| Writing with Inform |
▼ Chapter 1. Welcome to Inform
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1.1. Preface
1.2. Acknowledgements
1.3. The facing pages
1.4. The Go! button
1.5. The Replay button
1.6. The Index and Errors panels
1.7. The Skein
1.8. A short Skein tutorial
1.9. Summary of the Skein and Transcript
1.10. The Inspector
▼ Chapter 2. The Source Text
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2.1. Creating the world
2.2. Making rules
2.3. Punctuation
2.4. Problems
2.5. Headings
2.6. Why using headings is a good idea
2.7. The SHOWME command
2.8. The TEST command
2.9. Material not for release
2.10. Installing extensions
2.11. Including extensions
2.12. Use options
2.13. Administering classroom use
2.14. Limits and the Settings panel
2.15. What to do about a bug
2.16. Does Inform really understand English?
2.17. Review of Chapter 2: The Source Text
▼ Chapter 3. Things
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3.1. Descriptions
3.2. Rooms and the map
3.3. One-way connections
3.4. Regions and the index map
3.5. Kinds
3.6. Either/or properties
3.7. Properties depend on kind
3.8. Scenery
3.9. Backdrops
3.10. Properties holding text
3.11. Two descriptions of things
3.12. Doors
3.13. Locks and keys
3.14. Devices and descriptions
3.15. Light and darkness
3.16. Vehicles and pushable things
3.17. Men, women and animals
3.18. Articles and proper names
3.19. Carrying capacity
3.20. Possessions and clothing
3.21. The player's holdall
3.22. Food
3.23. Parts of things
3.24. Concealment
3.25. The location of something
3.26. Directions
3.27. Review of Chapter 3: Things
▼ Chapter 4. Kinds
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4.1. New kinds
4.2. Using new kinds
4.3. Degrees of certainty
4.4. Plural assertions
4.5. Kinds of value
4.6. Properties again
4.7. New either/or properties
4.8. New value properties
4.9. Using new kinds of value in properties
4.10. Conditions of things
4.11. Default values of kinds
4.12. Values that vary
4.13. Duplicates
4.14. Assemblies and body parts
4.15. Names made in assembly
4.16. Postscript on simulation
4.17. Review of Chapter 4: Kinds
▼ Chapter 5. Text
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5.1. Text with substitutions
5.2. How Inform reads quoted text
5.3. Text which names things
5.4. Text with numbers
5.5. Text with lists
5.6. Text with variations
5.7. Text with random alternatives
5.8. Line breaks and paragraph breaks
5.9. Text with type styles
5.10. Accented letters
5.11. Unicode characters
5.12. Displaying quotations
5.13. Making new substitutions
5.14. Review of Chapter 5: Text
▼ Chapter 6. Descriptions
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6.1. What are descriptions?
6.2. Adjectives and nouns
6.3. Sources of adjectives
6.4. Defining new adjectives
6.5. Defining adjectives for values
6.6. Whereabouts on a scale?
6.7. Comparatives
6.8. Superlatives
6.9. Which and who
6.10. Existence and there
6.11. A word about in
6.12. A word about nothing
6.13. To be able to see and touch
6.14. Adjacent rooms and routes through the map
6.15. All, each and every
6.16. Counting while comparing
6.17. Review of Chapter 6: Descriptions
▼ Chapter 7. Basic Actions
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7.1. Actions
7.2. Instead rules
7.3. Before rules
7.4. Try and try silently
7.5. After rules
7.6. Reading and talking
7.7. The other four senses
7.8. Rules applying to more than one action
7.9. All actions and exceptional actions
7.10. The noun and the second noun
7.11. In rooms and regions
7.12. In the presence of, and when
7.13. Going from, going to
7.14. Going by, going through, going with
7.15. Kinds of action
7.16. Repeated actions
7.17. Actions on consecutive turns
7.18. Postscript on actions
7.19. Review of Chapter 7: Basic Actions
▼ Chapter 8. Change
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8.1. Change of values that vary
