Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!caen!destroyer!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!newsserver.sfu.ca!sfu.ca!neilg
From: neilg@fraser.sfu.ca (Neil K. Guy)
Subject: Announcing the TADS Source Code Example Collection!
Message-ID: <neilg.750121366@sfu.ca>
Keywords: TADS source code examples ftp
Sender: news@sfu.ca
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 23:02:46 GMT
Lines: 54

		
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               Calling all TADS Authors:
      Announcing the TADS Source Code Example Collection!

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      /if-archive/programming/tads/examples on ftp.gmd.de


Thanks to Volker Blasius, the generous soul responsible for the
if-archive on the ftp.gmd.de archive site, there's now an
Internet-accessible site for storing TADS source code examples.

 TADS, the Text Adventure Development System developed by High
Energy Software, is a very rich and full-featured programming
language for writing text adventures, and it can take quite a while
to learn its intricacies and implement ideas. As with learning any
computer language, examining well-commented source code is an
excellent way to gain insight and familiarity with TADS.

 Over the past year or two that I've been following
rec.arts.int-fiction some very useful source code ideas have
floated by. And in the past few weeks I've seen a couple of
different but very similar implementations of "take anything" and
"go anywhere" verbs appear as well. (I can add my renditions of
these verbs to the list as well - you can download them from the
"Examples" directory) So I thought it'd be useful to have a central
repository for all these source code ideas; a site that's always
there and not as transient as the postings on a Usenet group. High
Energy Software run their own bulletin board, which is an excellent
source of TADS wisdom. However it's inaccessible to those without
modems and for many people (particularly for those of us outside
the USA) long-distance calls can be prohibitively expensive. This
directory in the if-archive is meant to be a handy free TADS source
archive for everyone in the Internet community.

 I've written a very broad charter with suggestions for how to
submit your own material. I've also put two sample TADS source code
files in to start things off. "shoc.t" is one way of implementing
an electrically live and shocking piece of equipment in a game, and
"wizard.t" contains a variety of useful commands that can help in
debugging a game. Also in the directory is "safe.t" by Greg Ewing,
an example of implementing divisible substances in a TADS game.

 Hopefully, this is just a start! Please contribute your own tasty
morsels of TADS code - I'm sure there are lots of people out there
interested in your coding techniques!

 Enjoy!
 
 - Neil K. (n_k_guy@sfu.ca)

