Miscellaneous constant definitions, usually providing symbolic names for otherwise inscrutable numbers, which are used throughout the template layer.
- §1. Identification
- §2. Z-Machine Definitions
- §3. Glulx Definitions
- §4. Nothing
- §5. Powers of Two
- §6. Text Styles
- §7. Colour Numbers
- §8. Window Numbers
- §9. Paragraphing Flags
- §10. Descriptors in the Language of Play
- §11. Run-Time Problem Numbers
- §12. Template Activities
- §13. Template Rulebooks
- §14. Scope Searching Reasons
- §15. Token Types
- §16. GPR Return Values
- §17. List Styles
- §18. Lengths Of Time
- §19. Empty Text
- §20. Empty Table
- §21. Empty Set
- §22. Template Attributes
- §23. Template Properties
- §24. Formal Parameters
- §25. Template Configuration
Constant BASICINFORMKIT = 1;
§2. Z-Machine Definitions. The Z-machine contains certain special constants and variables at fixed position in its "header"; the addresses of these are given below. See The Z-Machine Standards Document, version 1.0, for details.
#Ifdef TARGET_ZCODE; Offsets into Z-machine header: Constant HDR_ZCODEVERSION = $00; byte Constant HDR_TERPFLAGS = $01; byte Constant HDR_GAMERELEASE = $02; word Constant HDR_HIGHMEMORY = $04; word Constant HDR_INITIALPC = $06; word Constant HDR_DICTIONARY = $08; word Constant HDR_OBJECTS = $0A; word Constant HDR_GLOBALS = $0C; word Constant HDR_STATICMEMORY = $0E; word Constant HDR_GAMEFLAGS = $10; word Constant HDR_GAMESERIAL = $12; six ASCII characters Constant HDR_ABBREVIATIONS = $18; word Constant HDR_FILELENGTH = $1A; word Constant HDR_CHECKSUM = $1C; word Constant HDR_TERPNUMBER = $1E; byte Constant HDR_TERPVERSION = $1F; byte Constant HDR_SCREENHLINES = $20; byte Constant HDR_SCREENWCHARS = $21; byte Constant HDR_SCREENWUNITS = $22; word Constant HDR_SCREENHUNITS = $24; word Constant HDR_FONTWUNITS = $26; byte Constant HDR_FONTHUNITS = $27; byte Constant HDR_ROUTINEOFFSET = $28; word Constant HDR_STRINGOFFSET = $2A; word Constant HDR_BGCOLOUR = $2C; byte Constant HDR_FGCOLOUR = $2D; byte Constant HDR_TERMCHARS = $2E; word Constant HDR_PIXELSTO3 = $30; word Constant HDR_TERPSTANDARD = $32; two bytes Constant HDR_ALPHABET = $34; word Constant HDR_EXTENSION = $36; word Constant HDR_UNUSED = $38; two words Constant HDR_INFORMVERSION = $3C; four ASCII characters Constant #dict_par1 = 6; Constant #dict_par2 = 7; #Endif;
§3. Glulx Definitions. We make similar header definitions for Glulx. Extensive further definitions, of constants needed to handle the Glk I/O layer, can be found in the "Infglk" section of "Glulx.i6t"; they are not used in the rest of the template layer, and would only get in the way here.
#IFDEF TARGET_GLULX; Global unicode_gestalt_ok; Set if interpreter supports Unicode Offsets into Glulx header and start of ROM: Constant HDR_MAGICNUMBER = $00; long word Constant HDR_GLULXVERSION = $04; long word Constant HDR_RAMSTART = $08; long word Constant HDR_EXTSTART = $0C; long word Constant HDR_ENDMEM = $10; long word Constant HDR_STACKSIZE = $14; long word Constant HDR_STARTFUNC = $18; long word Constant HDR_DECODINGTBL = $1C; long word Constant HDR_CHECKSUM = $20; long word Constant ROM_INFO = $24; four ASCII characters Constant ROM_MEMORYLAYOUT = $28; long word Constant ROM_INFORMVERSION = $2C; four ASCII characters Constant ROM_COMPVERSION = $30; four ASCII characters Constant ROM_GAMERELEASE = $34; short word Constant ROM_GAMESERIAL = $36; six ASCII characters Constant #dict_par1 = 11; Constant #dict_par2 = 13; #Endif;
§4. Nothing. This is defined automatically by the Inform 6 compiler, but not by other final compilation platforms (such as C).
