A miscellany of properties, variables, rulebooks and activities. Whereas the Standard Rules for interactive fiction are luxuriant in providing these, the Basic Inform kernel is as small as it sensibly can be, with just a few of each.
Part Two - Miscellaneous Definitions
§2. Properties. The following declaration is misleading, since Inform doesn't read it literally. "Variable initial value" is in fact the only property common to global variables, a behind-the-scenes convenience. It's not visible or useful in regular coding, and doesn't belong to objects.
An object has a value called variable initial value.
§3. Objects do, however, have a wealth of properties to do with their naming. "Specification" is special: it isn't compiled, but holds text used to annotate the Kinds index. "Indefinite appearance text" is also an internal property (it holds the text sometimes given in double-quotes immediately after an object is created).
An object has a text called specification. An object has a text called indefinite appearance text. An object has a text called printed name. An object has a text called printed plural name. An object has a text called an indefinite article. An object can be plural-named or singular-named. An object is usually singular-named. An object can be proper-named or improper-named. An object is usually improper-named. An object can be ambiguously plural.
§4. These are Inter identifier names.
The indefinite article property translates into Inter as "article". The printed plural name property translates into Inter as "plural". The printed name property translates into Inter as "short_name". The plural-named property translates into Inter as "pluralname". The ambiguously plural property translates into Inter as "ambigpluralname". The proper-named property translates into Inter as "proper".
§5. Variables. Most of the built-in kinds and kind constructors, such as "number" and "list of K", are defined in special low-level files read in by Inform early in its run — not here. "Natural language" is an exception.
"Language of play" should no longer be taken to imply play; it's really the natural language of our output text, if any. It affects how verbs conjugate, and what "say N in words" does, for example.
A natural language is a kind of value. The language of play is a natural language that varies.
§6. The "parameter-object" is, as its hyphenated name suggests, an internal implementation convenience. When a rulebook runs on a given value, it holds that value. It is really an alias, not a fixed variable, and has whatever kind is appropriate to the rulebook currently running. (In particular, despite the definition below, it is not necessarily an object.)
The parameter-object is an object that varies. The parameter-object variable translates into Inter as "parameter_value".
§7. Rulebooks. The Standard Rules (for interactive fiction) create a wealth of rulebooks and activities in order to model a fictional world. Here we are much more sparing: a Basic Inform project begins with a very minimal number of rules.
The startup and shutdown rulebooks, and the "starting the virtual machine" activity, are not normally used in Basic Inform, but need to be defined here for technical reasons.
Be wary modifying these: rulebooks and activities must be defined in exactly the right order, matching definitions both in the Inform 7 compiler and in the template libraries. (Remember that creating an activity creates three rulebooks.)
Startup rules is a rulebook. Startup rules have outcomes allow startup (success) and deny startup (failure). Shutdown rules is a rulebook. Starting the virtual machine (documented at act_startvm) is an activity. The final code startup rule is listed first in for starting the virtual machine. The final code startup rule translates into Inter as "FINAL_CODE_STARTUP_R".
§8. However, the two activities for printing names of objects are indeed functional in Basic Inform.
Printing the name of something (documented at act_pn) is an activity. The standard name printing rule is listed last in the for printing the name rulebook. The standard name printing rule translates into Inter as "STANDARD_NAME_PRINTING_R". Printing the plural name of something (documented at act_ppn) is an activity. The standard printing the plural name rule is listed last in the for printing the plural name rulebook. The standard printing the plural name rule translates into Inter as "STANDARD_PLURAL_NAME_PRINTING_R".