Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!ira.uka.de!howland.reston.ans.net!noc.near.net!uunet!pipex!uknet!pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!gdr11
From: gan10@phx.cam.ac.uk (Graham Nelson)
Subject: Announcement: INFORM 
 
          Announcing "Inform", an Infocom-format compiler:
          ================================================
 
Message-ID: <1993May9.182053.25691@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
Sender: gdr11@cl.cam.ac.uk (G.D. Rees)
Nntp-Posting-Host: grange.cl.cam.ac.uk
Reply-To: gan10@phx.cam.ac.uk
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK
Date: Sun, 9 May 1993 18:20:53 GMT
Lines: 43

Infocom game story files are as near to a universal format as we have for
interactive fiction games, but until now it has been very difficult to
construct them, and I am not aware that anyone has previously created them
outside of Infocom itself.
 
I have written such a compiler, called "Inform", the ANSI C source of
which is public domain.  It is not a marvellously well-written program,
but it does work, and it is documented.
 
Inform produces version-3 files from a fairly C-like source language.
 
The documentation for it contains a description of Inform, and what I think
is a complete specification of the version-3 Z-code format; although this
information is mostly available on the nets, I don't think it has been
collated into a single account before.  It also contains a couple of short
articles on game design, and particularly design subject to the version-3
limits.
 
There are also two example games, one medium-sized, one tiny.  Both the
source files and the story files they compile to, are included.
 
Inform is public domain, though I retain the copyright.  I have no objection
to anyone using its output for anything they wish.
 
I have also written a fully-fleshed out new game called "Curses", for which
the source is not available.  Details are given in a similar announcement on
rec.games.int-fiction.
 
Inform may be found in the if-archive at ftp.gmd.de:
 
  if-archive/infocom/compilers/inform
 
contains all the Inform files, including a copy of "Curses".  See the Index
file there.  There is also a copy of "Curses" in if-archive/games/infocom.
Remember that story files must be FTP'd in binary, not ASCII, mode.
 
My thanks go to Volker Blasius for maintaining the archive, and to the
InfoTaskForce and Mark Howell for their sterling work.
 
-- 
Graham Nelson
Oxford University, UK
<gan10@phx.cam.ac.uk>
