- Source: Inform
- Source: INFORM
Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. Inform can generate programs designed for the Z-code or Glulx virtual machines. Versions 1 through 5 were released between 1993 and 1996. Around 1996, Nelson rewrote Inform from first principles to create version 6 (or Inform 6). Over the following decade, version 6 became reasonably stable and a popular language for writing interactive fiction. In 2006, Nelson released Inform 7 (briefly known as Natural Inform), a completely new language based on principles of natural language and a new set of tools based around a book-publishing metaphor.
Z-Machine and Glulx
The Inform compilers translate Inform code to story files for Glulx or Z-code, two virtual machines designed specifically for interactive fiction. Glulx, which can support larger games, is the default.
The Z-machine was originally developed by Infocom in 1979 for their interactive fiction titles. Because there is at least one such interpreter for nearly every major and minor platform, this means that the same Z-code file can be run on a multitude of platforms with no alterations. Originally Inform targeted the Z-machine only.
Andrew Plotkin created an unofficial version of Inform 6 that was also capable of generating files for Glulx, a virtual machine he had designed to overcome many of the limitations of the several-decades-old Z-machine. Starting with Inform 6.3, released February 29, 2004, Inform 6 has included official support for both virtual machines, based on Andrew Plotkin's work. Early release of Inform 7 did not support Glulx, but in August 2006 Glulx support was released.
Inform 6
Inform was originally created by Graham Nelson in 1993. In 1996 Nelson rewrote Inform from first principles to create version 6 (or Inform 6). Over the following decade, version 6 became reasonably stable and a popular language for writing interactive fiction.
The Inform 6 system consists of two major components: the Inform compiler, which generates story files from Inform source code, and the Inform library, a suite of software which handles most of the difficult work of parsing the player's text input and keeping track of the world model. The name Inform also refers to the Inform programming language that the compiler understands.
Although Inform 6 and the Z-Machine were originally designed with interactive fiction in mind, many other programs have been developed, including a BASIC interpreter, a LISP tutorial (complete with interpreter), a Tetris game, and a version of the game Snake.
= The Inform 6 compiler
=The Inform compiler generates files for the Z-machine or Glulx (also called story files) from Inform 6 source code.
= The Inform 6 programming language
=The Inform programming language is object-oriented and procedural. A key element of the language is objects. Objects are maintained in an object tree which lists the parent–child relationships between objects. Since the parent–child relationship is often used to represent location, an object which is the parent of another object is often said to "hold" it. Objects can be moved throughout the tree. Typically, top level objects represent rooms and other locations within the game, which may hold objects representing the room's contents, be they physical items, non-player characters, the player's character, or background effects. All objects can hold other objects, so a livingroom object might hold an insurancesaleman object which is holding a briefcase object which contains the insurancepaperwork object.
In early versions of Inform, objects were different from the notion of objects from object-oriented programming, in that there was no such thing as a class. Later versions added support for class definitions and allowed objects to be members of classes. Objects and classes can inherit from multiple classes. Interactive fiction games typically contain many unique objects. Because of this, many objects in Inform do not inherit from any class, other than the "metaclass" Object. However, objects very frequently have attributes (boolean properties, such as scenery or edible) that are recognized by the Inform library. In other languages this would normally be implemented via inheritance.
Here is a simple example of Inform 6 source code.
The procedual parts, statements and operators, are largely borrowed from C, with the notable exception that -->x instead of [x] is used to take array subscripts. Routines are defined in square brackets, as in the Main routine above, but called with round brackets as in C. The character @ is used to escape characters and to invoke raw Z-machine opcodes.
= Inform 6 library
=The Inform system also contains the Inform library, which automates nearly all the most difficult work involved in programming interactive fiction; specifically, it includes a text parser that makes sense of the player's input, and a world model that keeps track of such things as objects (and their properties), rooms, doors, the player's inventory, etc.
The Inform compiler does not require the use of the Inform library. There are several replacement libraries available, such as Platypus and InformATE, a library that codes Inform in Spanish. Some games may use no library at all, such as a direct port of Zork into Inform 6.
= Example game
=Here is an example of Inform 6 source code that makes use of the Inform library. The Inform 6 code sample below is usable in Inform 7, but not without special demarcation indicating that it is embedded legacy code.
