--- /dev/null
+% Inform in four minutes
+% Roger Firth <roger@firthworks.com>
+
+A quick reference to the Inform programming language.
+
+Copyright © 2002 Roger Firth <roger@firthworks.com>. Copying and
+distribution, with or without modification, are permitted in any
+medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice
+are preserved.
+
+<http://www.firthworks.com/roger/>
+
+Version 1.3 (March 2002)
+
+The road to brevity is via imprecision and through solecism.
+
+Literals
+--------
+
+A Z-code **word** literal uses sixteen bits (whereas a Glulx word has
+thirty-two bits). A **byte** literal is always eight bits.
+
+- Decimal: `-32768` to `32767`\
+ Hexadecimal: `$0` to `$FFFF`\
+ Binary: `$$0` to `$$1111111111111111`
+- Action: `##Look`
+- Character: `'a'`
+- Dictionary word: `'aardvark'` (up to nine characters significant);
+ use circumflex "`^`" to denote apostrophe.\
+ Plural word: `'aardvarks//p'`\
+ Single-character word: `"a"` (`name` property only) or `'a//'`
+- String: `"aardvark's adventure"` (maximum around 4000 characters);
+ can include special values including:
+
+ ------------- ------------------------------------
+ \^ newline
+ \~ quote (")
+ @@64 at sign "@"
+ @@92 backslash ""
+ @@94 circumflex "\^"
+ @@126 tilde "\~"
+ @\`a a with a grave accent "`à`", et al
+ @LL pound sign "£", et al
+ @00 ... @31 low string 0..31
+ ------------- ------------------------------------
+
+Names
+-----
+
+The identifier of an Inform *constant*, *variable*, *array*, *class*,
+*object*, *property*, *attribute*, *routine* or *label*. Up to 32
+characters: alphabetic (case not significant), numeric and underscore,
+with the first character not a digit.
+
+Expressions and Operators
+-------------------------
+
+Use parentheses (...) to control the order of evaluation.
+Arithmetic/logical expressions support these operators:
+
+ ---------- ---------------------------------------------
+ *p + q* addition
+ *p - q* subtraction
+ *p * q\* multiplication
+ *p / q* integer division
+ *p % q* remainder
+ *p++* increments *p*, evaluates to original value
+ *++p* increments *p*, evaluates to new value
+ *p--* decrements *p*, evaluates to original value
+ *--p* decrements *p*, evaluates to new value
+ *p & q* bitwise AND
+ *p | q* bitwise OR
+ *\~p* bitwise NOT (inversion)
+ ---------- ---------------------------------------------
+
+Conditional expressions return `true` (1) or `false` (0); *q* may be a
+list of alternatives *q1* `or` *q2* `or` ... *qN*:
+
+ ---------------- ----------------------------------------
+ *p == q* *p* is equal to *q*
+ *p \~= q* *p* isn't equal to *q*
+ *p* > *q* *p* is greater than *q*
+ *p < q* *p* is less than *q*
+ *p >= q* *p* is greater than or equal to *q*
+ *p <= q* *p* is less than or equal to *q*
+ *p ofclass q* object *p* is of class *q*
+ *p in q* object *p* is a child of object *q*
+ *p notin q* object *p* isn't a child of object *q*
+ *p provides q* object *p* provides property *q*
+ *p has q* object *p* has attribute *q*
+ *p hasnt q* object *p* hasn't attribute *q*
+ ---------------- ----------------------------------------
+
+Boolean expressions return `true` (1) or `false` (0):
+
+ -------- ----------------------------------
+ p && q both p and q are true (non-zero)
+ p || q either p or q is true (non-zero)
+ \~\~p p is false (zero)
+ -------- ----------------------------------
+
+To return -1, 0 or 1 based on unsigned comparison:
+
+ UnsignedCompare(p,q)
+
+To return `true` if object *q* is a child or grand-child or... of *p*:
+
+ IndirectlyContains(p,q)
+
+To return a random number 1..*N*, or one from a list of constant
+values:
+
+ random(N )
+ random(value,value, ... value )
+
+Constants
+---------
+
+Named word values, unchanging at run-time, which are by default
+initialised to zero:
+
+ Constant constant;
+ Constant constant = expr;
+
+Standard constants are `true` (1), `false` (0) and `nothing` (0), also
+`NULL` (-1).
+
+To define a constant (unless it already exists):
+
+ Default constant expr ;
+
+Variables and Arrays
+--------------------
+
+Named word/byte values which can change at run-time and are by default
+initialised to zero.
