Ah, those were the days, when it was actually possible to make money selling text adventures! I made a few attempts to write games myself back then, in Sinclair Spectrum Basic.
Today's interactive fiction authoring systems are more like general purpose programming languages, but with specialised syntax for creating rooms, objects and so on. There's very little that can't be implemented in them, with a little effort, and none of the frustration of being limited to binary flags and the like. TADS 3 has a lot in common with C++.
Inform 7 is a special case, with its natural language type syntax. I7 source code has to be seen to be believed. For instance: -
The jail cell is a room. "A darkened dingy room with water dripping from the ceiling." In the jail cell is a crowbar. East of the jail cell is the corridor.
That paragraph is valid I7 source, and does exactly what it sounds like it would. Things get a little more convoluted once you start declaring complex logic, but it's all natural language. The jury's still out on whether this is actually a useful way to program, but it's certainly an interesting one, and well worth checking out for sheer novelty value!
TADS 3 has just had a major release, the main addition being a nice new IDE (though I think that may be Windows only at present?) A few people still use TADS 2, but I can't think of any real reason to do so any more.
As for Inform, Inform 7 actually writes Inform 6 code under the hood, so Inform 6 is unlikely to ever die out entirely. However, the buzz on the newsgroups has been all about Inform 7 since its release. It has a great IDE too (Windows & OS X, with a Linux version rapidly catching up).
So if you're going to check anything out, I'd recommend Inform 7 if you fancy trying out the intriguing "natural language" programming paradigm, or TADS 3 if you want to use a rather more traditional object-oriented approach.
There's always a remarkable number of helpful people around on the newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction to answer questions from newbies, with regard to either of these development platforms.
The stories are submitted by the READERS (that is you), the comments are submitted by the READERS, the moderating is done by the READERS, the testing of new features is done by the READERS, the polls are suggested by the READERS, the new layout was created by a READER!
Who earns money from this site? NOT the READERS! Yes, but who diligently scans the summaries for typos? Who checks that the submitted articles are relevant and well-written? Who ensures that we aren't subjected to dupes? Oh wait...
Of course not everyone can, uh... update maps. I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps. Like you said, formal education is uh... irrelevant, like South Africa and uh, such as the Iraq. We need to help our education over here in the U.S. and the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for updating the maps.
2. The first picture below To Saturn and beyond: shows people on a moon of Saturn wearing full spacesuits EXCEPT for the camera man. It's obviously depicting a scene of decadent westerners faking another "triumph of American ingenuity", just like they did with the so-called moon landings (not to mention that whole Mars scandal in 1978).
Here in Canada, voting takes maybe half an hour at most Here in the UK, it takes no more than a couple of minutes. You turn up to find a mostly empty hall, because no-one has bothered turning out to vote. You spend 30 seconds or so wondering why you've bothered, since all of the candidates are lying bastards anyway, and their policies are broadly the same as everyone else's. Then you put a cross in a box next to the name of some guy who has no chance of being elected anyway, and you piss off home again, with a nice warm glow inside from having participated in the democratic process.
They could be overdosing on caffeine. They could be on meth. They might be some teenager on Ritalin or its relatives. They might be masturbating. I know this is Slashdot and all, but have you considered the possibility they may have been exercising?
I have seen Sony keyboards being literally fried by the heat from working on a docking station. Wow, literally fried? Submerged (or partially submerged) in oil, which acted as a heat transfer medium to facilitate cooking at a high temperature? That must have taken you somewhat by surprise!
Dorkbot put on shows based around the intersection between art and technology - robots, electronic music, all sorts of weird and interesting stuff (their tag-line is "people doing strange things with electricity"). They have groups which hold meetings in cities all around the world. See http://dorkbot.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorkbot.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I know what you mean. A film about Nazis setting up a moon base in 1945, it's very hard to tell if it's intended to be a comedy.
In a similar manner to people who become used to having a monkey for a president, and end up voting him in for a second term?
"Groups of people who illegally pirate computer software for profit, costing the economy billions."
Okay, so it's not true, but just watch how far I get.
Ah, those were the days, when it was actually possible to make money selling text adventures! I made a few attempts to write games myself back then, in Sinclair Spectrum Basic.
Today's interactive fiction authoring systems are more like general purpose programming languages, but with specialised syntax for creating rooms, objects and so on. There's very little that can't be implemented in them, with a little effort, and none of the frustration of being limited to binary flags and the like. TADS 3 has a lot in common with C++.
Inform 7 is a special case, with its natural language type syntax. I7 source code has to be seen to be believed. For instance: -
That paragraph is valid I7 source, and does exactly what it sounds like it would. Things get a little more convoluted once you start declaring complex logic, but it's all natural language. The jury's still out on whether this is actually a useful way to program, but it's certainly an interesting one, and well worth checking out for sheer novelty value!
TADS 3 has just had a major release, the main addition being a nice new IDE (though I think that may be Windows only at present?) A few people still use TADS 2, but I can't think of any real reason to do so any more.
As for Inform, Inform 7 actually writes Inform 6 code under the hood, so Inform 6 is unlikely to ever die out entirely. However, the buzz on the newsgroups has been all about Inform 7 since its release. It has a great IDE too (Windows & OS X, with a Linux version rapidly catching up).
So if you're going to check anything out, I'd recommend Inform 7 if you fancy trying out the intriguing "natural language" programming paradigm, or TADS 3 if you want to use a rather more traditional object-oriented approach.
There's always a remarkable number of helpful people around on the newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction to answer questions from newbies, with regard to either of these development platforms.
Four.
Something like this you mean?
Of course not everyone can, uh... update maps. I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps. Like you said, formal education is uh... irrelevant, like South Africa and uh, such as the Iraq. We need to help our education over here in the U.S. and the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for updating the maps.
Sorry to reply to your sig rather than the story, but I just wanted to say that your sarcasm punctuation mark is a really great idea.~
Will the system also support viewing the latest Hollywood blockbusters without the usual abundance of product placements?
Yeah - verbing weirds grammar.
"pretended to add value to it"? I think you could have a pretty bright future in middle management yourself.
Dorkbot put on shows based around the intersection between art and technology - robots, electronic music, all sorts of weird and interesting stuff (their tag-line is "people doing strange things with electricity"). They have groups which hold meetings in cities all around the world. See http://dorkbot.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorkbot.
It has pictures, and it's not on a CD-ROM.