Merkoth Hates Inform (an epic novel in 7 parts)

[mike]

Let's try to expand upon the general randomness of the "General" category by exploring, in detail, why Merkoth hates the scripting language Inform.

[Merkoth]

Oh, a really important topic to discussed...

In general terms, my main complaint to Inform (Inform7 to be precise) is that it is too weird to be "just like writing" and too weird to be a proper programming language. Describing objects and/or places with short sentences like "The Jar is a type of container. The Jar is on the table." made me feel stupid, but that probably has something to do with the fact that I am actually quite stupid. Once you get past the most elemental examples and you start using scenes, actions, NPCs and well, everything you might actually need in an IF, your sources might get pretty complex and hard to follow (unless you're pretty organized).

To make a long story short, I gave Inform7 a try because I wanted a fast and easy way to write a text-based game, and I didn't find it particularly easy nor fast.

But that's just me. I've seen some pretty cool stuff made with Inform7. The same way some people just can't use Linux :lol:, maybe Inform is beyond my abilities. I'm sure a lot of people find it useful and cool.

EDIT: added smiley for teh lulz

[qubodup]

But that's just me. I've seen some pretty cool stuff made with Inform7. The same way some people just can't use Linux, maybe Inform is beyond my abilities. I'm sure a lot of people find it useful and cool.

:mrgreen: Hey! Who changed that smily? Why are the smilies weird? What? Why do the smilies look different in the selection? What is going on? Waah!

[mike]

Aha, I love how you referenced my failure in your explanation, making yourself look like a god in comparison. Well played. Well played indeed.
Having me, who is inquisitive and reckless by nature, mess around with Linux is like giving a monkey a shotgun: things are bound to go bad, it's just a matter of time.

On the subject of Inform, I looked at it for a bit, but saw that the syntax was, as you explained, cryptic yet simple in a way that just didn't compute with me. I made a text-based adventure engine for a university course (written in Python) which used XML as a way of handling rooms, objects and such. The system wasn't complicated enough to handle NPCs and was buggy to hell but I passed at least. 8-)

[farvardin]

Inform 7 is a really cool system

It's so efficient and elegant to design something with it, I really like it.

[Merkoth]

Aha, I love how you referenced my failure in your explanation, making yourself look like a god in comparison. Well played. Well played indeed.
Having me, who is inquisitive and reckless by nature, mess around with Linux is like giving a monkey a shotgun: things are bound to go bad, it's just a matter of time.

Actually I loved that post, and I sincerely respect those who try Linux and when it doesn't work for them they respectably say "It doesn't work for me" instead of whining and talking BS . FWIW, I broke a gazillion installations (I love getting my hands dirty tinkering with the OS).

Inform 7 is a really cool system

It's so efficient and elegant to design something with it, I really like it.

Good for you :lol: Do you have something you made to show?

[farvardin]

Yes, most of them were made with inform 7:
http://ifdb.tads.org/showuser?id=8b63iggeafjjqlt7

And all of them are in French, though, except a little speedif I am not really proud of...