson
> using? Is it easy to learn? It seems that it is easier to use than
> TADS, since I am not a programmer. Thanks for any input.
I don't know about Advent per se, but I wanted to point out
problems involved in the "languages for non-programmers"
approach.
What you get may actually be a programming language, only they
don't call it that. If you're going to use a language anyway,
it makes sense to use something reasonable. I think the
attitude is in response to computer-phobia - call it something
else and people will go and use it without realizing what it
really is. For instance, lots of mush "programmers" defend
it's incredibly corrupt and evil language on the grounds that
"but we're not programmers"; but they don't realize that
although they can do the simple stuff, the hard stuff is just
made too hard (or flat out impossible) for them.
Or you'll get something that does the simple stuff only - with
NOTHING to support more complex stuff. Ie, cater to the
lowest common denominator. You see this more in commercial
stuff, because there really are people out there that will
call customer support and complain that they can't figure
out the advanced features (it's guaranteed that if you label
a feature as advanced, clueless powerusers will try to use it).
Or you may get a cumbersome fill in the fields approach, which
often can do what the author of the package intended, but rarely
is able to do what the users want. Things that do get written
end up as poor adventures in the end because it looks like a
stereotype.
You will usually get a dumbed-down philosophy that just makes
things harder all around. For instance, a system exists where
you have to refer to text messages by NUMBER. Apparently they
thought referring to them by name would confuse non programmers.
---
Now, since you mentioned TADS - I should mention that you
DONT need to PROGRAM to get simple stuff done!!! Yet once
you learn a little bit of what's going on, you can do more
and more powerful stuff. Yet here's the attitude of "but
it's a programming language, runaway!" that causes people
to move to a poor solution.
A little bit of programming knowledge never hurt anyone.
What it provides is power and freedom. And it's not as
hard as the general public would have you believe - I've
had someone say "I thought this was supposed to be hard".
The trick is to not look at the complicated examples
and start to panic.
(besides, I think advent actually involves programming :-)
--
Darin Johnson
djoh...@ucsd.edu
This is the first time I've ever eaten a patient -- Northern Exposure
Bob Newell
programmers and don't wish to be. This is the idea of Sue Medley, author of
"Oklib's Revenge": go ahead and write your story, lay it out as completely
as you can, and then team up with a programmer. That way, you're likely to
get a good story AND a good implementation, I think. The only thing to
watch out for is going beyond the bounds of what is capable of being
programmed, so close collaboration is needed.
Bob Newell
Magnus Olsson
programmer.
Yes, TASD *is* a full-fledge, very powerful programming language, and
getting the full power out of it takes some programming prowess.
*But* you can write quite good games with TADS just by imitating the sample
adventures that come with the shareware distribution. And if you register
you get a very good manual, with *lots* of examples. Reading the manual
won't turn you into a master programmer, but it's my belief it will suffice
to enable you to write quite complex and andvanced games.
Magnus Olsson (m...@df.lth.se) / yacc computer club, Lund, Sweden
Work: Innovativ Vision AB, Linkoping (magnus...@ivab.se)
Old adresses (may still work): mag...@thep.lu.se, the...@selund.bitnet
PGP key available via finger (to df.lth.se) or on request.