+
+A **global** variable is a single word:
+
+ Global variable;
+ Global variable = expr;
+
+A **word array** is a set of global words accessed using `array-->0`,
+`array-->1`, ... `array-->(N-1)`:
+
+ Array array --> N;
+ Array array --> expr1 expr2 ... exprN;
+ Array array --> "string";
+
+A **table array** is a set of global words accessed using
+*array-->1*, *array-->2*, ... *array-->N*, with
+*array-->0* initialized to *N*:
+
+ Array array table N ;
+ Array array table expr1 expr2 ... exprN
+ Array array table "string";
+
+A **byte array** is a set of global bytes accessed using
+*array->0*, *array->1*, ... *array->(N-1)*:
+
+ Array array -> N;
+ Array array -> expr1 expr2 ... exprN;
+ Array array -> "string";
+
+A **string array** is a set of global bytes accessed using
+*array->1*, *array->2*, ... *array->N*, with *array->0*
+initialized to *N*:
+
+ Array array string N;
+ Array array string expr1 expr2 ... exprN;
+ Array array string "string";
+
+In all these cases, the characters of the initializing *string* are
+unpacked to the individual word/byte elements of the array. See also
+Objects (for **property** variables) and Routines (for **local**
+variables).
+
+## Classes and Objects
+
+To declare a *class* - a template for a family of objects -
+where the optional (*N*) limits instances created at run-time:
+
+ Class class(N)
+ class class class ... class
+ has attr_def attr_def ... attr_def
+ with prop_def,
+ ...
+ prop_def;
+
+To declare an *object*; "`Object`" can instead be a *class*, the
+remaining four header items are all optional, and *arrows*
+(`->`, `->` `->`, ...) and *parent_object* are incompatible:
+
+ Object arrows object "ext_name " parent_object
+ class class class ... class
+ has attr_def attr_def ... attr_def
+ with prop_def,
+ ...
+ prop_def;
+
+The `class`, `has` and `with` (and also the rarely-used `private`)
+segments are all optional, and can appear in any order.
+
+To determine an object's class as one of `Class`, `Object`,
+`Routine`, `String` (or `nothing`):
+
+ metaclass(object)
+
+**has segment**: Each *attr_def* is either of:
+
+ attribute
+ ~attribute
+
+To change attributes at run-time:
+
+ give object attr_def attr_def ... attr_def;
+
+**with/private segments**: Each *prop_def* declares a variable
+(or word array) and can take any of these forms (where a
+*value* is an expression, a string or an embedded routine):
+
+ property
+ property value
+ property value value ... value
+
+A property variable is addressed by *object.property* (or
+within the object's declaration as *self.property*).
+
+Multiple values create a property array; in this case
+*object.#property* is the number of **bytes** occupied by the
+array, the entries can be accessed using
+*object.&property-->0*, *object.&property-->1*, ... , and
+*object.property* refers to the value of the first entry.
+
+A property variable inherited from an object's class is
+addressed by *object.class::property*; this gives the
+original value prior to any changes within the object.
\ No newline at end of file
--- /dev/null
+Return-Path: <roger@firthworks.com>
+X-Original-To: jason@bluehome.net
+Delivered-To: jason@bluehome.net
+Received: from claranet-outbound-smtp00.uk.clara.net (claranet-outbound-smtp00.uk.clara.net [195.8.89.33])
+ by bluehome.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 987A77803A1
+ for <jason@bluehome.net>; Sat, 1 Jul 2017 10:39:31 -0700 (PDT)
+Received: from [79.123.82.65] (port=35732 helo=[192.168.1.105])
+ by relay00.mail.eu.clara.net (relay.clara.net [81.171.239.30]:1025)
+ with esmtpa (authdaemon_plain:roger@firthworks.com) id 1dRMMi-0007nW-03 for jason@bluehome.net
+ (return-path <roger@firthworks.com>); Sat, 01 Jul 2017 17:39:29 +0000
+Subject: Re: The Inform Beginner's Guide
+To: Jason Self <jason@bluehome.net>
+References: <1498928270.2632@bluehome.net>
+From: Roger Firth <roger@firthworks.com>
+Message-ID: <d8d026a4-c108-cdc7-e032-dad7c93bc7fe@firthworks.com>
+Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2017 18:39:27 +0100
+User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101
+ Thunderbird/52.2.1
+MIME-Version: 1.0
+In-Reply-To: <1498928270.2632@bluehome.net>
+Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
+
+On 01/07/2017 17:57, Jason Self wrote:
+> Thank you. I'll get started on it. I propose adding this, if you're OK
+> with it, to acknowledge your copyright in it and so that it can
+> continue to be re-shared. (Because otherwise, since it's copyrighted
+> by you technically people would need to contact you and ask for
+> permission to re-share it each and every time. And if you're OK with
+> people sharing copies then it seems easier to go ahead and grant that
+> permission upfront.) It also allows for modification so as to keep
+> things current as Inform changes (and for translations, etc.) [0]
+>
+> Copyright Roger Firth <roger@firthworks.com>. Copying and
+> distribution, with or without modification, are permitted in any
+> medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice
+> are preserved.
+>
+> [0] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html
+
+That's fine by me, Jason. I totaly agree with that philosophy.
+
+--
+Cheers, Roger
\ No newline at end of file
projects / inform-resources.git / commitdiff