Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!caen!destroyer!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!newsserver.sfu.ca!sfu.ca!neilg
From: neilg@fraser.sfu.ca (Neil K. Guy)
Subject: Re: TADS Question
Message-ID: <neilg.752694323@sfu.ca>
Sender: news@sfu.ca
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
References: <1993Nov6.025824.7911@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 17:45:23 GMT
Lines: 26

lyn6@ellis.uchicago.edu (caitrin  lynch) writes:

>With TADS, is there any easy way to change the enter and exit methods so that
>they can be used with room names. For example, if there is a booth in a room,
>and the player types enter booth, the game returns: "there is no booth here."
>Clearly, there is a booth here, but just typing enter doesn't seem as
>intuitive as it might be.

 Depends how you want to do things. Rooms in most TADS games cannot be
referred to. (eg: you can't type "search room.") I've hacked my game
to understand this since I happen to like it, but that raises other
problems. (for example I added a new property for the proper name of a
location that's normally an sdesc ("The Bookshop") and then a regular
sdesc ("bookshop")) Otherwise you end up getting stuff like "Which
shop do you mean? The The Bookshop or the The Record Store?" because
you're being prompted for a normal item thedesc.

 Anyway, this is kind of besides the point. The easiest way I think
you can do this is to have a fake booth item sitting in your room.
This booth item has a bunch of properties assigned to it so the player
can look at it and such, and doEnter points to the real booth room
object. This is assuming you don't want to implement your booth as a
nestedroom like a chair or something.

 - Neil K. (n_k_guy@sfu.ca)

