Past raif topics: Development: part 2
This is part two of a collection of Past raif topics to do with the "development" side of IF creation.
The first part may be found at Past raif topics: Development: part 1.
If you add or change any of the sections on this page, remember to update the entry on the Past raif topics page as well.
Parsing
See also => Parser .. Two-word parser .. Natural_language_processing (IFWiki articles)
- Why is writing your own parser so much fun ? (Apr 2000)
- Why parsers are difficult to write (Jan 2003)
- Making a parser - minimum requirements (Mar 2002)
- Parsing / parser construction (May 1996)
- Parsing / parser construction #2 (May 1996)
- Parsers / YACC + GUI tools (Aug 1999)
- Parser ability wish list (Dec 2000)
- What to expect of a good parser (Sep 2000)
- Parser ideas (Dec 2002)
- Proposed verb system for new IF language (Sep 1999)
- Parsing / would better parsers help IF ? (Mar 1994)
- Parsing, then and now (Sep 1997)
- Infocom & Magnetic Scrolls parsers (Apr 2001)
- Annoying parsers + Alan language (Nov 1999)
- Scope (May 1997)
- Synonyms & parser accepting nonsense (Jan 1998)
- Leaving out prepositions in commands ("look object") (Oct 2005, RGIF)
- Sentences accepted by parser (Jul 2004)
- Tricky sentences to parse (Apr 2001)
- Ambiguous commands ("get eggs and duck") (Nov 2000)
- How to parse things / code for parsing (Oct 2000)
- Description of a parser / implicit actions using goals (Feb 1990)
- Probabalistic interpreters (ungrammatical input, etc) (Dec 2004)
- Keyword matching / Inform & TADS version of ELIZA (Feb 1999)
- Skipping words during parsing (Mar 2002)
- Parsing + world models + text generation (May 1991)
- Improving IF parsers (Oct 2006)
- Parsing object names (Inform 6/7) (Jun 2006)
- Parsing / Abstract Transition Networks (ATNs) (May 1991)
- Case based parsing / Case theory (Nov 1993)
- Natural Language Processing (Jul 2002)
- Parsing a computer language vs a natural language (Apr 2000)
- World model & parser wish list (Mar 2004)
- Making assertions / "A is B" (Jan 1995)
- SHRDLU project ("blocks world") (Dec 2001)
Vocabulary
See also => Unrecognized Commands in the IF Gems review quotes collection (also in the IF Archive)
See also => Synonyms (IFWiki article)
- List of standard IF commands (Nov 1996)
- Vocabulary size of Infocom games (Mar 1992)
- Words recognized by Infocom games + writing IF in C (Feb 2000, RGIF)
- How much parser should understand (everything printed in game output ?) (Jun 1996)
- Which words to use and recognize / using words displayed by the game (Dec 1992)
- Speaking in "adventurese" / best tractible grammar for IF (Feb 2003, RGIF)
- Simple parsers / limited vocabulary (Sep 1993)
- Advantages of a limited vocabulary (Aug 2001)
- Simplified parser & the "use" verb (Apr 2000)
- Reduced set of verbs (Jun 1998, RGIF)
- "Next level" parser / adverbs (May 2005)
- Adverbs + CAVE IF system (Dec 1998)
Disambiguation
See also => Disamiguation in the IF Gems review quotes collection (also in the IF Archive)
See also => Disambiguation (IFWiki article)
- Disambiguation during parsing (Sep 1999)
- Disambiguation problems (Oct 2001)
- Disambiguation #2 (Oct 2001)
- Disambiguation / unlock door with key (Nov 1994)
- Disambiguation questions asked by parser / repeating the preposition (Sep 1998)
- Ambiguity of contents vs container name (eg. cereal, packet of cereal) (Nov 2000)
- Disambiguation & "branch" statement #1 (Jan 1998)
- Disambiguation & "branch" statement #2 (Jan 1998)
- Making disambiguation easier for the player (Jun 2005)
- Context sensitive pronouns (Jan 1997)
- "It" and pronouns / indirect objects (Dec 1998)
- Handling "it" pronoun + test games for new IF system (Nov 1999)
- When "all" is essential (Jan 1995)
- "All" with verbs other than "drop" & "take" (Jan 1995)
- Should "take all" include scenery objects ? (Jan 1998)
- When should "all" be allowed + actions that take more than one turn (Mar 1994)
Role of the parser
Editors and other tools / GUIs for IF development
See also => Roger Firth's List of IF Editors .. if-archive/programming/editors
- Which editor do people use ? (Aug 2005)
- Which editor for writing IF ? (Jul 1999)
- Text editor recommendations (Jan 1998)
- Good programming editors (Nov 1996)
- What is tedious to code in TADS ? (for Plugh) (Oct 2002)
- Editor for Alan / IF in general (Jan 2003)
- "Informer" windows IF editor / what makes a good editor (Feb 2000)
- Hugo editor (Aug 2002)
- Editors (Sep 2004)
- IF builder 1.0 + source (Feb 2003)
- IF editors / IDEs (Aug 2003)
- Map editor ideas / generating skeleton code from map (Jun 1996)
- GUI vs command line programming (May 1999)
- IF without programming / "point-and-click" IF creation (Dec 2006)
- Ideas for IF writers' tool / GUI (Mar 1999)
- GUIs + parsers (Aug 1999)
- GUI tool for TADS / Inform (May 1996)
- Plugh - a GUI for developing IF (proposal) (Jan 2000)
- Plugh IF design tool (Feb 2004)
- Plugh (answering arguments) (Feb 2004)
- Languages vs tools / visual tool for IF creation (Jan 1997)
