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From: M.S.Walker@cs.cf.ac.uk (M Walker)
Subject: Re: Adventure writing language
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Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 11:56:35 GMT
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John Elliott (elliott@teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk) wrote:
: In article <4lltov$k79@nntp4.u.washington.edu>, Matthew Amster-Burton (mamster@u.washington.edu) wrote:

:   This is PAW as in the Spectrum adventure writing system?

: <ftp://ftp.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/p/paw128k.zip>

: (you'll need Z80.EXE to run it).


Yes, it is PAW as in the Spectrum (et al.) adventure writing system

For those who don't know it, you create a series of tables (Locations, Messages
etc.), and then Action Tables (Process and Response tables in PAW) to tie them
all together, along with the possible ways of invoking the entries in the 
table.

A short example might help.

GET	*		AUTOG
			DONE

here, if the user types 'get', with anything (*) as a noun, the system will
attempt, using the 'AUTO-Get' routine, to pick up the object

how about

UNLOCK	DOOR		AT 1
			CARRIED 45
			MESSAGE 10
			SET 15
			PLUS 30 10
			SWAP 4 6
			DONE

If the player types 'unlock door', and it AT location 1, and is carrying the key
(object #45), print message 10 ('you unlock the door'), set flag 15 (which says
whether the door is unlocked or not), add 10 to flag 30 (the player's score),
swap object 4 (unlocked door) for object 6 (locked door).

Of course, just cause object 45 here is a key, doesn't mean it ALWAYS has to be
a key.

Some stats:
	There is a maximum of : 65500 Objects
					Locations
					Messages
					Action Tables
					Entries in Each Action Tables
					Words with unique numbers

There are 6 types of word that the parser understands:
verb, noun, adverb, adjective, preposition and conjunction

so you can have a sentence of

(adverb) verb (noun1(adjective1)) (preposition (noun2(adjective2))) (conj.)




Oh, and it's not a port of the PAW - it is a complete re-write, just using the
'way the PAW does things' mostly.


Mark