8.2. Changing the command prompt
8.3. Changing the status line
8.4. Change of either/or properties
8.5. Change of properties with values
8.6. Whose property?
8.7. Moving things
8.8. Moving backdrops
8.9. Moving the player
8.10. Removing things from play
8.11. Now...
8.12. Increasing and decreasing
8.13. Checking on whereabouts
8.14. More flexible descriptions of whereabouts
8.15. Calling names
8.16. Counting the number of things
8.17. Looking at containment by hand
8.18. Randomness
8.19. Random choices of things
8.20. Review of Chapter 8: Change
▼ Chapter 9. Time
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9.1. When play begins
9.2. Awarding points
9.3. Introducing tables: rankings
9.4. When play ends
9.5. Every turn
9.6. The time of day
9.7. Telling the time
9.8. Approximate times, lengths of time
9.9. Comparing and shifting times
9.10. Calculating times
9.11. Future events
9.12. Actions as conditions
9.13. The past and perfect tenses
9.14. How many times?
9.15. How many turns?
9.16. Review of Chapter 9: Time
▼ Chapter 10. Scenes
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10.1. Introduction to scenes
10.2. Creating a scene
10.3. Using the Scene index
10.4. During scenes
10.5. Linking scenes together
10.6. More general linkages
10.7. Multiple beginnings and repeats
10.8. Multiple endings
10.9. Why are scenes designed this way?
10.10. Review of Chapter 10: Scenes
▼ Chapter 11. Phrases
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11.1. What are phrases?
11.2. The phrasebook
11.3. Pattern matching
11.4. The showme phrase
11.5. Conditions and questions
11.6. If
11.7. Begin and end
11.8. Otherwise
11.9. While
11.10. Repeat
11.11. Repeat running through
11.12. Next and break
11.13. Stop
11.14. Phrase options
11.15. Let and temporary variables
11.16. New conditions, new adjectives
11.17. Phrases to decide other things
11.18. The value after and the value before
11.19. Review of Chapter 11: Phrases
▼ Chapter 12. Advanced Actions
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12.1. A recap of actions
12.2. How actions are processed
12.3. Giving instructions to other people
12.4. Persuasion
12.5. Unsuccessful attempts
12.6. Spontaneous actions by other people
12.7. New actions
12.8. Irregular English verbs
12.9. Check, carry out, report
12.10. Action variables
12.11. Making actions work for other people
12.12. Check rules for actions by other people
12.13. Report rules for actions by other people
12.14. Actions for any actor
12.15. Out of world actions
12.16. Reaching inside and reaching outside rules
12.17. Visible vs touchable vs carried
12.18. Changing reachability
12.19. Changing visibility
12.20. Stored actions
12.21. Guidelines on how to write rules about actions
▼ Chapter 13. Relations
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13.1. Sentence verbs
13.2. What sentences are made up from
13.3. What are relations?
13.4. To carry, to wear, to have
13.5. Making new relations
13.6. Making reciprocal relations
13.7. Relations in groups
13.8. The built-in verbs and their meanings
13.9. Defining new assertion verbs
13.10. Defining new prepositions
13.11. Indirect relations
13.12. Relations which express conditions
13.13. Relations involving values
13.14. Relations as values in their own right
13.15. Temporary relations
13.16. What are relations for?
13.17. Review of Chapter 13: Relations
▼ Chapter 14. Numbers and Equations
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14.1. How do we measure things?
