Ch
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Chart —
A chart of all the kinds |
Matches: value, sayable value
Objects are values intended to simulate physical things: places, people, things, and so on. They come in many kinds. The special value 'nothing' is also allowed, and can be used to mean 'no object at all'.
Usually singular-named not plural-named, improper-named not proper-named.
Usually not ambiguously plural.
Can have list grouping key (text), printed name (text), printed plural name (text), indefinite article (text).
Represents geographical locations, both indoor
and outdoor, which are not necessarily areas in a building. A player in one
room is mostly unable to sense, or interact with, anything in a different room.
Rooms are arranged in a map.
Usually lighted not dark, unvisited not visited.
Can have description (text), map region (object).
Represents anything interactive in the model
world that is not a room. People, pieces of scenery, furniture, doors and
mislaid umbrellas might all be examples, and so might more surprising things
like the sound of birdsong or a shaft of sunlight.
Usually unlit not lit, inedible not edible, portable not fixed in place, described not undescribed, unmarked for listing not marked for listing, mentioned not unmentioned.
Usually not scenery, wearable, pushable between rooms, handled.
Can have description (text), initial appearance (text), matching key (object), disambiguation id (number).
Represents a conduit joining two rooms, most
often a door or gate but sometimes a plank bridge, a slide or a hatchway.
Usually visible and operable from both sides (for instance if you write
'The blue door is east of the Ballroom and west of the Garden.'), but
sometimes only one-way (for instance if you write 'East of the Ballroom is
the long slide. Through the long slide is the cellar.').
Always fixed in place not portable.
Usually closed not open, openable not unopenable, unlocked not locked, obvious.
Usually not lockable.
Never pushable between rooms.
Can have other side (object), passing text (text), closed text (text).
Represents something into which portable
things can be put, such as a teachest or a handbag. Something with a really
large immobile interior, such as the Albert Hall, had better be a room
instead.
Usually opaque not transparent, open not closed, unopenable not openable, unlocked not locked.
Usually not enterable, lockable.
Can have carrying capacity (number).
Represents a container large enough for
a person to enter, and which can then move between rooms at the driver's
instruction. (If a supporter is needed instead, try the extension
Rideable Vehicles by Graham Nelson.)
Always enterable.
Usually fixed in place not portable.
player's holdall (plural player's holdalls)
Represents a container which the
player can carry around as a sort of rucksack, into which spare items are
automatically stowed away.
Always portable not fixed in place.
Usually openable not unopenable.
Represents a surface on which things can be
placed, such as a table.
Usually fixed in place not portable.
Usually not enterable.
Can have carrying capacity (number).
carpet , sofa
, entertainment unit
Represents an aspect of the landscape
or architecture which extends across more than one room: for instance,
a stream, the sky or a long carpet.
Always fixed in place not portable.
Usually scenery.
Never pushable between rooms.
Despite the name, not necessarily
a human being, but anything animate enough to envisage having a
conversation with, or bartering with.
Usually male not female.
Usually not neuter.
Can have carrying capacity (number).
Represents a man or boy.
Always male not female.
Never neuter.
Represents a woman or girl.
Always female not male.
Never neuter.
Represents an animal, or at any rate a
non-human living creature reasonably large and possible to interact with: a
giant Venus fly-trap might qualify, but not a patch of lichen.
Represents a machine or contrivance of some
kind which can be switched on or off.
Usually switched off not switched on.
Represents a direction of movement, such
as northeast or down. They always occur in opposite, matched pairs: northeast
and southwest, for instance; down and up.
Usually unmarked for listing not marked for listing.
Can have opposite (direction).
Represents a broader area than a single
room, and allows rules to apply to a whole geographical territory. Each
region can contain many rooms, and regions can even be inside each other,
though they cannot otherwise overlap. For instance, the room Place d'Italie
might be inside the region 13th Arrondissement, which in turn is inside
the region Paris. Regions are useful mainly when the world is a large one,
and are optional.
Matches: value, arithmetic value, sayable value
Whole number in the range -32768, -32767, ..., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., 32767: small numbers can be written textually as 'one', 'two', 'three', ..., 'ten', 'eleven', 'twelve'. (A much larger number range is allowed if we compile the source to Glulx rather than the Z-machine: see the Settings panel.)
real number (plural real numbers)
Matches: value, arithmetic value, real arithmetic value, sayable value
A real, or 'floating-point' number: the difference between this and ordinary "number" is that real numbers can hold values like 3.141, which aren't whole numbers, and can also hold very large or very small quantities in an approximate way. (Use of real numbers is only allowed if we compile the source to Glulx rather than the Z-machine: see the Settings panel.)
Matches: value, arithmetic value, sayable value
A time of day, written in the form '2:34 AM' or '12:51 PM', or a length of time such as '10 minutes' or '3 hours 31 minutes', which must be between 0 minutes and 23 hours 59 minutes inclusive.
truth state (plural truth states)
Matches: value, sayable value
The state of whether something is 'true' or 'false'. (In other computing languages, this might be called 'boolean', after the 19th-century logician George Boole, who first realised this was a kind of value.)
Matches: value, sayable value
Some text in double quotation marks, perhaps with substitutions written in square brackets.
unicode character (plural unicode characters)
Matches: value, sayable value
A single character - a letter or item of punctuation.
Matches: value, sayable value
A fragment of the player's most recent typed command, taking in a run of consecutive words.
Matches: value, sayable value
A stored action, which can later be tried.
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
Like a scene in a play: a period of time which is usually tied to events in the plot. Scenes are created by sentences like 'Midnight Arrival is a scene.'
