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From: z_bowlinjb@titan.sfasu.edu (Berek Halfhand aka John Bowlin)
Subject: Re: I-F Language questions. (MOO)
Message-ID: <1996Apr24.114533@titan.sfasu.edu>
Date: 24 Apr 96 11:45:33 CST
References: <4le3rm$t7f@pipe12.nyc.pipeline.com> <1996Apr22.131050@titan.sfasu.edu> <4li9b1$dlj@news.ox.ac.uk>
Organization: Stephen F. Austin State University
Lines: 37


> I don't think that's the case. To have a good chance of wining, you need to
> make sure that most people can play the game. Hugo runs under DOS, Unix,
> Amiga (I'll upload the Amiga version of 2.1 after typing this :-), there's
> an Arc port underway, which only really leaves out the Mac.

I was kind of hoping someone would port it to the Mac. I feel that there
are probably quite a few people who will vote in the contest who use
Mac's. I would say that Mac, DOS, and Unix would be enough. It's nice to
see support for Amiga, though. Atari would also be nice. I guess there
aren't too many people using CPM these days. :)
 
> : to get more votes for a Hugo entry. I've looked at Hugo and I like its
> : syntax better than TADS or Inform, but I can't tell about anything else.
> : Is there a library for Hugo, like TADS' Worldclass and the Inform 5/12
> : library? Is there a lot of sample code out there?
> 
> Yes. Look in the library subdirectory! There is the source for a port of
> Adventure and the game Spur.

I did, and I got those. I was comparing the amount of source for Hugo to
that of TADS and/or Inform. It's quite a benefit to have 8 or 9 games
with source code to use as example material. It means that there are a
very wide variety of puzzles already coded as an example for that 
language. I've recently been picking through the code for Balances. The
Enchanteresque spell casting system is practically written for a
would-be enchanter-sequel-writer. (I'm not, but I am considering using
the technique for a cyberpunkish game).

I'm glad that there are other languages out there. And I'm still
undecided as to which I'll use. I may still try Hugo, if not for the
contest, maybe for another project. And I still think ALAN is cool.

As kind of a general poll, how many would-be-IF-authors out there are
writing or considering writing your contest entry in something other
than Inform or TADS?


