Inform

An interactive fiction programming language, created by Graham Nelson in 1993 and now one of the most popular popular IF development systems (along with TADS and Hugo). Inform is particularly notable in that it compiles to code for the Z-machine, the same virtual machine used by Infocom. More recent versions of the Inform compiler optionally produce code for the more powerful and flexible virtual machine Glulx.

Inform is portable across many hardware platforms. Interpreters for z-code exist for nearly every computer system ever designed and Glulx interpreters exist for most major operating systems currently in use.

Inform is designed to be translatable to languages other than English. There are currently translations available for Dutch, French, German, Italian, Lojban, Spanish and Swedish. (See: The Inform Translations Page)

Although Inform is not an easy language to learn, its binaries are widely supported, and many code libraries are freely available on the Internet. Inform is well served by two valuable manuals, the Inform Designer's Manual (often called "the DM4") and the Inform Beginner's Guide. (See: http://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/index.html)

Summary of Inform Variations

• Z-code
• Glulx
• Platypus
• ORLibrary
• InformATE
• MInform
• Triform - alternate Inform library (still in beta as of January 2005).

Tips and Tutorials

• FAQ and Troubleshooting by Emily Short. On developing Inform games, both for the Z-machine and Glulx.
• See also: Category:Inform Tutorial.

News

• Informary by Roger Firth. Latest news and developments concerning all aspects of Inform.

Links

• Official Website

Editors

There are a number of editors meant to make writing Inform code simpler and easier. They can automatically highlight or format code, generate basic code for classes, and other handy functions.

• IF-Archive list of editors (including Inform editors, and editors for other development systems as well)
• JIF
• Inform Explorer
• Roger Firth's list of IF editors