Wanted: A TXD Decompiler for Inform 7 Games
Al
for Inform 7 games for both the Mac and Windows.
It would decompile these 3:
.z5
.z8
glulxe
Alex Rosslyn
There are decompilers that turn .z5 and .z8 games to Inform6, but not
Inform7. I guess someone could write a de-decompiler that would turn
i6 code to i7.
And the Z-Machine and Glulxe are different, so you would need two
separate compilers.
> for both the Mac and Windows
Mac, Windows, *and Linux*
Jim Aikin
>
> There are decompilers that turn .z5 and .z8 games to Inform6, but not
> Inform7.
Do tell. I had a quick Google, and also tried a few directories in the
Archive, with no result.
Where would I find such a decompiler?
--JA
vaporware
This page has decompilers for a few different systems, in various
states of repair:
http://www.exmsft.com/~benrg/if-decompilers/
vw
Nikos Chantziaras
If you're thinking of using that in order to get your lost source code
back (the one after the "backup disaster"), then I'm afraid you're in
for a disappointment :P A decompiler does not restore source code. It
just produces low-level code that has nothing to do with the original
source code other than producing the same results when you run it.
Andrew Plotkin
> On 11/10/2009 02:07 AM, Jim Aikin wrote:
> > Alex Rosslyn wrote:
> >>
> >> There are decompilers that turn .z5 and .z8 games to Inform6, but not
> >> Inform7.
> >
> > Do tell. I had a quick Google, and also tried a few directories in the
> > Archive, with no result.
> >
> > Where would I find such a decompiler?
When I see this question, I think of TXD, which is on the Archive
(under infocom/tools/ztools). Then I remember that while TXD produces
accurate Z-machine assembly code, the syntax is different from what
the I6 compiler accepts. For that, use Reform (already posted in this
thread, <http://www.exmsft.com/~benrg/if-decompilers/>. It's also in
the Archive under infocom/tools/reform.)
> If you're thinking of using that in order to get your lost source code
> back (the one after the "backup disaster"), then I'm afraid you're in
> for a disappointment :P A decompiler does not restore source code. It
> just produces low-level code that has nothing to do with the original
> source code other than producing the same results when you run it.
This is true. And it would be true at both levels. If someone were to
write an I6-to-I7 "decompiler", it would generate nasty, bloated,
opaque I7 code. (Leaving aside the uninteresting trick of just
including all of the I6 code as a single (- ... -) block.) The
original I7 rule structure could be recovered only by pattern-matching
and a lot of guesswork.
The output of running TXD on an I7-compiled game is... well, not good
for much.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
Otto Grimwald
> Where would I find such a decompiler?
>
it's called TXD
Alex Rosslyn
So Z-Code disassemblers/decompilers are as useless as actual
disassemblers/decompilers?
Damn :(
Andrew Plotkin
>
> So Z-Code disassemblers/decompilers are as useless as actual
> disassemblers/decompilers?
They *are* actual disassemblers/decompilers.
I wouldn't call them useless; I was even overstating when I said "not
good for much". Sometimes all you want is a dump of the Z-machine
strings table, and then TXD is your puppy.
Alex Rosslyn
Allow me to rephrase that:
So Z-Code disassemblers/decompilers are as useless when it comes to
showing human-readable code as the disassemblers/decompilers for other
non-IF languages?
Andrew Plotkin
> > Here, Alex Rosslyn <black.line...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > > So Z-Code disassemblers/decompilers are as useless as actual
> > > disassemblers/decompilers?
> >
> > They *are* actual disassemblers/decompilers.
> >
> > I wouldn't call them useless; I was even overstating when I said "not
> > good for much". Sometimes all you want is a dump of the Z-machine
> > strings table, and then TXD is your puppy.
>
>
>
> So Z-Code disassemblers/decompilers are as useless when it comes to
> showing human-readable code as the disassemblers/decompilers for other
> non-IF languages?
Yep.
(Sorry, I should have made it clearer that I was agreeing with you.)
Gene Wirchenko
<black....@gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]
>So Z-Code disassemblers/decompilers are as useless as actual
>disassemblers/decompilers?
Yes. There is a lot of structure and information in source code.
Very little of that can be recovered.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Alex Rosslyn
> On Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:44:48 -0800 (PST), Alex Rosslyn
>
>
> [snip]
>
> >So Z-Code disassemblers/decompilers are as useless as actual
> >disassemblers/decompilers?
>
> Yes. There is a lot of structure and information in source code.
> Very little of that can be recovered.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Gene Wirchenko
Well as long as I can get the printed text back, everything is fine.
The rest is just code.