- Visual authoring system requirements (Jul 1994)
- Visual authoring system requirements (summary) (Jul 1994)
- Visual Inform - why bother ? (Feb 1997)
- Visual Inform details (Feb 1997)
- Static game analysis (Oct 2004)
- Tool to check all object / verb interactions (Feb 2002)
- Tool to check for interactions between objects (Sep 2005)
IF libraries
- IF library ideas / common library (Oct 1999)
- What should go in the library + tricky things to implement (Sep 2006)
- What should be in an extension vs built into an IF language (Jul 2007)
- Common library for all IF languages (Sep 2003)
- Libraries vs custom programming + simulationism (footprints in the snow) (Sep 2005)
- IF library design + analysis of 72 newbie transcripts (Feb 2006)
- Need for a library / library ideas (Inform) (Sep 1997)
- TADS 2 library ideas (Jun 2002)
- Library of stock objects + programming vs creative writing (Dec 1997)
- Ideas for IF tools & libraries (Mar 2002)
- Creating / extending libraries (Jan 2004)
- Object Oriented library design (Jun 2002)
- Object Oriented Inform library / "Verb" vs "Object" Oriented (Nov 1998)
- Worldclass TADS library + limitations of Inform & TADS (Nov 1995)
Virtual machines
See also => Virtual machine .. Z-machine .. Glulx .. T3 VM (IFWiki articles)
- Reason for virtual machines / the Z machine stack (Oct 2005)
- Portability / Virtual Machines / why no "exe"s (Feb 2001)
- Importance of a powerful Virtual Machine + thoughts on Inform 7 (Feb 2007)
- Compiling from TADS, HUGO, etc to Z machine (Feb 1998)
- TADS to Z machine compiler ? (Oct 1999)
- Compiling TADS to Z machine (Mar 2001)
- Compiling to and disassembling Z code (Feb 2005, RGIF)
- Limitations of the Z machine / Glulx + how many commands to anticipate (Jul 2007)
- History of Z code & Inform (Jan 2000)
- Z machine history / 64K limit (Sep 1998)
- Extending the Z machine (May 1998)
- Multiple Undo on the Z machine / save_undo & restore_undo (Nov 1996)
- Z code vs Glulx Inform (Apr 2001)
- Why Glulx ? (Nov 2001)
- Glulx preliminary specification (Apr 1999)
- Glk and Glulx (Oct 2001)
- Glulx: cost of avoiding the stack (Feb 2007)
- Text / code compression (Glulx) (Jul 1999)
- Text compression #2 (Glulx) (Aug 1999)
- Virtual machines + new IF languages (Jun 1998)
- Mercat virtual machine (announcement) (Nov 1998)
- NIP virtual machine specification (Aug 1998)
Interpreters / portability / GLK
See also => Glk (IFWiki article)
- Why have an interpreter / portability (Feb 1998)
- Portability + limitations of Inform & TADS (Nov 1995)
- Purpose of GLK (Oct 1999)
- Glk text styles & fonts (proposal) (Jan 1998)
- GUIs + parsers (Aug 1999)
Saving and restoring
See also => Meta commands (undo, save, restore, restart, quit)
- Transcripts as game save files (Apr 2005)
- Saving story tree instead of game state (May 1995)
- Saving transcripts along with game state (Apr 2007, RGIF)
Coding / programming
See also => Writing: Creative writing (vs programming)
- Code organization (Dec 2005)
- Organising and folding code / database paradigm (Jan 2007)
- Code organization for Inform 7 (Jun 2006)
- How to organize Inform 7 source code (Nov 2006)
- IF code design / avoiding spaghetti code (Feb 1998)
- File organisation for game source code (Sep 1998)
- Version Control for IF code (Dec 2006)
- Inform & large IF projects (Apr 1998)
- Global variables in Inform (Nov 1998)
- Hacking IF libraries + takable actors (Inform) (Jan 1997)
Code generation
- Creating IF from within IF (Feb 2004)
- "Meta-game" IF creation interface / programming & debugging from an IF prompt (Dec 2006)
- txtMap adventure generator (from transcript input) (Jul 2007)
- Dungeon digger (Oct 2003)
- Writing the game while playing it (Dec 1998)
- Create-by-playing + making IF using VB 5 (Jun 1998)
- "Meta-game" IF programming interface (Dec 2006)
Computer science
- The halting problem (Sep 1999)
- Object Oriented programming (Dec 1997)
- Object Orientation / inheritance (Aug 1998)
- Strong typing (vs typeless languages) (Jun 1996)
- Implementing exceptions in Inform (Oct 1996)
- Implementing exceptions in Inform #2 (Oct 1996)
- Implementing exceptions in Inform #3 (Oct 1996)
- Random number generators (Jan 2006)
Testing
See also => The IF Beta Site Info Page
See also => Testing in the IF Gems review quotes collection (also in the IF Archive)
See also => Beta-testing .. Alpha-testing (IFWiki articles)
- How to test games (Sep 1996)
- Tips on conducting a beta test cycle (Aug 2005)
- Beta testing (Nov 2006)
- Beta testing web site (Mar 2003)
- Interacting with Beta Testers (Dec 2001)
- Advice for interacting with Beta-testers (Dec 2006)
- Should Beta-testers be given requested materials? (Jul 2007)
- Bug report etiquette (May 1996)
- Playing your own game vs reading transcript (Mar 2001)
- Unit & regression testing, code reviews (Dec 2001)
- Automated testing (Nov 2002)
- Unit testing / automated testing (Oct 2005)
- Usability testing IF (May 2004)
Debugging
See also => Infocom Bugs List