given line number. In this case, the error was caused by a semicolon
after the description string, instead of a comma:
-.. code-block:: inform6
+.. code-block:: inform
Prop "assorted stalls"
with name 'assorted' 'stalls',
.. rubric:: Warnings
-Warnings are not immediately catastrophic, but you should get rid of
-them to ensure a good start at finding run-time mistakes (see "Debugging
-your game" on page 197). You may declare a variable and then not use it;
-you may mistake assignment and arithmetic operators (``=`` instead of
-``==``); you may forget the comma that separates properties, etc. For
-all these and many other warnings, Inform has found something which is
-legal but doubtful.
+Warnings are not immediately catastrophic, but you should get rid of them
+to ensure a good start at finding run-time mistakes (see :doc:`16`). You
+may declare a variable and then not use it; you may mistake assignment and
+arithmetic operators (``=`` instead of ``==``); you may forget the comma
+that separates properties, etc. For all these and many other warnings,
+Inform has found something which is legal but doubtful.
One common incident is to return in the middle of a statement block,
before the rest of statements can be reached. This is not always as
evident as it looks, for instance in a case like this:
-.. code-block:: inform6
+.. code-block:: inform
if (steel_door has open) {
print_ret "The breeze blows out your lit match.";
happen. Inform detects the fault and warns you. Probably the designer's
intention was:
-
Compiling *à la carte*
======================
-
One of the advantages of Inform is its portability between different
systems and machines. Specific usage of the compiler varies accordingly,
but some features should be in all environments. To obtain precise
information about any particular version, run the compiler with the
-``-h1`` switch -- see "Switches" on page 193.
-
-Often the compiler is run with the name of your source file as its only
-parameter. This tells the compiler to "read this file using Strict mode
-and from it generate a Version 5 story file of the same name". The
-source file is mostly full of statements which define how the game is to
-behave at run-time, but will also include compile-time instructions
-directed at the compiler itself (although such an instruction looks a
-lot like a **statement**, it's actually quite different in what it does,
-and is known as a **directive**). We have already seen the ``Include``
+``-h1`` switch -- see :ref:`switches`.
+
+Often the compiler is run with the name of your source file as its only
+parameter. This tells the compiler to "read this file using Strict mode and
+from it generate a Version 5 story file of the same name". The source file
+is mostly full of statements which define how the game is to behave at
+run-time, but will also include compile-time instructions directed at the
+compiler itself (although such an instruction looks a lot like a
+:term:`statement`, it's actually quite different in what it does, and is
+known as a :term:`directive`). We have already seen the ``Include``
directive:
:samp:`Include "{filename}";`
a separate file, which you Include into a short master game file. For
example:
-.. code-block:: inform6
+.. code-block:: inform
!============================================================================
Constant Story "War and Peace";
!============================================================================
+.. _switches:
Switches
========
the public. This is fortunately very easy to check, since the game
banner ends with the letter "D" if the game was compiled in Debug mode:
-.. code-block:: inform6
+.. code-block:: transcript
Captain Fate
A simple Inform example
and ``-X``. Some of the more useful switches are:
:samp:`-~S`
-
Set compiler Strict mode off. This deactivates some additional error
checking features when it reads your source file. Strict mode is on by
default.
:samp:`-v5 -v8`
-
Compile to this version of story file. Versions 5 (on by default) and
8 are the only ones you should ever care about; they produce,
respectively, story files with the extensions .z5 and .z8 . Version 5
similar to Version 5 but allows a 512 Kbytes file size.
:samp:`-D -X`
-
Include respectively the debugging verbs and the Infix debugger in the
- story file (see "Debugging your game" on page 197).
+ story file (see :doc:`16`).
:samp:`-h1 -h2`
-
Display help information about the compiler. ``-h1`` produces
information about file naming, and ``-h2`` about the available
switches.
:samp:`-n -j`
-
``-n`` displays the number of declared attributes, properties and
actions. ``-j`` lists objects as they are being read and constructed
in the story file.
:samp:`-s`
-
Offer game statistics. This provides a lot of information about your
game, including the number of objects, verbs, dictionary entries,
memory usage, etc., while at the same time indicating the maximum
nearing the limits of Inform.
:samp:`-r`
-
Record all the text of the game into a temporary file, useful to check
all your descriptions and messages by running them through a spelling
checker.
projects / ibg.git / blobdiff