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# Inform 6
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2024-02-27 00:51:15 +02:00
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This is Inform 6.43, copyright (c) Graham Nelson 1993 - 2024, a compiler for
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interactive fiction (text adventure games).
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2022-07-24 13:10:45 +03:00
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Release notes, manuals, executables and more are available from
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https://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/infocom/compilers/inform6/.
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## Introduction
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Back in the late 1980s, people began investigating the format of Infocom's
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text adventures. Infocom used a standard format that defined a virtual
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machine, which has come to be known as the Z-Machine, to allow them to be
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able to port their games to many different computers. This investigation lead
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to the creation of open source implementations of the Z-Machine, such as the
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InfoTaskForce interpreter, Zip, Frotz, and many others.
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In 1993, Graham Nelson released the first version of Inform, which compiled a
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somewhat C-like language ("Inform") to the Z-Machine. In the years that
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followed this led to the creation of hundreds of free games by a community
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that had sprung up based around the Usenet group rec.arts.int-fiction.
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The latest version of Inform is [Inform 7](http://inform7.com/), but Inform 6
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still lives on, both as the code generator used by Inform 7, and as a language
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and compiler in its own right. Inform 6 is now considered stable and only has
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bugs fixed and minor, non-breaking features added, but development continues.
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## Using Inform 6
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To use the compiler, you will need an executable. There are
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[pre-built executables](https://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/infocom/compilers/inform6/executables/)
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available, or you can compile the source yourself. There is no makefile as
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compilation does not really need one: all that is required is a C compiler and
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for it to be invoked with something like
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cc -O2 -o inform *.c
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Suitable defaults for various operating systems can be selected by defining
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the appropriate symbol, a list of which are near the top of the "header.h"
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file (under "Our host machine or OS for today is..."). For example, to compile
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for Windows, use
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cc -DPC_WIN32 -O2 -o inform *.c
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To write a work of interactive fiction with Inform 6, you will also need a
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version of the Inform 6 library.
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[Stable versions](https://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/infocom/compilers/inform6/library/)
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of the library are available, and development of the library continues in a
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[separate project](https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/inform6lib).
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More resources and documentation, including the Inform Designer's Manual, are
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available from the [Inform 6 web site](https://www.inform-fiction.org/).
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