Message-ID: <062303Z24061996@anon.penet.fi>
Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.ruhr-uni-bochum.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!news.belwue.de!news.uni-ulm.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!blackbush.xlink.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!news.eunet.fi!anon.penet.fi
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: an648142@anon.penet.fi (Gentle Bear)
X-Anonymously-To: rec.arts.int-fiction
Organization: Anonymous forwarding service
Reply-To: an648142@anon.penet.fi
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 06:13:59 UTC
Subject: [Inform] suggested library changes
Lines: 44


(I hope my anonymous posting is not considered improper.)

A few suggestions for improvements to the Inform libraries (5/12, though
if I'm not mistaken the 6/1 libraries are similar in these aspects):

(1) At the moment, defining WITHOUT_DIRECTIONS makes it impossible for 
Inform to compile the game properly, at least if one includes the ordinary 
libraries, because this results in u_obj and d_obj being undefined, while 
Verblib refers to these several times (e.g., in the PushDirSub).  To fix 
this, move the ENDIF associated to the #IFNDEF WITHOUT_DIRECTIONS so that
it precedes the definitions of u_obj and d_obj.  (One is loath to IFNDEF
out all these usages; consider, e.g., the effect on the Empty action.)
It seems to me that someone who defines WITHOUT_DIRECTIONS may not want
to be bothered with defining a u_obj and a d_obj.

(2) Taking multiple objects, some on the floor and some not: the following 
behavior seems rather unfortunate:

Living Room

You can see a table (on which is a plate) and a book here.

>take plate and book
book: Taken.

(As one might expect, the table, book, and plate are Objects; the table
supports the plate.)  While it is perhaps sensible in this situation for

>take all

to attempt to take only the table and the book, not the plate, I do not
think it makes sense to entirely ignore a specific request in this fashion.
I therefore propose the following diff to parser.h:

2148,2150c2148
<       if (parser_trace>=4)
<           print "   Token 2 plural case: number with actor ", low, "^";
<       if (take_all_rule==2 || low>0)
--****ATTENTION****--****ATTENTION****--****ATTENTION****--***ATTENTION***
Your e-mail reply to this message WILL be *automatically* ANONYMIZED.
Please, report inappropriate use to                abuse@anon.penet.fi
For information (incl. non-anon reply) write to    help@anon.penet.fi
If you have any problems, address them to          admin@anon.penet.fi
