Questions about Inform and other things..
Sir SEL8
What is Inform really? Just to tell everyone again, I'm brand new to the whole
IF area and I dont know much at all. But is there anyone out there, or any
site out there, that can tell me what I need to do to start programming text
games?
I've looked around a bunch of webpages and I see Inform, TADS, Hugo, and a
bunch of other things like that; but I never get a straight and simple answer
from a webpage. From what I can tell, which may not be right, is that Inform
is probably the thing thats used the most by programmers. But what is it? Is
it a program or just some coding that helps you with things? And where can I
get Inform?(If its a program I can't find it anywhere on the main Inform
website..There are some other utilities and things made by other people, but I
can't find the actual Inform thing.)
Basically I just need to know where to start out from, and what I should be
using if anything. If anyone out there can give me some advice on where I
should start, please just mail me or reply. I'd really like to try my hand at
some text games, but I need a little bit of help starting out with them.
Thanks again,
Sel
John W Kennedy
Inform is A) a programming language, B) a compiler for that programming
language, and C) a library for that programming language. The compiler
is written in highly portable C, and can be compiled for almost any
reasonably large computer; most systems already have ready-to-run
versions of Inform available.
There are other, similar, systems, like TADS and Hugo, but they also
require run-time programs. Standard programming languages are not
well-adapted to programming text adventures, and neither are standard
computers. Almost all adventures are written for an imaginary computer
that is better suited for the purpose, and require a run-time program
(usually written in C, at present) to make the host computer emulate the
imaginary computer. Inform does this, too, but the imaginary computer
isn't part of Inform. Instead, it is the "Z-machine", the imaginary
computer that was developed by the Infocom company of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, which created most of the best text adventures of the
80's. In the early 90's, an international effort was made to decode the
Z-machine, so that these great games could be run on machines and
operating systems that didn't exist when Infocom went out of business.
That effort has led to a new Z-machine standard, and to extensions
allowing larger and more complex games (written with Inform) than
Infocom made.
Some of Inform's rivals are superior to it in some ways, but they are
inferior in others. Inform continues to be the most popular, I think,
because the Z-machine is well documented and there are many emulators
for it, and there are likely to continue to be new Z-machine emulators
made, as they become necessary, for the next (human) generation or two,
whereas there is a certain fear (I do not say it is well grounded) that
the other systems might vanish much sooner.
--
-John W. Kennedy
-rri...@ibm.net
Compact is becoming contract
Man only earns and pays. -- Charles Williams
Andrew Plotkin
> I've looked around a bunch of webpages and I see Inform, TADS, Hugo, and a
> bunch of other things like that; but I never get a straight and simple answer
> from a webpage. From what I can tell, which may not be right, is that Inform
> is probably the thing thats used the most by programmers. But what is it? Is
> it a program or just some coding that helps you with things? And where can I
> get Inform?(If its a program I can't find it anywhere on the main Inform
> website..There are some other utilities and things made by other people, but I
> can't find the actual Inform thing.)
Inform is a compiler which is specialized for writing text adventures.
Like other compilers, you write Inform programs as source code -- text
files -- and then compile them into runnable programs. The compiler comes
with libraries that do the work of parsing and basic game-world mechanics.
You write code that does the actual work of displaying your rooms,
describing your objects, and making them interact. Then you compile, and
you have a game you can run with the appropriate interpreter.
(TADS, Hugo, etc are entirely analogous systems. There's a TADS compiler,
a TADS library, a TADS interpreter, etc. Which system you use is a matter
of taste.)
The Inform program itself is at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/inform6/executables
Graham provides the source code; other volunteers have built working
binaries for Windows, Mac, etc.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
Stephen Griffiths
>
> What is Inform really? [snip]
Inform is a programming language specifically designed for creating text
adventure games.
Using Inform to produce a text adventure game involves writing a
description of your game which Inform then converts into a playable
game. That description is written by you in a text document using the
special grammar (or "syntax") of the Inform language. (The description
you write is called your game's "source code".) Inform converts that
description into a playable game using a piece of software called the
Inform Compiler.
