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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: [Inform] Parsing Ambiguity???
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Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 05:19:14 GMT
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Robin Lionheart (sxl6400@hertz.njit.edu) wrote:
> The real problem is that all names attached to an Inform object are
> "nouns". So with at object named "window of car", "window" and "car"
> have equal weight [...]

> Instead, the "name" property should be divided into "name" and
> "adjective", and the matching routine should give noun matches 
> greater weight than adjective matches:

> I hope Inform 6 will add a proper adjective property so we can all
> rid our parsers of this annoying bug.

This is a library issue, not a compiler issue. The compiler does no 
parsing. The compiler doesn't know that the "name" property is used for 
matching text descriptions to objects; the only special thing about it is 
that it take double-quoted dictionary words instead of single-quoted.

> To implement an Encyclopedia Frobizzica with many ambiguous
> entries (ex. "Frigid River" vs. "Frigid River Valley"), I once
> patched Inform to add an "adjective" property, then changed the library
> to score noun matches 10 but adjective matches only 1. It's a kludge,
> but it works.

If the Inform parser is capable of behaving as you want it to -- and I 
suspect it is -- nothing is stopping you from writing the code.

--Z

-- 

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