Constant nothing = 0;
§5. Powers of Two. I6 lacks support for logical shifts, and the Z-machine opcodes which bear on this are not always well supported, so the I6 library has traditionally used a lookup table for the values of \(2^{15-n}\) where \(0\leq n \leq 11\).
Array PowersOfTwo_TB --> $$100000000000 $$010000000000 $$001000000000 $$000100000000 $$000010000000 $$000001000000 $$000000100000 $$000000010000 $$000000001000 $$000000000100 $$000000000010 $$000000000001; Array IncreasingPowersOfTwo_TB --> $$0000000000000001 $$0000000000000010 $$0000000000000100 $$0000000000001000 $$0000000000010000 $$0000000000100000 $$0000000001000000 $$0000000010000000 $$0000000100000000 $$0000001000000000 $$0000010000000000 $$0000100000000000 $$0001000000000000 $$0010000000000000 $$0100000000000000 $$1000000000000000;
§6. Text Styles. These are the styles of text distinguished by the template layer, though they are not required to look different from each other on any given VM. The codes are independent of the VM targetted, though in fact they are equal to Glulx style numbers as conventionally used. (The Z-machine renders some as roman, some as bold, but for instance makes HEADER_VMSTY and SUBHEADER_VMSTY indistinguishable to the eye.) Glulx's system of styles is one of its weakest points from an IF author's perspective, since it is all but impossible to achieve the text effects one might want — boldface, for instance, or red text — and text rendering is almost the only area in which it is clearly inferior to the Z-machine, which it was designed to replace. Still, using these styles when we can will get the most out of it, and for unornamental works Glulx is fine in practice.
Constant NORMAL_VMSTY = 0; Constant HEADER_VMSTY = 3; Constant SUBHEADER_VMSTY = 4; Constant ALERT_VMSTY = 5; Constant NOTE_VMSTY = 6; Constant BLOCKQUOTE_VMSTY = 7; Constant INPUT_VMSTY = 8;
§7. Colour Numbers. These are traditional colour names: quite who it was who thought that azure was the same colour as cyan is now unclear. Colour is, again, not easy to arrange on Glulx, but there is some workaround code.
Constant CLR_DEFAULT = 1; Constant CLR_BLACK = 2; Constant CLR_RED = 3; Constant CLR_GREEN = 4; Constant CLR_YELLOW = 5; Constant CLR_BLUE = 6; Constant CLR_MAGENTA = 7; Constant CLR_PURPLE = 7; Constant CLR_CYAN = 8; Constant CLR_AZURE = 8; Constant CLR_WHITE = 9;
§8. Window Numbers. Although Glulx can support elaborate tessalations of windows on screen (if the complexity of handling this can be mastered), the Z-machine has much more limited resources in general, so the template layer assumes a simple screen model: there are just two screen areas, the scrolling main window in which commands are typed and responses printed, and the fixed status line bar at the top of the screen.
Constant WIN_ALL = 0; Both windows at once Constant WIN_STATUS = 1; Constant WIN_MAIN = 2;
§9. Paragraphing Flags. I am not sure many dictionaries would countenance "to paragraph" as a verb, but never mind: the reference here is to the algorithm used to place paragraph breaks within text, which uses bitmaps composed of the following.
Constant PARA_COMPLETED = 1; Constant PARA_PROMPTSKIP = 2; Constant PARA_SUPPRESSPROMPTSKIP = 4; Constant PARA_NORULEBOOKBREAKS = 8; Constant PARA_CONTENTEXPECTED = 16;
§10. Descriptors in the Language of Play. The following constants are used in the LanguageDescriptors table found in the definition of the language of play.
Constant POSSESS_PK = $100; Constant DEFART_PK = $101; Constant INDEFART_PK = $102; Constant LIGHTED_PK = $103; Constant UNLIGHTED_PK = $104;
§11. Run-Time Problem Numbers. The enumeration sequence here must correspond to that in the file of RTP texts, which is used to generate the HTML pages displayed by the Inform user interface when a run-time problem has occurred. (For instance, the file of RTP texts includes the heading "P17 - Can't divide by zero", equivalent to RTP_DIVZERO being 17 below.) There is no significance to the sequence, which is simply the historical order in which they were added to I7.