So to use Inform you need two things
- the instructions on how to write your game description in Inform's
special lanugage; ie the Inform programming manual. The Inform
programming manual is called The Designer's Manual
- the Inform Compiler software for your type of computer. A version of
the Inform compiler is available for many types of computer - eg Apple
Macintosh, MSDOS PC, MS Windows PC, Commodore Amiga.
Well actually you need third thing as well but I didn't mention it
earlier because it cluttered my simple description of the nature of
Inform:
- the Inform Library. The Library is a collection of pre-written
Inform language "source code" which automatically supplies a lot of
essential functionality to your game and saves you writing it yourself.
Having written and compiled your game you then need a fourth thing
- software to play the game. This software is called a "runtime
interpreter". Two versions of Inform interpreter software (which both
work the same way and do the same thing) are called Zip and Frotz.
Versions of Zip and Frotz are available for many types of computer also.
Pointers to where you can download the four essential components of
Inform - the manual, the compiler, the library and the runtime
interpreter - can be found at the Inform homepage
http://www.gnelson.demon.co.uk/inform.html
Web Sites with helpful, get-you-started, instructions are listed under
"Beginners Guides". There's also atleast one other tutorial listed (the
"Alice" tutorial game by Gareth Rees.)
So to summarise the writing text adventures with Inform process:
1 - read some of the manual/tutorial to learn some of the language
2 - write a little of your game with your wordprocessor or text editor
software (eg: I use Windows Notepad or DOS Editor.) Save the game to
disk in text format with a name like "mygame.inf"
3 - compile your little game with the Inform compiler. This combines
your source code with the Library source code and produces a new file in
compiled "binary" format containing the playable game (eg: on my MSDOS
PC I go to a DOS command line and type "inform mygame.inf". This creates
a file called "mygame.z5")
4 - play your compiled game with your runtime interpreter (eg: I use
the Frotz for MSDOS interpreter so I go to a DOS command line and type
"frotz mygame.z5")
5 - repeat steps 1 to 4 for endless fun and satisfaction :-)
Now having said all that I should mention that the same process applies
to most of the other text adventure/"Interactive Fiction" authroing
systems. To use Hugo, TADS, ALAN and AGT, for example, you need to
download the manual, compiler, library and 'runtime interpreter'
Stephen Griffiths
[snipped the stuff I've already sent]
(Blow! I hit "send" when I was trying to save my text, I had a couple of
more things to say ....)
I think Inform is initially pretty complicated to set up and run. If
you're having difficulty with the concepts I suggest you start with
another system. Of the other systems like Inform I think ALAN is
probably easier to start with. Alan follows the same concepts as I've
outlined for Inform but the language itself is much simpler and easier
to understand. (Hopefully you'll find the Alan tutorial helpful - if not
let me know because I wrote it :-)
There's also a visual design concept which you may like to investigate
as an alternative to the "source-code/compiler/runtime interpreter"
systems I've mentioned. (Though there's nothing wrong with the "sc/c/ri"
approach. Its really not too hard once you get over the initial hurdles.
One problem for people accustomed to graphical user interfaces - like MS
Windows - is the that most (maybe all? I'm not sure) of the compiler
systems require becoming acquainted with your computer's "command line"
(eg:"the DOS prompt"). But command lines and compilers are worthwhile
things to learn about. Writing IF is a fun way to learn about them too.
The only example available of the visual design concept I can think of
is Quest which is available for Windows 95/98/NT only. I have no idea if
its any good, I'm afraid, as my home PC doesn't have the grunt to run
Windows 95. (Are there any other working visual design IF authoring
systems anyone?)
Well, that's quite enough for one (and a half) posts. I hope that you
find this information is useful.
Regards,
SteveG.
(remove "nospamthanks." from address if replying via email)
(also emailed)