§1. Whereas extensions are a familiar concept to most Inform users, "kits" are not. They provide what can be large bodies of pre-compiled material. As with extensions, different projects may use different sets of kits, but some are compulsory, and others nearly so. For an English-language work of interactive fiction being made with the Inform apps, the kits will be:
BasicInformKit + EnglishLanguageKit + WorldModelKit + CommandParserKit
However, if the "Basic Inform" checkbox is ticked on the Settings panel for the project, the kits will instead be:
BasicInformKit + EnglishLanguageKit + BasicInformExtrasKit
And these are also the defaults when Inform projects are compiled from the command line, with the optional -basic switch forcing us into the second case.
It is possible to create new kits, and to choose different selections of kits to include. For documentation on how, see A Guide to Kits (in inbuild).
BasicInformExtrasKit
A kit of Inter code providing runtime support for all programs not using WorldModelKit.
EnglishLanguageKit
A kit of Inter code providing runtime support for programs compiled with English as their natural language.
WorldModelKit
A kit of Inter code providing runtime support for interactive fiction projects with a simulated world.
CommandParserKit
A kit of Inter code providing runtime support for interactive fiction projects with a command parser interface.