Constant RTP_BACKDROP = 1; Constant RTP_EXITDOOR = 2; Constant RTP_NOEXIT = 3; Constant RTP_CANTCHANGE = 4; Constant RTP_IMPREL = 5; Constant RTP_RULESTACK = 6; Now out of use Constant RTP_TOOMANYRULEBOOKS = 7; Constant RTP_TOOMANYEVENTS = 8; Constant RTP_BADPROPERTY = 9; Constant RTP_UNPROVIDED = 10; Constant RTP_UNSET = 11; Constant RTP_TOOMANYACTS = 12; Constant RTP_CANTABANDON = 13; Constant RTP_CANTEND = 14; Constant RTP_CANTMOVENOTHING = 15; Constant RTP_CANTREMOVENOTHING = 16; Constant RTP_DIVZERO = 17; Constant RTP_BADVALUEPROPERTY = 18; Constant RTP_NOTBACKDROP = 19; Constant RTP_TABLE_NOCOL = 20; Constant RTP_TABLE_NOCORR = 21; Constant RTP_TABLE_NOROW = 22; Constant RTP_TABLE_NOENTRY = 23; Constant RTP_TABLE_NOTABLE = 24; Constant RTP_TABLE_NOMOREBLANKS = 25; Constant RTP_TABLE_NOROWS = 26; Constant RTP_TABLE_CANTSORT = 27; Constant RTP_NOTINAROOM = 28; Constant RTP_BADTOPIC = 29; Constant RTP_ROUTELESS = 30; Constant RTP_PROPOFNOTHING = 31; Constant RTP_DECIDEONWRONGKIND = 32; Constant RTP_DECIDEONNOTHING = 33; Constant RTP_TABLE_CANTSAVE = 34; Constant RTP_TABLE_WONTFIT = 35; Constant RTP_TABLE_BADFILE = 36; Constant RTP_LOWLEVELERROR = 37; Constant RTP_DONTIGNORETURNSEQUENCE = 38; Constant RTP_SAYINVALIDSNIPPET = 39; Constant RTP_SPLICEINVALIDSNIPPET = 40; Constant RTP_INCLUDEINVALIDSNIPPET = 41; Constant RTP_LISTWRITERMEMORY = 42; Constant RTP_CANTREMOVEPLAYER = 43; Constant RTP_CANTREMOVEDOORS = 44; Constant RTP_CANTCHANGEOFFSTAGE = 45; Constant RTP_MSTACKMEMORY = 46; Constant RTP_TYPECHECK = 47; Constant RTP_FILEIOERROR = 48; Constant RTP_HEAPERROR = 49; Constant RTP_LISTRANGEERROR = 50; Constant RTP_REGEXPSYNTAXERROR = 51; Constant RTP_NOGLULXUNICODE = 52; Constant RTP_BACKDROPONLY = 53; Constant RTP_NOTTHING = 54; Constant RTP_SCENEHASNTSTARTED = 55; Constant RTP_SCENEHASNTENDED = 56; Constant RTP_NEGATIVEROOT = 57; Constant RTP_TABLE_CANTRUNTHROUGH = 58; Constant RTP_CANTITERATE = 59; Constant RTP_WRONGASSIGNEDKIND = 60; Constant RTP_CANTBEOFFSTAGE = 61; Constant RTP_RELKINDVIOLATION = 62; Constant RTP_CANTMAKEPART = 63; Constant RTP_TEXTTOKENTOOHARD = 64; Constant RTP_TABLE_NOTABLE2 = 65; Constant RTP_RELATIONCHANGEIMPOSSIBLE = 66; Constant RTP_RELMINIMAL = 67; Constant RTP_LISTSIZENEGATIVE = 68; Constant RTP_REGIONSNOTADJACENT = 69;
§12. Template Activities. These are the activities defined in the Standard Rules. Most, though not all, are carried out by explicit function calls in the template layer, which is why we need their ID numbers: note that Inform assigns each activity a unique ID number on creation, counting upwards from 0, and that it processes the Standard Rules before any other source text. (These numbers must correspond {\it both} to those in the source of Inform, {\it and} to the creation sequence in the Standard Rules.)
