X-Git-Url: https://jxself.org/git/?p=ibg.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=chapters%2F04.rst;h=8c6a7eda2b2e748d7e0a4b780cab072cbafd5a13;hp=249fdb1f5f06185e2611e9935c216a3b38181a04;hb=9e9feffd79cc1c4aa9c387afe98e16c7fbfae78d;hpb=9eb5de056be1d88d440d391ac5030dd05fe6a3a8 diff --git a/chapters/04.rst b/chapters/04.rst index 249fdb1..8c6a7ed 100644 --- a/chapters/04.rst +++ b/chapters/04.rst @@ -67,8 +67,8 @@ you can change it at any time. For example, we used the statement:: location = before_cottage; -to reset the value of the location variable to the ``before_cottage`` -object, and we wrote:: +to reset the value of the ``location`` variable to the +``before_cottage`` object, and we wrote:: if (nest in branch) deadflag = 2; @@ -351,16 +351,17 @@ Inform makes careful distinction between double and single quotes. .. rubric:: Double quotes -Double quotes "..." surround a **string** -- a letter, a word, a paragraph, -or almost any number of characters -- which you want the interpreter to -display while the game is being played. You can use the tilde ``~`` to -represent a double quote inside the string, and the circumflex ``^`` to -represent a newline (line break) character. Upper-case and lower-case -letters are treated as different. +Double quotes ``"..."`` surround a **string** -- a letter, a word, a +paragraph, or almost any number of characters -- which you want the +interpreter to display while the game is being played. You can use the +tilde ``~`` to represent a double quote inside the string, and the +circumflex ``^`` to represent a newline (line break) character. +Upper-case and lower-case letters are treated as different. -A long string can be split over several lines; Inform transforms each line -break (and any spaces around it) into a single space (extra spaces not at a -line break are preserved, though). These two strings are equivalent:: +A long string can be split over several lines; Inform transforms each +line break (and any spaces around it) into a single space (extra spaces +*not* at a line break are preserved, though). These two strings are +equivalent:: "This is a string of characters." @@ -385,7 +386,7 @@ which could equally have been defined thus:: Constant Headline "^A simple Inform example^by Roger Firth and Sonja Kesserich.^"; -and as the value of an object description property:: +and as the value of an object ``description`` property:: description "Too young to fly, the nestling tweets helplessly.", @@ -393,12 +394,12 @@ Later, you'll find that they're also very common in ``print`` statements. .. rubric:: Single quotes -Single quotes '...' surround a **dictionary word**. This has to be a -single word -- no spaces -- and generally contains only letters (and -occasionally numbers and hyphens), though you can use ``^`` to represent an -apostrophe inside the word. Upper-case and lower-case letters are treated -as identical; also, the interpreter normally looks only at the first nine -characters of each word that the player types. +Single quotes ``'...'`` surround a **dictionary word**. This has to be +a single word -- no spaces -- and generally contains only letters (and +occasionally numbers and hyphens), though you can use ``^`` to represent +an apostrophe inside the word. Upper-case and lower-case letters are +treated as identical; also, the interpreter normally looks only at the +first nine characters of each word that the player types. When the player types a command, the interpreter divides what was typed into individual words, which it then looks up in the dictionary. If it @@ -454,10 +455,10 @@ interpreter executes that statement: it performs an assignment:: deadflag = 2; -which changes the value of the library variable ``deadflag`` from its -current value to 2. Incidentally, if statements are often written on two -lines, with the "controlled" statement indented. This makes it easier to -read, but doesn't change the way that it works:: +which changes the value of the library variable ``deadflag`` from its +current value to 2. Incidentally, ``if`` statements are often written +on two lines, with the "controlled" statement indented. This makes it +easier to read, but doesn't change the way that it works:: if (nest in branch) deadflag = 2; @@ -505,7 +506,8 @@ call. You may have noticed that, although we've defined a routine named ``Initialise``, we've never actually called it. Don't worry -- the - routine is called, by the Inform library, right at the start of a game. + routine *is* called, by the Inform library, right at the start of a + game. .. rubric:: Embedded routines