Re: [Inform] Perspective based coding of objects

[lpsmith@rice.edu (Lucian Paul Smith)]

jim crawford (pfister_@hotmail.com) wrote:
: On Tue, 07 Dec 1999 05:47:41 GMT, "Don Rae" <donrae@telusplanet.net>
: wrote:
: >Once I'm finished with my current project, I want to try something a bit
: >unusual.....I've toying with the idea of building an Inform based game with
: >an interface that is similar to "Suspended" in some respects - the game
: >would likely have different characters that would be ordered around, and
: >they would all have different "perspectives" on the things they see in front
: >of them....(and yes, I am anticipating a coding nightmare!)

: What would be better would be to get the Inform library to deal with
: something like:

: object corn cornfield
:   with
:     joes_title "ear of corn",
:     space_aliens_title "class 7623 seedling",
:     beatniks_title "big yellow joint",
:     joes_name 'ear' 'of' 'corn',
:     space_aliens_name 'zarfa' 'class' '7623' 'seedling',
:     beatniks_name 'big' 'yellow' 'joint'
: ;

Classes, classes, classes.

Class Perspective
  with   short_name [;
	   switch(player) {
		joe: return self.joes_title;
		alien: return self.alien_title;
		beatnik: return self.beatnik_title;
	   }
	 ],
	 joes_title self.generic_title,
	 alien_title self.generic_title,
	 beatnik_title self.generic_title,
	 generic_title "BUG:  This object has no unique short name.";

Same thing with...well, anything.  Even before routines.  A class
parse_name could even handle the individual name properties.

I suppose I should get off my duff and write the game like this I've been
thinking of for a year now, shouldn't I?

-Lucian