Auto mapper

[Egor]

hello!
I was wondering if it is technologically possible to add auto mapping
functionality. I haven't seen any Z machine interpreter with such a
functionality, so I would assume that this is a difficult thing to do.

[Craig Smith]

Unfortunately, auto-mapping is really an intractable problem and it's
impossible to do it with anything close to 100% certainty. The Z-
machine and other IF formats are Turing complete simulated computers
running arbitrary programs. There's no way to determine the
connectivity between rooms (or even what counts as a room) because
this can change dynamically. The best you can do is to use heuristics
and make assumptions based on knowledge of the way common IF libraries
work, and it's easy to get things wrong, which could be very confusing
to the user. The only reliable way to do auto-mapping is to build
support for it into the games themselves (a la Beyond Zork).

That said, I am working on adding a manual mapping assistant to Frotz.
I may use information from the Z-machine state or even the text output
to provide defaults for room names and exit directions and such, but
it will not be a full-fledged auto-mapper.

[Egor]

I realize that it is not possible to parse a Z-file and build the map
from of it. My idea was that the auto mapper parses player's input
and if the location is changed (which I assume is a state in Z-
machine) then the map is updated with the new location.
If I understand correctly, this is similar to what you described.

Take care hunam captain!