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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: Inform move counter bug?
Message-ID: <erkyrathDvq739.1C1@netcom.com>
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Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 16:57:09 GMT
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Joe W. Aultman (aultman@scott.net) wrote:
> I've noticed that all Inform games I've played start me off with one
> move counted already. I thought it could be an interpreter flaw, but
> Infocom story files start at zero moves with the same interpreters.
> I'm afraid I don't know enough about it yet, but it seems there must
> be a problem in the story file itself for this to happen. Is this
> something the Inform compiler is doing? 

It's neither the interpreter nor the compiler (neither of them know a move
counter from any other variable.[*]) It's just the way the standard
library is written. It initializes a variable to 1, and uses that as a
move counter. 

It would be trivial for the game author to change this to 0, but 
apparently we all either like it that way or never noticed the different. 
(I'm in both categories.)

(As a programmer, I always count starting at 0. But I'm writing for a 
general audience, so it's polite to count starting at 1. :-)

--Z

[*] Except in V3 games, where the interpreter *does* handle the move
counter and the status line. But there aren't a lot of V3 Inform games, 
and I don't expect there will be many written in the future.


-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
