First, that's not enough detail. It's unclear how befores and afters
check their arguments. (I gather *from an example* that there are
global variables called inp1 and inp2. But there are also things
called noun and second. Huh? What? How do these things work if the
arguments are in a funny order? They ain't in the index.)
Second, not all actions work that way. Some don't check afters (it
took me three days to understand why not -- sure it's obvious once you
understand it, but reading the documentation did not cause me to
understand it.) Some don't have direct objects, so (I assume) they
only check two befores and two afters, but it's not clear what that
means in terms of the arguments (assuming I understood the arguments
:-) Then there are actions like PutOn, which unleash a barrage of
Insert and Remove and LetGo and Receive actions, in, er, some order.
(Insert, Remove, LetGo, and Receive *are* in the index; each is
mentioned exactly once, on page 22, in a sentence which informs me
that the latter two are like the former two, but the other way
'round. Gurgle.)
Basically I feel like I need another (probably long) appendix, which
spells out in anal detail what all the standard actions really do.
Also how the standard properties behave. I found out last night (by
my usual method of getting it wrong at first) that setting the
describe routine of an object prevents the inital property from
working. I assume by this that the default describe routine is where
the initial/moved mechanism lives, so overriding it overrides that
mechanism, so you should provide it yourself in your describe routine.
Which is easy; but the point is that a lot of people must have gotten
that wrong at first.
Sigh. To paraphrase somebody, I know good documentation when I fail
to reread it twenty times. I've read the Inform Designer's Manual
about twenty times by now.
Note: Graham, if you take this personally I will walk over to England
and bop your head with a paper-towel roll.
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."