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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: Hugo vs. TADS/Inform
Message-ID: <erkyrathDxznt2.AIC@netcom.com>
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Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 16:43:50 GMT
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Cardinal Teulbachs (cardinalt@earthlink.net) wrote:
> >> >On a related note, how hard would it be to get the Hugo compiler to 
> >> >generate Z-machine files instead of Hugo runtime files?
> >> 
> >> Hmm. That's a question better put to Kent. I'll ask him.

> >Hmm, maybe this isn't a question Kent wants to hear. :)

> Maybe, maybe not, but in any case I'm assuming Andrew has noble
> motives in asking :)  

Not only noble, but serious. One hidden drawback of the hardwired parser
is that when the parser is updated, it's work for the interpreter author
*and* the interpreter porters *and* the game players (who have to download
the new interpreter version.) And if there are backward incompatibilities,
the players have to keep two versions of the interpreter, etc, etc... 

In contrast, when Inform 6 came out -- a total rewrite -- it generated 
game files that run on all existing interpreters.

If the Hugo compiler generated Z-machine files, it would pick up this 
advantage. Furthermore, it would obviously have to drop the "hard-wired" 
part of the parser into the Z-program. Presumably, just as a block of 
code. But if that code is *also* compiled from source, and the source is 
supplied with the compiler, it also deals with my other complaint. Game 
authors *could* hack around with it, if necessary, and they'd still be 
producing runnable Z-machine files in the end.

In fact, I wonder if you shouldn't just write a Hugo-to-Inform source 
file translator... if you avoid all the IF-specific parts of Inform, and 
just generate more-or-less C code, you wouldn't be stuck with any of the 
quirks of Inform as an IF system.

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
