Inform 7 version 7.10.1 'Krypton' (build 6Q21)

About Inform 7

Inform 7 (April 2006-) is a programming language for creating interactive fiction, using natural language syntax. Using natural language and drawing on ideas from linguistics and from literate programming, Inform is widely used as a medium for literary writing, as a prototyping tool in the games industry, and in education, both at school and university level (where Inform is often assigned material for courses on digital narrative). It has twice ranked in the top 100 most influential programming languages according to the TIOBE index.

Licence

Except as noted, copyright in material in this repository (the "Package") is held by Graham Nelson (the "Author"), who retains copyright so that there is a single point of reference. As from the first date of this repository becoming public, the Package is placed under the Artistic License 2.0. This is a highly permissive licence, used by Perl among other notable projects, recognised by the Open Source Initiative as open and by the Free Software Foundation as free in both senses.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Author makes the further grant that users of the Package may make unlimited use of story files produced by the Package: such story files are not derivative works of Inform and do not inherit the Artistic License 2.0 as an obligation. (This further grant follows the practice of projects like bison, which also copy substantial code into their outputs.)

Repositories

This is the "core repository", holding source code for the compiler, and for everything needed to run it on the command line. However:

To build and test the compiler you also need Inweb and Intest, programs spun out from the Inform project. These are not included in the core repository either as submodules or copies, and have their own repositories. If you are new to Inform core development, begin by cloning and building Inweb as a stand-alone tool, then use that to build Intest, then return here.
- https://github.com/ganelson/inweb, maintained by Graham Nelson
- https://github.com/ganelson/intest, maintained by Graham Nelson
Most Inform authors use Inform as an app: for example, it is available on the Mac App Store. While much of the UI design is the same across all platforms, each app has its own code in its own repository. See:
- https://github.com/TobyLobster/Inform for MacOS, maintained by Toby Nelson
- https://github.com/DavidKinder/Windows-Inform7 for Windows, maintained by David Kinder
- https://github.com/ptomato/gnome-inform7 for Linux, maintained by Philip Chimento

Build Instructions

Make a directory in which to work: let's call this "work". Then:

Clone and build Inweb into "work/inweb".
Clone and build Intest into "work/intest".
Clone Inform into "work/inform". Change the current directory to that. Then run "bash scripts/first.sh" (or whatever shell you prefer: it need not be bash). This should give you a complete working set of command-line Inform tools and associated makefiles. For any future builds, you can simply type "make".
For a simple test, try e.g. "inblorb/Tangled/inblorb -help". All the executables should similarly respond to -help.
But for a true test, run "make check". This compiles two more tools needed only for testing (dumb-frotz and dumb-glulx), then runs Intest on each tool in turn. Some haven't got a test suite, some have; it will run whatever it finds. Be advised that on a 2013 laptop this all takes quarter of an hour and sounds like a helicopter taking off.

Inventory

"I can't help feeling that if someone had asked me before the universe began how it would turn out, I should have guessed something a bit less like an old curiosity shop and a bit more like a formal French garden — an orderly arrangement of straight avenues, circular walks, and geometrically shaped trees and hedges." (Michael Frayn)

Inform is not a single program: while the Inform 7 compiler builds to a single executable file, this is only useful in concert with other tools (notably the Inform 6 compiler and the Inblorb packager), with standard libraries of code (called Extensions), with documentation, test cases and so on. This repository assembles all those programs and resources, which fall into two categories:

Resources for which this is the primary repository

This repository is where development is done on the following:

inform7 - The core compiler in a natural-language design system for interactive fiction. Current version 7.10.1 'Krypton' (build 6Q21). Web of InC
- The I6 Template - The .i6t files used in code generation. Inform 6; held in inform7/Internal/I6T
- inform7/Internal/Extensions - Libraries of code. Inform 7
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Basic Help Menu.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Basic Screen Effects.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Complex Listing.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Glulx Entry Points.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Glulx Image Centering.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Glulx Text Effects.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Inanimate Listeners.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Locksmith.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Menus.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Punctuation Removal.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Emily Short/Skeleton Keys.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Eric Eve/Epistemology.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Graham Nelson/Approximate Metric Units.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Graham Nelson/English Language.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Graham Nelson/Metric Units.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Graham Nelson/Rideable Vehicles.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Graham Nelson/Unicode Character Names.i7x
  - inform7/Internal/Extensions/Graham Nelson/Unicode Full Character Names.i7x
- inform7/Internal/HTML - Files needed for generating extension documentation and the like. HTML, Javascript, CSS
- inform7/Internal/Languages - Natural language definition bundles
- inform7/Internal/Templates - template websites for Inform 7's 'release as a website' feature
  - Internal/Templates/Classic
  - Internal/Templates/Standard
inblorb - The packaging stage of the Inform 7 system, which releases a story file in the blorbed format. Current version 4 'Duralumin'. Web of InC
indoc - The documentation-formatter for the Inform 7 system. Current version 4 'Didache'. Web of InC
inpolicy - A lint-like tool to check up on various policies used in Inform source code. Current version 1 'Plan A'. Web of InC
inrtps - A generator of HTML pages to show for run-time problem messages in Inform. Current version 2 'Benefactive'. Web of InC
inter - For handling intermediate Inform code Current version 1 'Axion'. Web of InC
srules - The Standard Rules extension, included in all Inform 7 works Current . Web of Inform 7

The "resources" directory holds a number of non-executable items of use to the Inform UI applications, and to Inform websites:

Changes to Inform - A detailed change history of Inform 7. Ebook in Indoc format, stored at path resources/Changes.
Writing with Inform and the Inform Recipe Book - The main Inform documentation, as seen in the apps, and in standalone Epubs. Ebook in Indoc format, stored at path resources/Documentation.
resources/Outcome Pages - Inrtps uses these to generate HTML outcome pages (such as those showing Problem messages in the app)
resources/Sample Projects - Two small interactive fictions, 'Disenchantment Bay' and 'Onyx', presented as samples in the app. Inform 7

Finally, the "retrospective" directory holds ANSI C source and resources needed to build (some) previous versions of Inform 7. At present, this is only sketchily put together.

Notes:

The "webs" above are literate programs. This means they can either be "tangled" to executables, or "woven" to human-readable forms. The woven forms can all be browsed here. They aim to be much easier to understand than raw source code found by spelunking through the repository.
"InC" is a slight extension of ANSI C99. These extensions are handled by Inweb, which acts as a preprocessor. For more on InC, see the Inweb manual.

Resources copied here from elsewhere

Stable versions of the following are periodically copied into this repository, but this is not where development on them is done, and no pull requests will be accepted. (Note that these are not git submodules.)

inform6 - the Inform 6 compiler (used by I7 as a code generator) - from [https://github.com/DavidKinder/Inform6], maintained by David Kinder
inform7/Internal/Templates - template websites for Inform 7's 'release as a website' feature
- inform7/Internal/Templates/Parchment - from [https://github.com/curiousdannii/parchment], maintained by Dannii Willis
- inform7/Internal/Templates/Quixe - from [https://github.com/erkyrath/quixe], maintained by Andrew Plotkin
- inform7/Internal/Templates/Vorpal - from (part of) [https://github.com/vorple/inform7], maintained by Juhana Leinonen

Binary resources (such as image files)

resources/Imagery/app_images - icons for the Inform app and its many associated files, in MacOS format
resources/Imagery/bg_images - background textures used in the Index generated by Inform
resources/Imagery/doc_images - miscellaneous images needed by the documentation
resources/Imagery/map_icons - images needed for the World pane of the Index generated by Inform
resources/Imagery/outcome_images - images used on outcome pages
resources/Imagery/scene_icons - images needed for the Scenes pane of the Index generated by Inform
resources/Internal/Miscellany - default cover art, the Introduction to IF and Postcard PDFs

Other files and folders in this repository

docs - Woven forms of the webs, for serving by GitHub Pages
scripts/gitignorescript.txt - Inweb uses this to generate the .gitignore file at the root of the repository
scripts/makescript.txt - Inweb uses this to generate a makefile at the root of the repository
scripts/READMEscript.txt - Inpolicy uses this to generate the README.md file for the repository

Colophon

This README.mk file was generated automatically by Inpolicy, and should not be edited. To make changes, edit READMEscript.txt and re-generate.

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