Usually non-recurring not recurring.
Can have description (text).
Entire Game, Normalcy , First Kook
command parser error (plural command parser errors)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
verbosity (plural verbosities)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
use option (plural use options)
Matches: value, sayable value
One of the optional ways to configure Inform, such as the 'authorial modesty option'.
Matches: value, sayable value
One of the standard responses issued by the Standard Rules or other extensions.
Matches: value, sayable value
One of the verbs which Inform knows how to conjugate.
table name (plural table names)
Matches: value, sayable value
Like tables of information in a book or newspaper, tables in Inform hold values which have been organised into rows and columns. A table name is just a single value, identifying which table is meant - say, 'Table of US Presidents' might be a table name value.
equation name (plural equation names)
Matches: value
Like formulae in a textbook or a scientific paper, equations in Inform are written out in displayed form and given names.
rulebook outcome (plural rulebook outcomes)
Matches: value, sayable value
action name (plural action names)
Matches: value, sayable value
An action is what happens when one of the people in the simulated world decides to do something. A full action would be something like 'dropping the box', but an action name is just the choice of which sort of thing is being done: here, it's 'the dropping action'. (Action names are always written with the word 'action' at the end, to make sure they aren't mistaken for full actions.)
figure name (plural figure names)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
When made with the Glulx setting, an Inform project can include images as well as words, and these are called figures. A figure name is just the name of one of the figures in the current project.
Figure of cover
sound name (plural sound names)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
When made with the Glulx setting, an Inform project can include sound effects or pieces of music. A sound name is just the name of one of these sounds in the current project.
external file (plural external files)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
When made with the Glulx setting, an Inform project can make limited use of files stored on the computer which is operating the story at run-time. An external-file is just the name of one of these files (not the filename in the usual sense, but a name given to it in the Inform source text).
natural language (plural natural languages)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
Swedish language, Spanish language, French language, German language, English language, Italian language
grammatical tense (plural grammatical tenses)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
present tense , past tense
, perfect tense
, past perfect tense
, future tense
narrative viewpoint (plural narrative viewpoints)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
first person singular , second person singular
, third person singular
, first person plural
, second person plural
, third person plural
grammatical case (plural grammatical cases)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
grammatical gender (plural grammatical genders)
Matches: value, enumerated value, sayable value
neuter gender , masculine gender
, feminine gender
phrase K -> L (plural phrases K -> L)
contravariant in K, covariant in L
Matches: value, sayable value
relation of K (plural relations of K)
Matches: value, sayable value
K based rule producing L (plural K based rules producing L)
contravariant in K, covariant in L
Matches: value, sayable value
One of many, many rules which determine what happens during play. Rules can be triggered by scenes beginning or ending, by certain actions, at certain times, or in the course of carrying out certain activities.
K based rulebook producing L (plural K based rulebooks producing L)
contravariant in K, covariant in L
Matches: value, sayable value
A list of rules to follow, in sequence, to get something done. A rulebook is like a ring-binder, with the individual rules as sheets of paper. Inform normally sorts these into their 'natural' order, with the most specific rules first, but it's easy to shuffle the pages if you need to. When some task is carried out during play, Inform is normally working through a rulebook, turning the pages one by one.
activity on K (plural activities on K)
Matches: value
An activity is something which Inform does as part of the mechanics of play - for instance, printing the name of an object, which Inform often has to do. An activity can happen by itself ('printing the banner text', for instance) or can be applied to an object ('printing the name of something', say).
Matches: value
A flexible-length list of values, where all of the items have to have the same kind of value as each other - for instance, a list of rooms, or a list of lists of numbers. The empty list, with no items yet, is written { }, and a list with items in is written with commas dividing them - say {2, 5, 9}.
description of K (plural descriptions of K)
Matches: value
A description of a set of values, where all of the items have to have the same kind of value as each other - for instance, 'even numbers' or 'open doors which are in lighted rooms'.
K valued property (plural K valued properties)
Matches: value
K valued table column (plural K valued table columns)
Matches: value
Ar
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Arithmetic —
Which values can be added up, multiplied and so on |
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kind of value | minimum | maximum | dimensions |
number | 1 | 2147483647 | dimensionless |
real number | -- | -- | dimensionless |
time | 1 minute | 23 hours 59 minutes | (time) |
Vl
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Values —
Values which vary during play, and equations. |
Situation
player - person
location - object
score - number
last notified score - number
maximum score - number
turn count - number
time of day - time
darkness witnessed - truth state
Current action
noun - object
second noun - object
person asked - object
reason the action failed - rule
item described - object
Used when ruling on accessibility
person reaching - object
container in question - object
supporter in question - object
particular possession - thing
Used when understanding typed commands
player's command - snippet
matched text - snippet
kind understood - value
current item from the multiple object list - object
Presentation on screen
command prompt - text
left hand status line - text
right hand status line - text
listing group size - number
Language generation
language of play - natural language
prior named object - object
Command parser errors
latest parser error - command parser error
Grammatical definitions
story tense - grammatical tense
story viewpoint - narrative viewpoint
Customizing the status line
Status bar table - table name
Right alignment depth - number
Menu depth - number
endnode flag - number
current menu title - text
Current menu - table name
Current menu selection - number
List of disambiguables
list of disambiguables - list of objects
disambiguation-busy
disambiguation-busy - truth state
Preferences
List exits - truth state
Mentioning doors - truth state
Room memory - truth state
Darkness memory - truth state
List of Named or Numbered Equations (About equations )
None.