Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: [Inform] parser question
Message-ID: <erkyrathDy7CBp.n29@netcom.com>
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Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 20:16:36 GMT
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Admiral Jota (jota@laraby.tiac.net) wrote:

> Hi folks. I'm somewhat a student of languages, and I was thinking about 
> writing IF games in other languages. I know that it's fairly easy to 
> write in many of them, like French or Spanish, because most things are 
> formatted similarly to english. Would Inform be able to handle input that 
> used other forms -- like Latin, for instance? Latin has, for example, 
> declining nouns: a noun can have different suffixes, depending on how 
> it's used in a sentence. One might type "ASPICE AEOLUM" to look at Aeolus, 
> but "DA AEOLO GLADIUM" to give the sword to him.

Hm. I'd invent different scope routines for the different declensions; 
you can place them properly in the Verb grammar lines.

The various scope routines would all work the same as the standard one, 
but they'd look at properties name_nom, name_gen, name_acc, and so on. 
The various properies would contain parallel word-lists, in the 
appropriate declension.

Adjectives go in the name_* property, just as they do normally, so it's 
easy to make them match the noun. 

Now, do you put the verb in the vocative ("(player), look at rock!") or 
infinitive ("(I want to) look at rock.") or first-person present tense 
("(I) look at rock.")?

Heh.

--Z

-- 

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