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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>What This Module Does</title>
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<link href="../docs-assets/Breadcrumbs.css" rel="stylesheet" rev="stylesheet" type="text/css">
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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width initial-scale=1">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
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</head>
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<body class="commentary-font">
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<nav role="navigation">
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<h1><a href="../overview.html">
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<img src="../docs-assets/Inform.png" height=72">
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</a></h1>
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<ul><li><a href="../overview.html">home</a></li>
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</ul><h2>Compiler</h2><ul>
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<li><a href="../structure.html">structure</a></li>
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<li><a href="../inbuildn.html">inbuild</a></li>
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<li><a href="../inform7n.html">inform7</a></li>
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<li><a href="../intern.html">inter</a></li>
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<li><a href="../services.html">services</a></li>
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<li><a href="../secrets.html">secrets</a></li>
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</ul><h2>Other Tools</h2><ul>
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<li><a href="../inblorbn.html">inblorb</a></li>
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<li><a href="../indocn.html">indoc</a></li>
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<li><a href="../inform6.html">inform6</a></li>
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<li><a href="../inpolicyn.html">inpolicy</a></li>
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<li><a href="../inrtpsn.html">inrtps</a></li>
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</ul><h2>Resources</h2><ul>
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<li><a href="../extensions.html">extensions</a></li>
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<li><a href="../kits.html">kits</a></li>
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</ul><h2>Repository</h2><ul>
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<li><a href="https://github.com/ganelson/inform"><img src="../docs-assets/github.png" height=18> github</a></li>
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</ul><h2>Related Projects</h2><ul>
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<li><a href="../../../inweb/index.html">inweb</a></li>
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<li><a href="../../../intest/index.html">intest</a></li>
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</ul>
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</nav>
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<main role="main">
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<!--Weave of 'What This Module Does' generated by Inweb-->
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<div class="breadcrumbs">
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<ul class="crumbs"><li><a href="../overview.html">Home</a></li><li><a href="../inform7n.html">Inform7</a></li><li><a href="index.html">core</a></li><li><a href="index.html#P">Preliminaries</a></li><li><b>What This Module Does</b></li></ul></div>
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<p class="purpose">An overview of the core module's role and abilities.</p>
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<ul class="toc"><li><a href="P-wtmd.html#SP1">§1. Prerequisites</a></li><li><a href="P-wtmd.html#SP2">§2. The Core</a></li></ul><hr class="tocbar">
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<p class="commentary firstcommentary"><a id="SP1" class="paragraph-anchor"></a><b>§1. Prerequisites. </b>The core module is a part of the Inform compiler toolset. It is
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presented as a literate program or "web". Before diving in:
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</p>
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<ul class="items"><li>(a) It helps to have some experience of reading webs: see <a href="../../../inweb/index.html" class="internal">inweb</a> for more.
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</li><li>(b) The module is written in C, in fact ANSI C99, but this is disguised by the
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fact that it uses some extension syntaxes provided by the <a href="../../../inweb/index.html" class="internal">inweb</a> literate
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programming tool, making it a dialect of C called InC. See <a href="../../../inweb/index.html" class="internal">inweb</a> for
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full details, but essentially: it's C without predeclarations or header files,
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and where functions have names like <span class="extract"><span class="extract-syntax">Tags::add_by_name</span></span> rather than just <span class="extract"><span class="extract-syntax">add_by_name</span></span>.
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</li><li>(c) This module uses other modules drawn from the compiler (see <a href="../structure.html" class="internal">structure</a>), and also
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uses a module of utility functions called <a href="../../../inweb/foundation-module/index.html" class="internal">foundation</a>.
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For more, see <a href="../../../inweb/foundation-module/P-abgtf.html" class="internal">A Brief Guide to Foundation (in foundation)</a>.
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</li></ul>
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<p class="commentary firstcommentary"><a id="SP2" class="paragraph-anchor"></a><b>§2. The Core. </b>Until 2020, the core module contained almost the entire compiler, but it is
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now modularised in such a way that <a href="index.html" class="internal">core</a> itself only manages the sequence
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of operations.
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</p>
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<p class="commentary">When <a href="../supervisor-module/index.html" class="internal">supervisor</a> decides that an Inform project is being compiled, it uses
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the <a href="../words-module/index.html" class="internal">words</a> and <a href="../syntax-module/index.html" class="internal">syntax</a> modules to build a parse tree for the project and
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any extensions it needs, and works out dependencies on kits of Inter code. We
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don't need to deal with any of that. For <a href="index.html" class="internal">core</a>, the business starts when
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<a href="../supervisor-module/index.html" class="internal">supervisor</a> calls <a href="1-wtc.html#SP3" class="internal">Task::carry_out</a>. The process is a long multi-stage one,
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run as a production line: see <a href="1-htc.html" class="internal">How To Compile</a> for a detailed list of steps,
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but roughly:
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</p>
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<ul class="items"><li>● The <a href="../assertions-module/index.html" class="internal">assertions</a> module converts top-level declarations — sentences like
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"The cat is in the hat" or "A truck is a kind of vehicle", for example — into
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a series of logical propositions, making heavy use of the <a href="../linguistics-module/index.html" class="internal">linguistics</a> and
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<a href="../calculus-module/index.html" class="internal">calculus</a> service modules.
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</li><li>● Those propositions are "asserted" as being true by the <a href="../knowledge-module/index.html" class="internal">knowledge</a> module,
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which draws inferences and then reconciles these into a world model.
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</li><li>● Both of those modules are helped by the <a href="../values-module/index.html" class="internal">values</a> module, which handles how
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values and descriptions are parsed and then stored within the compiler.
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</li><li>● Imperative code inside phrase or rule definitions is the business of the
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<a href="../imperative-module/index.html" class="internal">imperative</a> module, the part of Inform most resembling a conventional compiler.
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</li><li>● The <a href="../runtime-module/index.html" class="internal">runtime</a> module compiles run-time support functions and data structures
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needed to make Inform's many concepts work at run-time.
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</li></ul>
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<p class="commentary">There are then two expansion packs, as it were: the <a href="../if-module/index.html" class="internal">if</a> and <a href="../multimedia-module/index.html" class="internal">multimedia</a>
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modules, which do nothing essential but add support for interactive fiction
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and for sound and images respectively. These are implemented very largely
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as sets of <a href="3-pm.html" class="internal">Chapter 3: Plugins</a>, an architecture which allows the basic Inform
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language to be made more domain-specific.
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</p>
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<nav role="progress"><div class="progresscontainer">
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<ul class="progressbar"><li class="progressprevoff">❮</li><li class="progresscurrentchapter">P</li><li class="progresscurrent">wtmd</li><li class="progresschapter"><a href="1-cm.html">1</a></li><li class="progresschapter"><a href="2-up.html">2</a></li><li class="progresschapter"><a href="3-pm.html">3</a></li><li class="progressnext"><a href="1-cm.html">❯</a></li></ul></div>
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</nav><!--End of weave-->
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</main>
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</body>
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</html>
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