Support execution of command script arguments.

[open-adventure.git] / advent.adoc

diff --git a/advent.adoc b/advent.adoc
index 01dded4f6b5ef184391e94f35a57dab547ba863a..fa69ddceae1e78bcdde226b8f9da3d4ed566b663 100644 (file)
--- a/advent.adoc
+++ b/advent.adoc
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 advent - Colossal Cave Adventure
 
 == SYNOPSIS ==
-*advent* [-l logfile] [-o] [-r savefile] [-s]
+*advent* [-l logfile] [-o] [-r savefile] [script...]
 
 == DESCRIPTION ==
 The original Colossal Cave Adventure from 1976-77 was the origin of all
@@ -43,7 +43,12 @@ There have been no gameplay changes.
 -r:: Restore game from specified file
 
 -o:: Old-style.  Restores original interface, no prompt or line editing.
-     Also ignores new-school one-letter commands l, x, g, z, i.
+     Also ignores new-school one-letter commands l, x, g, z, i. Also
+     case-smashes and truncates unrecognized text when echoed.
+
+Normally, game input is taken from standard input.  If script file
+arguments are given, input is taken fron them instead.  A script file
+argument of '-' is taken as a directive to read from standard input.
 
 == BUGS ==
 
@@ -51,6 +56,24 @@ The binary save file format is fragile, dependent on your machine word
 size and endianness, and unlikely to survive through version bumps. There
 is a version check.
 
+The input parser was the first attempt *ever* at natural-language
+parsing in a game and has some known deficiencies.  While later text
+adventures distinguished between transitive and intransitive verbs,
+Adventure's grammar distinguishes only between motion and action
+verbs. Motions are always immediate in their behavior, so both ACTION
+MOTION and MOTION ACTION (and even MOTION NOUN and MOTION MOTION) are
+invariably equivalent to MOTION (thus GO NORTH means NORTH and JUMP
+DOWN means JUMP). Whereas, with actions and nouns, the parser collects
+words until it's seen one of each, and then dispatches; if it reaches
+the end of the command without seeing a noun, it'll dispatch an
+"intransitive" action. This makes ACTION1 ACTION2 equivalent to
+ACTION2 (thus TAKE INVENTORY means INVENTORY), and NOUN ACTION
+equivalent to ACTION NOUN.
+
+Thus you get anomalies like "eat building" interpreted as a command
+to move to the building. These should not be reported as bugs; instead,
+consider them historical curiosities.
+
 == REPORTING BUGS ==
 Report bugs to Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>.  The project page is
 at http://catb.org/~esr/open-adventure