In shape

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Inform is an object-oriented programming language developed by Graham Nelson since 1993 , in which text adventures can be programmed.

history

Inform is based on the reverse engineering of the Z-machine developed by Infocom . Therefore, the generated games behave like those from Infocom, even if the object-oriented Inform programming language differs fundamentally on the source code level from the functional language ZIL, the high-level language used by Infocom itself. In addition, they run on all computers on which there is a virtual Z-machine, from PDA to various home computers to modern PCs, Macintosh and Linux computers. Inform itself also runs on many different systems. Inform is freeware and licensed as an Artistic License . It can therefore be passed on and changed free of charge, provided certain provisions are observed. There are now numerous games programmed with Inform that can be played or downloaded for free on the Internet .

The extensive manual, The Inform Designer's Manual , made an important contribution to the success of Inform. Issue four (known as "DM4") has grown to 570 pages. It is available both in print and freely on the Internet. The manual explains the programming of Inform in such a way that even programming laypeople with enough perseverance can cope with it. One chapter of the manual deals with “ The Craft of Adventure ” independently of Inform .

The first five versions of Inform were made in quick succession between 1993 and 1995. Inform 5 was the first version to be used to any significant extent by people other than Inform author Graham Nelson himself. The completely rewritten, more systematic Inform 6 appeared in 1996 and remained the current language version for ten years. During this time, mainly bug fixes and minor extensions to the libraries appeared.

Language versions

Since Inform 6 it is possible to create other language versions in addition to the English version. The official language versions are German , French , Italian , Dutch , Swedish , Slovenian , Spanish and the planned language Lojban .

German language version

In 1996 Tinic Urou translated the English program library from Inform 6 into German. This translation had errors in many places, which is why two further developments of this version were made: Toni Arnold and Ralf Herrmann published two German libraries independently of one another in 1998/1999. Toni Arnold used Swiss German as a guide . Ralf Hermann's version also had both strengths and weaknesses. When Max Kallus began to write the Inform text adventure "Starrider", one of the largest freeware text adventures in the German language, in 1999, he first used Toni Arnold's library and corrected and expanded it. Later he took over parts from Ralf Hermann's library. This new library was first published in 2001. The German Interactive Fiction Community has further improved this version of the library and made it the “official German version”. In addition, Martin Oehm created another unofficial library called “deform”.

Problems that occurred with the German translation of Inform were:

  • Umlauts
  • Declension of nouns
  • Gender of objects
  • Inflected articles (instead of a / the)
  • Inflected adjectives

Inform 7

Inform 7 , developed by Graham Nelson and Emily Short since 2006, follows a fundamentally new approach. The programming takes place in a declarative notation based on natural English; all typical programming concepts such as variables, assignments, procedures etc. are coded with (simple) English sentences. The Literate programming is done so already in the source code. The aim is to also interest writers who are unfamiliar with programming in the development of interactive stories. This goal is also served by the provision of a complete IDE with diagnostic and test tools specially tailored to the development of text adventures. Under the hood of the extensive preprocessor system for natural language, however, the Inform 6 compiler is still working, so that it is possible to include individual sections coded in Inform 6 in a program written with Inform 7.

Other language versions

Here, too, there are other language versions in addition to the English version. Versions in German , French , Italian , Swedish and Spanish are indicated on the Inform website .

literature

  • Graham Nelson: The Inform Designer's Manual . 4th edition. Interactive Fiction Library, Illinois 2001, ISBN 0-9713119-0-0 ( available online (PDF; 2.9 MB) [accessed June 29, 2017]).
  • Roger Firth, Sonja Kesserich: Inform Beginner's Guide . 3. Edition. Lightning Source Inc, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9713119-2-7 ( online ( May 16, 2012 memento in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.7 MB) [accessed October 6, 2011]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ I6N (I6 for I7): Inform. In: inform7.com. Inform, accessed October 7, 2011 (English).
  2. ↑ About Translations. Inform - Resources - Translations. In: inform-fiction.org. Inform, December 24, 2007, accessed October 7, 2011 .
  3. ↑ Max Kalus: Inform translations into German - a comparison. textfire.de, May 4, 2001, accessed October 6, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Inform_DE: The German Inform Library. (PDF; 74 kB) In: textfire.de. January 4, 2004, accessed October 7, 2011 .
  5. ↑ Martin Oehm: deform. martin-oehm.de> Text Adventures> deform. In: martin-oehm.de. July 8, 2007, accessed October 7, 2011 .
  6. ↑ Translations: Inform. In: inform7.com. Inform, accessed October 7, 2011 (English).