TADS has been ported to plenty of Unix-based platforms -- Linux, MIPS,
Ultrix, &c -- and, last I heard, there was someone working on an Acorn
port. There's a file at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/tads
called If-TADS-Does-Not-Run-On-Your-Machine or something like that that
details how you can find out about porting TADS to whatever OS you please.
One thing I worry about about using Inform for IF ... well, if I ever
decide to sell (gasp!) a bit of IF, either as a "sequel" you get when
registering or as a plain commercial product (locally advertised or
whatever) -- well, what are the legalities of commercially distributing a
game derived on a copyrighted structure (ZCode)? What are the chances
I'll be able to give out ZIP in the .ZIP file or on the diskette of this
game? How many computer novices will be turned off by or totaly unable to
go and find an interpreter on their own -- even if I give an
address/upload the interpreter to the same place/whatever? Do I really
want to write my own run-time for Zcode?
TADS comes with all that. The distribution options are clear in it's
licensing agreement. If I have a question about distribution in a
commercial sense, I know who to contact -- M. Roberts.
Don't get me wrong... I like Inform. I like it a lot. I worked on porting
it to the PC, before Bob Newell's efforts in that arena far outstripped
my own and I gave up and just compiled it for my personal use. My name's
in the credits to "Curses", at which I was surprised and oddly gratified.
I cannot decide whether to use TADS or Inform for the competition (maybe
I'll finally do my proposed "Write a game that's the same in both systems
and write a paper about the dfferences" project at the same time), but my
choice for a shareware or commercial game would be clear -- TADS.
-- http://w3.one.net/~cinnamon/ cinnamon@one.net