14.2. Numbers
14.3. Units
14.4. Multiple notations
14.5. Scaling and equivalents
14.6. Named notations
14.7. Making the verb "to weigh"
14.8. The Metric Units extension
14.9. Notations including more than one number
14.10. The parts of a number specification
14.11. Understanding specified numbers
14.12. Totals
14.13. Equations
14.14. Arithmetic with units
14.15. Multiplication of units
14.16. Review of Chapter 14: Numbers and Equations
▼ Chapter 15. Tables
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15.1. Laying out tables
15.2. Looking up entries
15.3. Corresponding entries
15.4. Changing entries
15.5. Choosing rows
15.6. Repeating through tables
15.7. Blank entries
15.8. Blank columns
15.9. Blank rows
15.10. Adding and removing rows
15.11. Sorting
15.12. Listed in...
15.13. Topic columns
15.14. Another scoring example
15.15. Varying which table to look at
15.16. Defining things with tables
15.17. Defining values with tables
15.18. Table continuations
15.19. Table amendments
▼ Chapter 16. Understanding
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16.1. Understand
16.2. New commands for old grammar
16.3. Overriding existing commands
16.4. Standard tokens of grammar
16.5. The text token
16.6. Actions applying to kinds of value
16.7. Understanding any, understanding rooms
16.8. Understanding names
16.9. Understanding kinds of value
16.10. Commands consisting only of nouns
16.11. Understanding values
16.12. This/that
16.13. New tokens
16.14. Tokens can produce values
16.15. Understanding things by their properties
16.16. Understanding things by their relations
16.17. Context: understanding when
16.18. Changing the meaning of pronouns
16.19. Does the player mean...
16.20. Understanding mistakes
16.21. Precedence
16.22. Review of Chapter 16: Understanding
▼ Chapter 17. Activities
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17.1. What are activities?
17.2. How activities work
17.3. Rules applied to activities
17.4. While clauses
17.5. New activities
17.6. Activity variables
17.7. Beginning and ending activities manually
17.8. Introduction to the list of built-in activities
17.9. Deciding the concealed possessions of something
17.10. Printing the name of something
17.11. Printing the plural name of something
17.12. Printing a number of something
17.13. Listing contents of something
17.14. Grouping together something
17.15. Printing room description details of something
17.16. Printing a refusal to act in the dark
17.17. Printing the announcement of darkness
17.18. Printing the announcement of light
17.19. Printing the name of a dark room
17.20. Printing the description of a dark room
17.21. Constructing the status line
17.22. Writing a paragraph about
17.23. Listing nondescript items of something
17.24. Printing the locale description of something
17.25. Choosing notable locale objects for something
17.26. Printing a locale paragraph about
17.27. Deciding the scope of something
17.28. Clarifying the parser's choice of something
17.29. Asking which do you mean
17.30. Supplying a missing noun/second noun
17.31. Reading a command
17.32. Implicitly taking something
17.33. Printing a parser error
17.34. Deciding whether all includes
17.35. Printing the banner text
17.36. Printing the player's obituary
17.37. Amusing a victorious player
17.38. Starting the virtual machine
17.39. Review of Chapter 17: Activities
▼ Chapter 18. Rulebooks
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18.1. On rules
18.2. Named rules and rulebooks
18.3. New rules
18.4. Listing rules explicitly
18.5. Sorting and indexing of rules
18.6. The preamble of a rule
18.7. New rulebooks
18.8. Basis of a rulebook
18.9. Rulebook variables
18.10. Success and failure
18.11. Named outcomes
18.12. Rulebooks producing values
18.13. Consider and abide
18.14. Procedural rules
18.15. Phrases concerning rules
18.16. Consider is not the same as follow
18.17. Two rulebooks used internally
18.18. The Laws for Sorting Rulebooks
18.19. Review of Chapter 18: Rulebooks
▼ Chapter 19. Advanced Text
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19.1. Ordinary text and indexed text
