From 22b6a0710fdc01a1ff0308a5112d98beb15f3a17 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jason Self Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2019 10:35:48 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Add initial work on converting the i6 FAQ --- informfaq/i6-faq.md | 151 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 151 insertions(+) create mode 100644 informfaq/i6-faq.md diff --git a/informfaq/i6-faq.md b/informfaq/i6-faq.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b0afe1 --- /dev/null +++ b/informfaq/i6-faq.md @@ -0,0 +1,151 @@ +Inform 6: Frequently Asked Questions +==================================== + +By Roger Firth + +From + +Copyright Roger Firth. Copying and distribution, with or without +modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the +copyright notice and this notice are preserved. + +You're reading a set of answers to Frequently Asked Questions about +the Inform 6 programming language, intended especially to help those +who are novices in this arena. + +This FAQ aims to address topics which commonly cause confusion among +newcomers. However, you shouldn't set your expectations too high; it +isn't an Inform tutorial, it pre-supposes that you've got a little +Inform knowledge already and it assumes at least a little knowledge of +computer programming. Very rarely will these answers give you the full +story. Generally, they're designed as introductory tasters, providing +just enough information to illustrate the general principles. + +I'm deeply grateful to Sonja Kesserich for making this possible, and +for her invaluable collaborative enthusiasm in the whole enterprise. + +Many people helped in the creation of this document, sometimes +unwittingly; my thanks for all of the assistance. The Inform FAQ was +originally maintained by Roger Firth. + +1. Setting the scene +-------------------- + +**These topics are about understanding what Inform does, and how best +to learn about it:** + +### 1.1 So, what *is* Inform? + +From the *Introduction to the Inform Designer's Manual*: "Inform is a +system for creating adventure games. It translates an author's textual +description into a simulated world which can be explored by readers +using almost any computer, with the aid of an interpreter program." + +In its simplest possible form, the "author's textual description" +looks rather like this: + + Constant Story "RUINS"; + Constant Headline "^An Interactive Worked Example^ + Copyright (c) 2001 by Angela M. Horns.^"; + + Include "Parser"; + Include "VerbLib"; + + Object Forest "~Great Plaza~" + with description + "Or so your notes call this low escarpment of limestone, + but the rainforest has claimed it back. Dark olive + trees crowd in on all sides, the air steams with the + mist of a warm recent rain, midges hang in the air. + ~Structure 10~ is a shambles of masonry which might + once have been a burial pyramid, and little survives + except stone-cut steps leading down into darkness below.", + has light; + + [ Initialise; + location = Forest; + "^^^Days of searching, days of thirsty hacking through the briars of + the forest, but at last your patience was rewarded. A discovery!^"; + ]; + + Include "Grammar"; + +Needless to say, real adventure games are much more exciting -- and +much more complex -- than our tiny example. Nevertheless, almost all +games look more or less like this, and behave more or less in this +manner. + +### 1.2 How is Inform related to Infocom? + +Infocom was the company, formed in 1979 by ex-MIT students to +capitalize on the popularity of Adventure and its imitators, which +over the following ten years created more than thirty text adventure +games; many of those are highly regarded, and still widely played +today. Infocom's games were written in a specially-devised Zork +Implementation Language (ZIL) and compiled by Zilch into Z-code. A +Z-code game could be played using a Z-machine interpreter program, and +many interpreters were written to run on the wide range of hobbyist +microcomputers then in vogue. + +Eventually, text adventures fell from public favor, Infocom +disappeared into Activision, and the specifications of ZIL and the +Z-machine were lost. All that remained in general circulation were the +Z-code games themselves. In an astonishing feat of +reverse-engineering, a group of enthusiasts known as the Infocom Task +Force managed in the early 1990s to deduce the architecture of the +Z-machine by inspecting the contents of these binary (non-text) files, +and they documented their researches in the [Z-machine Standards +Document](http://www.inform-fiction.org/zmachine/standards/). + +That specification made it possible to create new Z-machine +interpreters, and thus to play the original games on computers which +hadn't existed when Infocom was around. There was, however, no way to +create new games for the Z-machine until Graham devised Inform. +Although the Inform language is, at least superficially, nothing like +ZIL, and the Inform compiler is quite different from Zilch, +nevertheless the outcome of compiling a source game is the same in +both cases -- a file of Z-code which can be played on any Z-machine +interpreter. Many Inform programmers view this, the commonality of +Z-code between their games and the original Infocom masterpieces, as +one of the coolest features of the system. + +### 1.3 When did Inform appear? + +The first version of Inform appeared in 1993, and the system has been +growing steadily in capability and usage ever since. + + Version Date Compiler Library + ---------- ---------- ---------- --------- + Inform 1 Apr 1993 + Inform 2 ??? 1993 + Inform 3 Nov 1993 + Inform 4 Jan 1994 + Inform 5 Jun 1994 + ... + Jun 1995 + Inform 6 Apr 1996 6.01 6/1 + May 1996 6.02 - + May 1996 6.03 - + Sep 1996 6.04 6/2 + Sep 1996 6.05 - + Dec 1996 6.10 6/3 + Jan 1997 6.11 6/4 + Mar 1997 6.12 - + Apr 1997 6.13 6/5 + Aug 1997 - 6/6 + Sep 1997 6.14 6/7 + Mar 1998 6.15 - + Dec 1998 6.20 6/8 + Apr 1999 6.21 6/9 + Nov 1999 - 6/10 + Feb 2004 6.30 6/11 + +Looking at this (slightly simplified) chart, you can see how Inform +initially evolved quite rapidly, running through five major versions +in its first three years. Some of those early versions were fairly +primitive; not until Version 6 did it settle into a form closely +resembling the system that we use today. + +In fact, although the core system didn't change at all between 1999 +and 2004, Inform enthusiasts continue to find ways of extending and +enhancing that core using a wide variety of techniques. \ No newline at end of file -- 2.31.1