.. epigraph::
- | *If they asked me, I could write a book;*
- | *About the way you TALK, and LISTEN; And LOOK.*
+ | |CENTER| *If they asked me, I could write a book;*
+ | |CENTER| *About the way you TALK, and LISTEN; And LOOK.*
-- with apologies to Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
Because this is only an introduction to Inform, many features are treated
rather superficially, or ignored altogether. The definitive text is Graham
-Nelson's Inform *Designer's Manual* (Fourth Edition, July 2001), commonly
-known as the DM4; you cannot hope to use Inform successfully without having
-this splendid book by your side. Our guide should be seen merely as a
-supplement to the DM4, offering step-by-step descriptions of those aspects
-of Inform which are most important on first acquaintance. In any matter
-where we seem at odds with what Graham has written, you should assume that
-he is right and that we are, well, confused.
+Nelson's |DM4| (Fourth Edition, July 2001), commonly known as the DM4; you
+cannot hope to use Inform successfully without having this splendid book by
+your side. Our guide should be seen merely as a supplement to the DM4,
+offering step-by-step descriptions of those aspects of Inform which are
+most important on first acquaintance. In any matter where we seem at odds
+with what Graham has written, you should assume that he is right and that
+we are, well, confused.
As a tutorial, this guide is intended to be printed out and then read
sequentially; it isn't meant for online usage or designed as a reference
Most of the guide's text appears in this typeface, except where we're using
words which are part of the Inform system (like ``print``, ``Include``,
``VerbLib``) or are extracted from one of our games (like ``bird``,
-``nest``, ``top_of_tree``). Terms in **bold type** are included in the
-glossary -- Appendix G on page 273. We switch to italic type for a
-placeholder: for example you should read the Inform statement:
+``nest``, ``top_of_tree``).
+
+.. only:: html
+
+ Terms that are included in the :doc:`Glossary <appendices/g>` appear as
+ links to that glossary entry.
+
+.. only:: latex
+
+ Terms that are included in the :doc:`Glossary <appendices/g>` appear in
+ blue italic. In the PDF version, these are links to the glossary entry.
+
+We switch to italic type for a placeholder: for example you should read the
+Inform statement:
:samp:`print "{string}";`
* http://www.inform-fiction.org/
The Inform home page, maintained by Graham Nelson and a small team of
- helpers. Most important, this is where you can find the *Inform
- Designer's Manual* in PDF format.
+ helpers. Most important, this is where you can find the |DM4| in PDF
+ format.
* http://mirror.ifarchive.org/
independently and later in enjoyable collaboration -- of using, and
eventually of presenting, the Inform text adventure development system.
-| *Roger Firth*
-| *Wallingford, England*
+| |FILL| *Roger Firth*
+| |FILL| *Wallingford, England*
-| *Sonja Kesserich*
-| *Madrid, Spain*
+| |FILL| *Sonja Kesserich*
+| |FILL| *Madrid, Spain*
-| *August 2004*
+| |FILL| *August 2004*
.. rubric:: Footnotes
.. [#play]
If you feel confused about IF in general or about this distinction
- between writing and playing in particular, try glancing ahead at "Just
- what is interactive fiction?" on page 13 and at "How to play an IF game"
- on page 209; also, you may find the Ifaq at
- http://www.plover.net/~textfire/raiffaq/ifaq/ helpful.
+ between writing and playing in particular, try glancing ahead at
+ :doc:`chapters/01` and at :doc:`appendices/a`; also, you may find the
+ Ifaq at http://www.plover.net/~textfire/raiffaq/ifaq/ helpful.
projects / ibg.git / blobdiff