19.2. Memory limitations with indexed text
19.3. Characters, words, punctuated words, unpunctuated words, lines, paragraphs
19.4. Upper and lower case letters
19.5. Matching and exactly matching
19.6. Regular expression matching
19.7. Indexed text in variables, properties and tables
19.8. Replacements
19.9. Summary of regular expression notation
▼ Chapter 20. Lists
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20.1. Lists and entries
20.2. Constant lists
20.3. Saying lists of values
20.4. Testing and iterating over lists
20.5. Building lists
20.6. Lists of objects
20.7. Lists of values matching a description
20.8. Sorting, reversing and rotating lists
20.9. Accessing entries in a list
20.10. Lengthening or shortening a list
20.11. Variations: arrays, logs, queues, stacks, sets, sieves and rings
▼ Chapter 21. Advanced Phrases
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21.1. A review of kinds
21.2. Descriptions as values
21.3. Phrases as values
21.4. Default values for phrase kinds
21.5. Map, filter and reduce
21.6. Generic phrases
21.7. Kind variables
21.8. Matching the names of kinds
21.9. In what order?
21.10. Ambiguities
▼ Chapter 22. Figures, Sounds and Files
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22.1. Beyond text
22.2. How IF views pictures
22.3. Virtual machines and story file formats
22.4. Gathering the figures
22.5. Declaring and previewing the figures
22.6. Displaying the figures
22.7. Recorded sounds
22.8. Declaring and playing back sounds
22.9. Some technicalities about figures and sounds
22.10. Files
22.11. Declaring files
22.12. Writing and reading tables to external files
22.13. Writing, reading and appending text to files
22.14. Exchanging files with other programs
▼ Chapter 23. Releasing
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23.1. The finished product
23.2. Bibliographic data
23.3. Genres
23.4. The Library Card
23.5. The Treaty of Babel and the IFID
23.6. The Release button and the Materials folder
23.7. The Joy of Feelies
23.8. Cover art
23.9. An introductory booklet
23.10. A website
23.11. A playable web page
23.12. Website templates
23.13. Advanced website templates
23.14. Republishing existing works of IF
23.15. Walkthrough solutions
23.16. Releasing the source text
23.17. Improving the index map
23.18. Producing an EPS format map
23.19. Settings in the map-maker
23.20. Table of map-maker settings
23.21. Kinds of value accepted by the map-maker
23.22. Titling and abbreviation
23.23. Rubrics
▼ Chapter 24. Publishing
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24.1. Finding a readership
24.2. How a novel is published
24.3. How interactive fiction is published
24.4. The IF Archive
24.5. A Website of Its Own
24.6. IFDB: The Interactive Fiction Database
24.7. Competitions
24.8. SPAG
24.9. The Gaming Avant-Garde
24.10. The Digital Literature Community
24.11. A short concluding homily
▼ Chapter 25. Extensions
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25.1. The status of extensions
25.2. The Standard Rules
25.3. Authorship
25.4. A simple example extension
25.5. Version numbering
25.6. Extensions and story file formats
25.7. Extensions can include other extensions
25.8. Extensions can interact with other extensions
25.9. Extensions in the Index
25.10. Extension documentation
25.11. Examples and headings in extension documentation
25.12. Implications
25.13. Using Inform 6 within Inform 7
25.14. Defining phrases in Inform 6
25.15. Phrases to decide in Inform 6
25.16. Handling phrase options
25.17. Making and testing use options
25.18. Longer extracts of Inform 6 code
25.19. Primitive Inform 6 declarations of rules
25.20. Inform 6 objects and classes
25.21. Inform 6 variables, properties, actions, and attributes
25.22. Inform 6 Understand tokens
25.23. Inform 6 adjectives
25.24. Naming Unicode characters
25.25. The template layer
25.26. Translating the language of play
25.27. Segmented substitutions
25.28. Invocation labels, counters and storage
25.29. To say one of
▼ Chapter 26. What's New in Inform?
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26.1. Where to find new developments
26.2. What's new in build 6E59 (June 2010)
26.3. What's new in build 5Z71 (April 2009)
26.4. What's new in build 5U92 (September 2008)
26.5. What's new in build 5T18 (April 2008)
26.6. What was new in build 5J39 (December 2007)
26.7. What was new in build 5G67 (November 2007)
26.8. What was new in build 4X60 (23 August 2007)
26.9. What was new in build 4W37 (27 July 2007)
26.10. What was new in build 4U65 (27 April 2007)
26.11. What was new in build 4S08 (25 March 2007)
Alphabetical Index of Examples
Numerical Index of Examples
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