Re: Inform: source files/parsing NPC commands


21 Aug 1995 20:00:58 GMT

Jim Gould (jgould@holli.com) wrote:
: One: How big is *too* big for an INF file? The game I'm working on seems to
: be growing at an unnatural rate, and I was wondering at what point Inform
: would balk at compiling it as an Advanced game. (I certainly hope the game
: doesn't become *that* unwieldy.)

I believe that an Advanced (z5) game can be up to 256K long, compiled. If
it gets too big (Curses is the largest Inform game, and it's only ~240K),
you can make it a z7 or z8 game, but then you'll eliminate some older
interpreters.

: Two: I've a character, a waiter, to be exact, who I want to be able to get an
: object for the player if the player types either 'waiter, get me a bagel' or
: 'ask waiter for coffee'. What action should I define to handle in the NPC's
: life()? (Or am I completely off base in my thinking of how NPC interaction is
: handled? :) )

Um... I think you would put something under Order in the life routine to
check if (action==##Give). I don't think the grammar of 'get' supports
'get me a ___', but there should be some way to get that to work.
Likewise, I don't know about the grammar of 'ask' and whether it would
support that. But if it does, it would be under Ask in life.

Then again, I could be wrong about all of this. :)
I'm used to TADS.

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