Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: ceforma@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Christopher E. Forman)
Subject: Re: Inform 5.5 for Dos 386+, ASK - problem
Message-ID: <1995Oct12.000323.128648@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 00:03:23 GMT
References: <81344618711066@inet.uni-c.dk> <45hdel$o7u@news.uni-c.dk>
Organization: Illinois State University
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Lines: 30

Rene Schnoor (remisc@inet.uni-c.dk) wrote:
:  Object     Nixon "Nixon" white_house
:   has       animate proper
:   with      name "nixon",
:         description "The former president.",
:      life [;
:       Ask: if (noun == 'watergate') "~Who sent you?~"; "~I don't know.~";
:      ];

: and then type:

: >ask nixon about watergate
: "I don't know."
:
: Which is wrong. It is not only in my code it goes wrong - if I compile the
: example game TOYSHOP.INF, I don't get the messages I should when I `ask boy
: about cubes' or `ask boy about toys', but just "Dunno.".
: What is wrong?

The Inform manual is wrong.  The "Ask:" portion of your code should read:

  Ask: if (second == 'watergate') "~Who sent you?~"; "~I don't know.~";

This is the most frequently encountered error in the Inform manual (and
the only one I personally know of).  The new version promises to fix this.
Any day, now, Graham...
-- 
C.E. Forman                                      ceforma@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu
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