Constant STARTING_VIRTUAL_MACHINE_ACT = 0; Constant PRINTING_THE_NAME_ACT = 1; Constant PRINTING_THE_PLURAL_NAME_ACT = 2; Constant PRINTING_RESPONSE_ACT = 3; Constant PRINTING_A_NUMBER_OF_ACT = 4; Constant PRINTING_ROOM_DESC_DETAILS_ACT = 5; Constant PRINTING_INVENTORY_DETAILS_ACT = 6; Constant LISTING_CONTENTS_ACT = 7; Constant GROUPING_TOGETHER_ACT = 8; Constant WRITING_A_PARAGRAPH_ABOUT_ACT = 9; Constant LISTING_NONDESCRIPT_ITEMS_ACT = 10; Constant PRINTING_NAME_OF_DARK_ROOM_ACT = 11; Constant PRINTING_DESC_OF_DARK_ROOM_ACT = 12; Constant PRINTING_NEWS_OF_DARKNESS_ACT = 13; Constant PRINTING_NEWS_OF_LIGHT_ACT = 14; Constant REFUSAL_TO_ACT_IN_DARK_ACT = 15; Constant CONSTRUCTING_STATUS_LINE_ACT = 16; Constant PRINTING_BANNER_TEXT_ACT = 17; Constant READING_A_COMMAND_ACT = 18; Constant DECIDING_SCOPE_ACT = 19; Constant DECIDING_CONCEALED_POSSESS_ACT = 20; Constant DECIDING_WHETHER_ALL_INC_ACT = 21; Constant CLARIFYING_PARSERS_CHOICE_ACT = 22; Constant ASKING_WHICH_DO_YOU_MEAN_ACT = 23; Constant PRINTING_A_PARSER_ERROR_ACT = 24; Constant SUPPLYING_A_MISSING_NOUN_ACT = 25; Constant SUPPLYING_A_MISSING_SECOND_ACT = 26; Constant IMPLICITLY_TAKING_ACT = 27; Constant AMUSING_A_VICTORIOUS_PLAYER_ACT = 28; Constant PRINTING_PLAYERS_OBITUARY_ACT = 29; Constant DEALING_WITH_FINAL_QUESTION_ACT = 30; Constant PRINTING_LOCALE_DESCRIPTION_ACT = 31; Constant CHOOSING_NOTABLE_LOCALE_OBJ_ACT = 32; Constant PRINTING_LOCALE_PARAGRAPH_ACT = 33;
§13. Template Rulebooks. Rulebooks are created in a similar way, and again are numbered upwards from 0 in order of creation. These are the ones used in the template layer. (These numbers must correspond {\it both} to those in the source of Inform, {\it and} to the creation sequence in the Standard Rules.)
Constant STARTUP_RB = 0; Constant SHUTDOWN_RB = 1; 2, 3, 4 are used by the "Printing the name of something" activity 5, 6, 7 are used by the "Printing the plural name of something" activity Constant TURN_SEQUENCE_RB = 11; 9 is the Scene changing rules Constant WHEN_PLAY_BEGINS_RB = 13; Constant WHEN_PLAY_ENDS_RB = 14; Constant WHEN_SCENE_BEGINS_RB = 15; Constant WHEN_SCENE_ENDS_RB = 16; 14 is Every turn Constant ACTION_PROCESSING_RB = 18; Constant SETTING_ACTION_VARIABLES_RB = 19; Constant SPECIFIC_ACTION_PROCESSING_RB = 20; 18 is player's action awareness rules Constant ACCESSIBILITY_RB = 22; Constant REACHING_INSIDE_RB = 23; Constant REACHING_OUTSIDE_RB = 24; Constant VISIBLE_RB = 25; Constant PERSUADE_RB = 26; Constant UNSUCCESSFUL_ATTEMPT_RB = 27; 25 is before, 26 is instead, 27 is check, 28 is carry out Constant AFTER_RB = 32; Constant REPORT_RB = 33; Constant DOES_THE_PLAYER_MEAN_RB = 34; Constant MULTIPLE_ACTION_PROCESSING_RB = 35;
§14. Scope Searching Reasons. The parser makes use of a mechanism for searching through the objects currently "in scope", which basically means visible to the actor who would perform the action envisaged by the command being parsed. It is sometimes useful to behave differently depending on why this scope searching is being done, so the following constants enumerate the possibilities.
