Category talk:Inform authors

I don't quite agree with this sentence: "Games written with Inform are targeted to be playable on either the Z-code or the Glulx platform, but not both. "

Johan Berntsson's games Drakmagi and Vanyar are both written with Inform and targeted to be playable on both the Z-code and the Glulx platform.

If the sentence is there to say that a single game file cannot be playable on both platforms, that's more correct but a Glulx file and a Z-code can be packaged into the same Blorb file, which will then be a game file of sorts, playable on both platforms.

/FredrikR

Huh. Would you believe I didn't know that was possible? Just goes to show, I don't know everything. I'll rewrite the sentence, unless you beat me to it. -- David Welbourn 09:55, 5 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

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Now, there are different categories for TADS 2 and TADS 3: Category:TADS 2 authors and Category:TADS 3 authors, Category:TADS 2 games and TADS 3 games, and the "platforms" in game lists (Game Title (Authors; Dates; Platforms).) make clear whether a game is in TADS 2 or TADS 3.

Inform 6 and Inform 7 are at least as different as TADS 2 and TADS 3. Why aren't there different categories for Inform 6 authors (or games) and Inform 7 authors (or games)?

Maybe just because the virtual machines (and interpreters) are the same for Inform 6 and 7? But I think it's still useful to be able to see easily which games are in Inform 6 or 7. What do you think? --Eriorg 09:31, 24 July 2006 (EST)

I think you're opening up a huge can of worms here, but you're certainly correct that I6 and I7 are significantly different from each other. Um. Well, first off, I should point out that so far, we have been subcategorizing authors by the authoring systems that they use and subcategorizing games by the platform they were written for. For TADS 2 and TADS 3 games, there's a nice one-to-one correspondence between authoring system and platform. That's not the case with Inform games. On the authoring system side of things, there's several flavours of Inform; I6 and I7 are merely the most common. And the platforms that Inform games are compiled for are the eight Z-machines plus Glulx.

The reason for categorizing games by platform is simple. It lets people know what (virtual) machine they need to run the game. Categorizing people by authoring system is mostly a "IF Community" sort of thing. ADRIFT authors congregate together and share ideas. Same with Quest. To a lesser extent, that has also happened with the other languages as well.

Hmph. If we create a category for Inform 7 authors, then what does the Inform authors category represent? Would we have to create categories for Inform 6 authors, Inform 5 authors, InformATE authors, Triform authors, Minform authors, and Platypus authors as well? Or is it still okay to have Inform authors as a general category, and Inform 7 authors is just a subcategory of that? -- David Welbourn 12:20, 25 July 2006 (EST)

Yes, I see things aren't simple!

It's probably still useful to have a global category Category:Inform authors for all the Inform authors, especially since there are even more flavours of Inform than just I6 and I7 (I hadn't thought of that). But we could then add subcategories for Inform 6/Inform 7/etc. authors, I suppose.

For the games, we might create another category, Games by authoring system (or something like that) and subcategories like Inform 6 games and Inform 7 games. Of course, the Category:Games by platform would still be there, so, for instance, an Inform 7 game could be in both Category:Inform 7 games and Category:Z-code games. The categories Category:TADS 2 games and Category:TADS 3 games would be subcategories of both Category:Games by platform and Category:Games by authoring system.

For the platforms in game lists and "Games released in..." pages, I don't know what to do. --Eriorg 13:26, 25 July 2006 (EST)

Well, one step at a time, I suppose. I'll create categories for Games by authoring system, Inform 7 games and Inform 7 authors, and we'll see if that results in chaos or not. Hold off on any Inform 6 games category (or similar) for now. We can always add it in later if we really want to. -- David Welbourn 14:08, 25 July 2006 (EST)

Hm. Now that I've added all that, it's obvious that an Inform 6 games category can't really be avoided. Oh well. -- David Welbourn 15:39, 25 July 2006 (EST)

Wow! You've been really fast. Thank you very much! --Eriorg 16:49, 25 July 2006 (EST)