Hi Dark, I don't know. I never really looked at Quest, but I can say Inform 7 seems easy enough. I actually did some looking around at various if languages and tools like Hugo, Inform, Adrift, Tads, and I ended up picking Inform for a few reasons.
First, the language is very easy to pick up and learn. If you read the programming guides and follow the game tutorials and example games they give you can litterally be writing text adventures in a couple of days. As a programmer I can say Inform was about the easiest language I have ever learned. Second, I was looking for something that was fully cross-platform. As I now consider myself a Linux user officially naturally I was looking for Linux compatible tools etc. Unfortunately, some adventure toolkits and languages are primarily Windows based. Inform seems to be truly cross-platform compatible were others aren't fully cross-platform. What I mean by that is take Adrift as an example here. The Adrift generator that is required to create Adrift adventures is a Windows only piece of software, but there are Linux interpreters for Adrift games such as Scare and Rogue. So while I could play most Adrift adventure games I'd still have to use a piece of Windows software to create them. That's not exactly ideal for someone looking for a purely cross-platform adventure system and development tools. To make matters worse is that some of the non-Windows interpreters like Rogue and Scare lack certain features. IN Scare, for example, the battle system isn't fully developed yet so if you have a heavy combat oriented Adrift adventure it won't work with Scare. Rogue is nice, but it could use some special scripts for Orca to read things automatically etc. With Inform the developers have written Mac, Windows, and Linux versions of the Inform compiler/IDE. So right there you have cross-platform tools to get the job done and Orca doesn't seem to have any accessibility issues with Inform 7. Then, the frotz interpretor supports most of the Inform 7 features, accept sounds, so you aren't going to end up finding out that your text adventure won't run correctly on the target machine. You can pretty much expect it will perform equally on any target platform from a Windows 7 desktop to your Apple IPhone, or on a Mac/Linux PC. It is very well supported which makes it ideal for game development. So in a nutshell that's why I personally endorce/support Inform 7. Out of the if languages its probably the best. Especially, if you intend to create an adventure game for some non-Windows platform like Linux or an Apple IPhone. HTH On 5/31/11, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi Tom ah fair enough. > > I admit it's been a long time sinse I read the articals on if creation > languages and I may be confusing inform 7 with tads 3 when speaking of a > language that was more flexible than user friendly. > > If however inform is so easy going, I do rather wonder what the people at > quest are doing? sinse their main aime was a text adventure creation system > devorced from too much programming. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com> > To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org> > Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 5:30 PM > Subject: Re: [Audyssey] inform 7 help > > >> Hi Dark, >> >> No, Inform is very newby friendly. It is a very simplistic programming >> language, and its very understandible. I think as an intro language it >> isn't too bad. Of course, by the time I started learning it I had >> years of experience with major languages so naturally it would seem >> simple to me. >> >> As for your other points I completely agree with you. I honestly >> thought about not responding to Michael's post precisely because of >> the "poor blind me" attitude expressed in the original post. I think >> that it is a given most everyone here on the list is totally blind or >> has low vision so I would have known of Michael's disability issue in >> advance, and in any case being blind has nothing to do with it to >> begin with. I'm totally blind and that has never stopped me from >> programming applications. The only times I ca think of when my >> blindness was an issue is when a certain tool, IDE, or somethig I >> needed to develope software with wasn't screen reader accessible. >> However, there are usually accessible alternatives for it. When it >> comes to Inform accessibility really isnt an issue. I've used the >> Inform 7 IDE for Windows and Linux both are fairly accessible. So I >> don't believe Michael will run into any serious access issues. >> >> As for source code you are right. All it is basically a flat ascii >> text file with a special extention like cpp to denote it is a C++ >> source file, cs for C-Sharp source file, pl for perl, and so on. You >> can write the actual code/language and syntax using any plane vinila >> text editor like Notepad, Gedit, Emacs, Ultra Edit, Textpad, whatever. >> I write 90% of my source code using a plane ascii text editor called >> Gedit which is the default text editor for Linux which is similar to >> Notepad, but with some extra tools like a spell checker, built in >> dictionary, and things like that. >> >> Cheers! >> >> >> >> On 5/30/11, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: >>> Hi Michael. >>> >>> I'm not really sure this is the place to ask inform related questions >>> simply >>> because I don't know how many people have used that language here. >>> >>> Your best off searching on resources like http://www.wurb.com/if/ for >>> tutorials on the subject and asking on the forum on >>> http://www.intfiction.org/forum/ >>> >>> from what I've heard though, inform is not the best place to start if you >>> have no knolidge of programming. >>> >>> You might try http://www.textadventures.co.uk/quest/ for the quest >>> system, >>> which is supposed to be absolutely right to none programmers. >>> >>> Btw, as regards the site thing, one reason why so many visually impared >>> people are into programming and such is simply that a lot of programming >>> involves essentially writing the correct text files in the right >>> language, >>> just like bgt explains. >>> >>> though there are exceptions, such as when developers like microsoft make >>> inaccessible tools for manipulating their program libraries etc, these >>> shouldn't come up until you get into the more advanced areas. >>> >>> So the bottom line is being blind makes no difference really! >>> >>> On a politeness front, also on a list ful of very compitant blind people, >>> it's not really the best manners to play the "I'm blind so help me" card, >>> sinse most people here could if they wish. That atitude is just going to >>> irritate people sinse it's one of the things that often gives blind >>> people a >>> bad name, ---- heck I'll freely admit I have a prejudice against the sort >>> >>> of >>> people who do that myself. >>> >>> Beware the grue! >>> >>> Dark. >> >> --- >> Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org >> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to >> gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. >> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at >> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. >> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. >> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the >> list, >> please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