I6's EACH_TURN_REASON, REACT_BEFORE_REASON and REACT_AFTER_REASON have been removed from this list as no longer meaningful; hence the lacuna in numbering.
Constant PARSING_REASON = 0; Constant TALKING_REASON = 1; Constant EACH_TURN_REASON = 2; Constant LOOPOVERSCOPE_REASON = 5; Constant TESTSCOPE_REASON = 6;
§15. Token Types. Tokens are the indecomposable pieces of a grammar line making up a possible reading of a command; some are literal words, others stand for "any named object in scope", and so on. The following codes identify the possibilities. The *_TOKEN constants must not be altered without modifying the I6 compiler to match (so, basically, they must not be altered at all).
Constant ILLEGAL_TT = 0; Types of grammar token: illegal Constant ELEMENTARY_TT = 1; (one of those below) Constant PREPOSITION_TT = 2; e.g. 'into' Constant ROUTINE_FILTER_TT = 3; e.g. noun=CagedCreature Constant ATTR_FILTER_TT = 4; e.g. edible Constant SCOPE_TT = 5; e.g. scope=Spells Constant GPR_TT = 6; a general parsing routine Constant NOUN_TOKEN = 0; The elementary grammar tokens, and Constant HELD_TOKEN = 1; the numbers compiled by I6 to Constant MULTI_TOKEN = 2; encode them Constant MULTIHELD_TOKEN = 3; Constant MULTIEXCEPT_TOKEN = 4; Constant MULTIINSIDE_TOKEN = 5; Constant CREATURE_TOKEN = 6; Constant SPECIAL_TOKEN = 7; Constant NUMBER_TOKEN = 8; Constant TOPIC_TOKEN = 9; Constant ENDIT_TOKEN = 15; Value used to mean "end of grammar line"
§16. GPR Return Values. GRP stands for "General Parsing Routine", an I6 routine which acts as a grammar token: again, see the {\it Inform Designer's Manual}, 4th edition, for details.
In Library 6/11, GPR_NOUN is defined as $ff00, but this would fail on Glulx: it needs to be $ffffff00 on 32-bit virtual machines. It appears that GPR_NOUN to GPR_CREATURE, though documented in the old {\it Inform Translator's Manual}, were omitted when this was consolidated into the DM4, so that they effectively disappeared from view. But they might still be useful for implementing inflected forms of nouns, so we have retained them here regardless.
Constant GPR_FAIL = -1; Return values from General Parsing Constant GPR_PREPOSITION = 0; Routines Constant GPR_NUMBER = 1; Constant GPR_MULTIPLE = 2; Constant GPR_REPARSE = REPARSE_CODE; Constant GPR_NOUN = -256; Reparse, but as NOUN_TOKEN this time Constant GPR_HELD = GPR_NOUN + 1; And so on Constant GPR_MULTI = GPR_NOUN + 2; Constant GPR_MULTIHELD = GPR_NOUN + 3; Constant GPR_MULTIEXCEPT = GPR_NOUN + 4; Constant GPR_MULTIINSIDE = GPR_NOUN + 5; Constant GPR_CREATURE = GPR_NOUN + 6;
§17. List Styles. These constants make up bitmaps of the options in use when listing objects.
