man inform (Commandes) - interactive fiction compiler

NAME

inform - interactive fiction compiler

SYNOPSIS

inform [-acefhijklmnopqrstuwxyzDMU] [-g[2]] [-vversion] [-F1] [-Eerror-message-style]

DESCRIPTION

Inform is a compiler for interactive fiction.

It takes input in a vaguely C-like syntax (described in info inform ), and outputs in a form compatible with infocom z-machine players.

OPTIONS

-a
Trace assembly-language (without hex dumps; see -t); this is to help with maintaining inform, of for debugging assembly language programs.
-c
More concise error messages: in c mode, Inform does not quote whole source lines together with error messages.
-d
Contract double spaces after full stops in text. Converts text like "...with a mango. You applaud..." into the same with only a single space after the full stop, which will prevent an interpreter from displaying a spurious space at the beginning of a line when a line break happens to occur exactly after the full stop; this is to help typists who habitually double-space.
-d2
Contract double spaces after exclamation and question marks, too.
-e
Economy mode (slower). Only in conomy' mode does Inform actually process abbreviations, because this is seldom needed and slows the compiler by 10% or so; the game file should not play any differently if compiled this way, but will probably be shorter, if your choice of abbreviations was sensible.
-f
Frequencies mode; show how useful abbreviations are, showing how many bytes they saved.
-g
Makes Inform automatically compile trace-printing code on every function call; in play this will produce reams of text (several pages between each chance to type commands) but is sometimes useful. Note that this can be set on an individual command by writing * as its first local variable, without use of the g switch.
-g2
Trace function calls within the library too.
-h
Print a usage message on standard output and exit.
-i
Ignores switches set within the source file. It is possible to set any switches using a "Switches" command in the source; this option will ignore them.
-j
List objects as constructed. Makes Inform print out steady text to prove that it's still awake: on very slow machines this may be a convenience!
-k
Writes a "debugging information" file for the use of the Infix debugger.
-l
List every statement run through inform.
-m
Say how much memory has been allocated.
-n
Print numbers of properties, attributes and actions.
-o
Print offset addresses.
-p
Give percentage breakdown of story file.
-q
Keep quiet about obsolete usages. This may be useful when compiling very long, very old programs.
-r
Record all the text to "gametext". This is intended to help with proof-reading the text of a game: it transcribes all of the text in double-quotes.
-s
Give statistics. This is particularly useful to keep track of how large the game is growing.
-t
Trace assembly-language (with full hex dumps; see -a); this is to help with maintaining inform, of for debugging assembly language programs.
-u
Work out most useful abbreviations: tries to work out a good set of abbreviations to declare for your game, but `extremely slowly' (a matter of hours) and `consuming very much memory' (perhaps a megabyte).
-v
Chooses the format of the game to be compiled. v5 ("advanced") is the default, but if a game begins to overflow this, try v8. A few very old interpreters require the limited v3 ("standard") format.
-w
Suppresses warning messages.
-x
Print a # for every 100 lines compiled. Makes Inform print out steady text to prove that it's still awake: on very slow machines this may be a convenience!
-y
Trace linking system, to help with maintaining Inform.
-z
Print memory map of the z-machine.
-D
Insert `Constant DEBUG;' automatically. This makes the library add the debugging suite to a game. This is just a convenience: it's a nuisance to keep adding and removing source code lines to do the same thing.
-E
This selects an eroor message format, since different error formats fit in better with debugging tools on different machines. -E0, the default, is Archimedes-style, -E1 is Microsoft style, -E2 is Macintosh MPW style.
-F1
Use temporary files to reduce memory consumption.
-M
Compile as a module for further linking. See the info for more information.
-U
Insert `Constant USE_MODULES' automatically; this speeds up compilation by linking in the library instead of recompiling it.

SEE ALSO

There is extensive documentation available in /usr/doc/inform and in the info system. You might like to install the inform-docs package, which includes additional documentation.

AUTHOR

This manpage was put together by Mark Baker, based on the info documentation.