Constant NEWLINE_BIT = $$0000000000000001; New-line after each entry Constant INDENT_BIT = $$0000000000000010; Indent each entry by depth Constant FULLINV_BIT = $$0000000000000100; Full inventory information after entry Constant ENGLISH_BIT = $$0000000000001000; English sentence style, with commas and and Constant RECURSE_BIT = $$0000000000010000; Recurse downwards with usual rules Constant ALWAYS_BIT = $$0000000000100000; Always recurse downwards Constant TERSE_BIT = $$0000000001000000; More terse English style Constant PARTINV_BIT = $$0000000010000000; Only brief inventory information after entry Constant DEFART_BIT = $$0000000100000000; Use the definite article in list Constant WORKFLAG_BIT = $$0000001000000000; At top level (only), only list objects which have the "workflag" attribute Constant ISARE_BIT = $$0000010000000000; Print " is" or " are" before list Constant CONCEAL_BIT = $$0000100000000000; Omit objects with "concealed" or "scenery": if WORKFLAG_BIT also set, then does not apply at top level, but does lower down Constant NOARTICLE_BIT = $$0001000000000000; Print no articles, definite or not Constant EXTRAINDENT_BIT = $$0010000000000000; New in I7: extra indentation of 1 level Constant CFIRSTART_BIT = $$0100000000000000; Capitalise first article in list
§18. Lengths Of Time. Inform measures time in minutes.
Constant QUARTER_HOUR = 15; Constant HALF_HOUR = 30; Constant ONE_HOUR = 60; Constant TWELVE_HOURS = 720; Constant TWENTY_FOUR_HOURS = 1440;
§19. Empty Text. The I6 compiler does not optimise string compilation: if it needs to compile the (packed, read-only) string "exemplum" twice, it will compile two copies. This is slightly wasteful on memory, though in practice the loss is not enough for us to care. But we do want to avoid this in I7 because, to make string-sorting algorithms more efficient, we want direct numerical comparison of packed addresses to be equivalent to string comparison: and that means the text "exemplum" has to be compiled once and once only. There's a general mechanism for this in Inform, but the single case most often needed is the empty text, since this is the default value for text variables and properties: we give it a name as follows.
Constant EMPTY_TEXT_PACKED ""; Array EMPTY_TEXT_VALUE --> CONSTANT_PACKED_TEXT_STORAGE EMPTY_TEXT_PACKED;
§20. Empty Table. Similarly: the default value for the "table" kind of value, a Table containing no rows and no columns.
Array TheEmptyTable --> 0 0;
§21. Empty Set. The falsity proposition describes the empty set of objects, and is the zero value for the "description" kind of value.
[ Prop_Falsity reason obj; return 0; ];
§22. Template Attributes. An I6 attribute is equivalent to an I7 "either/or property", though the latter are not always translated into I6 attributes because the Z-machine has only a limited number of attributes to use. Here, we define attributes used by the template.
Many concepts in I6 correspond directly to their successors in I7, even if details may vary. (Value properties are a case in point.) Attributes are the opposite of this: indeed, no I6 concept is more fragmented in its I7 equivalents. All but one of the old I6 library attributes are still used (the general attribute, for miscellaneous use, has been removed: it more often invited abuse than use); and a few new attributes have been added. But they are used for a variety of purposes. Some do correspond exactly to either/or properties in I7, but others are a sort of signature for I7 kinds. (So that for I7 use they are read-only.) Others still are used by the template layer as part of the implementation of services for I7, but are not visible to I7 source text as storage.
Attribute absent; Used to mark objects removed from play Attribute animate; I6-level marker for I7 kind "person" Attribute clothing; = I7 "wearable" Attribute concealed; = I7 "undescribed" Attribute container; I6-level marker for I7 kind "container" Attribute door; I6-level marker for I7 kind "door" Attribute edible; = I7 "edible" vs "inedible" Attribute enterable; = I7 "enterable" Attribute light; = I7 "lighted" vs "dark" Attribute lockable; = I7 "lockable" Attribute locked; = I7 "locked" Attribute moved; = I7 "handled" Attribute on; = I7 "switched on" vs "switched off" Attribute open; = I7 "open" vs "closed" Attribute openable; = I7 "openable" Attribute scenery; = I7 "scenery" Attribute static; = I7 "fixed in place" vs "portable" Attribute supporter; I6-level marker for I7 kind "supporter" Attribute switchable; I6-level marker for I7 kind "device" Attribute talkable; Not currently used by I7, but retained for possible future use Attribute transparent; = I7 "transparent" vs "opaque" Attribute visited; = I7 "visited" Attribute worn; marks that an object tree edge represents wearing Attribute male; not directly used by I7, but available for languages with genders Attribute female; = I7 "female" vs "male" Attribute neuter; = I7 "neuter" Attribute pluralname; = I7 "plural-named" Attribute ambigpluralname; = I7 "ambiguously plural" Attribute proper; = I7 "proper-named" Attribute remove_proper; remember to remove proper again when using ChangePlayer next Attribute privately_named; New in I7 Attribute mentioned; New in I7 Attribute pushable; New in I7 Attribute mark_as_room; Used in I7 to speed up testing "ofclass K1_room" Attribute mark_as_thing; Used in I7 to speed up testing "ofclass K2_thing" Attribute workflag; = I7 "marked for listing", but basically temporary workspace Attribute workflag2; new in I7 and also temporary workspace Constant list_filter_permits = privately_named; another I7 listwriter convenience
§23. Template Properties. As remarked above, these more often correspond to value properties in I7. To an experienced I6 user, though, the death toll of abolished I6 properties in I7 is breathtaking: in alphabetical order, after, cant_go, daemon, each_turn, invent, life, number, orders, react_after, react_before, time_left, time_out, when_closed, when_off, when_on, when_open. In May 2008, the direction properties n_to, s_to, e_to, ..., out_to joined the list of the missing.
The losses are numerous because of the shift from I6's object orientation to I7's rule orientation: information about the behaviour of objects is no longer thought of as data attached to them. At that, it could have been worse: a few unused I6 library properties have been retained for possible future use.
Property add_to_scope; used as in I6 to place component parts in scope Property article "a"; used as in I6 to implement articles Property capacity 100; = I7 "carrying capacity" Property component_child; new in I7: forest structure holding "part of" relation Property component_parent; new in I7 Property component_sibling; new in I7 Property description; = I7 "description" Property door_dir; used to implement two-sided doors, but holds direction object, not a property Property door_to; used as in I6 to implement two-sided doors Property found_in; used as in I6 to implement two-sided doors and backdrops Property initial; = I7 "initial description" Property list_together; used as in I6 to implement "grouping together" activity Property map_region; new in I7 Property parse_name 0; used as in I6 to implement "Understand... as..." grammars Property plural; used as in I6 to implement plural names for duplicate objects Property regional_found_in; new in I7 Property room_index; new in I7: storage for route-finding Property short_name 0; = I7 "printed name" Property saved_short_name 0; cache for ChangePlayer Property vector; new in I7: storage for route-finding Property with_key; = I7 "matching key" Property KD_Count; Instance count of the kind of the current object Property IK1_Count; These are instance counts within kinds K1, K2, ... Property IK2_Count; and it is efficient to declare the common ones with Property Property IK4_Count; since this results in a slightly smaller story file Property IK5_Count; Property IK6_Count; Property IK8_Count; Property IK3_Count; Property IK1_link; These are for linked lists used to make searches faster Property IK2_link; and again it's memory-efficient to declare the common ones Property IK5_link; Property IK6_link; Property IK8_link; Property articles; not used by I7, but an interesting hook in the parser Property grammar; not used by I7, but an interesting hook in the parser Property inside_description; not used by I7, but an interesting hook in the locale code Property short_name_indef 0; not used by I7, but an interesting hook in the listmaker
§24. Formal Parameters. These are needed for efficient run-time ambiguity resolution.
Global formal_rv; Global formal_par0; Global formal_par1; Global formal_par2; Global formal_par3; Global formal_par4; Global formal_par5; Global formal_par6; Global formal_par7; Global unicode_temp;
§25. Template Configuration. To minimise the need for conditional compilation in the template, the constant KIT_CONFIGURATION_BITMAP must be generated by the user (i.e., by I7). It's made up of these bits:
Constant USE_SCORING_TCBIT = 1; Constant PREVENT_UNDO_TCBIT = 2; Constant SERIAL_COMMA_TCBIT = 4; Constant PROGRAMMING_EXPONENTS_TCBIT = 8; Constant FIX_RNG_TCBIT = 16; Constant ECHO_COMMANDS_TCBIT = 32; Constant NO_VERB_VERB_DEFINED_TCBIT = 64; Constant DIALECT_US_TCBIT = 128; Constant STORY_AUTHOR_TCBIT = 256; Constant RANKING_TABLE_TCBIT = 512;