= Notable games developed in Inform 6 or earlier versions
=Curses, by Graham Nelson (1993), the first game ever written in the Inform programming language. Considered one of the first "modern" games to meet the high standards set by Infocom's best titles.
Zork: The Undiscovered Underground (1997), written by Marc Blank & Michael Berlyn, programmed by Gerry Kevin Wilson. Given away free by Activision to promote the release of Zork: Grand Inquisitor.
Anchorhead, by Michael S. Gentry (1998) is a highly rated horror story inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
Photopia, by Adam Cadre (1998), the first almost entirely puzzle-free game. Won the annual Interactive Fiction Competition in 1998.
Varicella by Adam Cadre (1999). It won four XYZZY Awards in 1999 including the XYZZY Award for Best Game, and had a scholarly essay written about it.
Galatea, by Emily Short (2000). Galatea is focused entirely on interaction with the animated statue of the same name. Galatea has one of the most complex interaction systems for a non-player character in an interactive fiction game. Adam Cadre called Galatea "the best NPC ever".
Slouching Towards Bedlam, by Star C. Foster and Daniel Ravipinto (2003). Set in a steampunk setting, the game narratively integrates meta-game functionality (saving, restoring, restarting) into the game world itself. The game won two XYZZY Awards and received the highest average score of any game in the Interactive Fiction Competition as of 2006.
Inform 7
On April 30, 2006, Graham Nelson announced the beta release of Inform 7 to the rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroup. Inform 7 consists of three primary parts: The Inform 7 IDE with development tools specialized for testing interactive fiction, the Inform 7 compiler for the new language, and "The Standard Rules" which form the core library for Inform 7. Inform 7 also relies on the Inform library and Inform compiler from Inform 6. The compiler compiles the Inform 7 source code into Inform 6 source code, which is then compiled separately by Inform 6 to generate a Glulx or Z-code story file. Inform 7 also defaults to writing Blorb files, archives which include the Z-code together with optional "cover art" and metadata intended for indexing purposes. The full set of Inform 7 tools are currently available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux (since 2007).
As of 2023, Inform 7 and its and tools remain under development. Since April 2022, Inform 7 is open source and developed on GitHub.
Inform 7 was named Natural Inform for a brief period of time, but was later renamed Inform 7. This old name is why the Inform 7 compiler is named "NI."
= Inform 7 IDE
=Inform 7 comes with an integrated development environment (IDE) for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux. The Mac OS X IDE was developed by Andrew Hunter. The Microsoft Windows IDE was developed by David Kinder. The Linux IDE (known as GNOME Inform) was developed by Philip Chimento.
The Inform 7 IDE includes a text editor for editing Inform 7 source code. Like many other programming editors it features syntax highlighting. It marks quoted strings in one color. Headings of organizational sections (Volumes, Books, Chapters, Parts, and Sections) are bolded and made larger. Comments are set in a different color and made slightly smaller.
The IDE includes a built-in Z-code interpreter. The Mac OS X IDE's interpreter is based on the Zoom interpreter by Andrew Hunter, with contributions from Jesse McGrew. The Microsoft Windows IDE's interpreter is based on WinFrotz.
As a developer tests the game in the built-in interpreter, progress is tracked in the "skein" and "transcript" views of the IDE. The skein tracks player commands as a tree of branching possibilities. Any branch of the tree can be quickly re-followed, making it possible to retry different paths in a game under development without replaying the same portions of the game. Paths can also be annotated with notes and marked as solutions, which can be exported as text walkthroughs. The transcript, on the other hand, tracks both player commands and the game's responses. Correct responses from the game can be marked as "blessed." On replaying a transcript or a branch of the skein, variations from the blessed version will be highlighted, which can help the developer find errors.
The IDE also provides various indices into the program under development. The code is shown as a class hierarchy, a traditional IF map, a book-like table of contents, and in other forms. Clicking items in the index jumps to the relevant source code.
The IDE presents two side-by-side panes for working in. Each pane can contain the source code being worked on, the current status of compilation, the skein, the transcript, the indices of the source code, a running version of the game, documentation for Inform 7 or any installed extensions to it, or settings. The concept is to imitate an author's manuscript book by presenting two "facing pages" instead of a multitude of separate windows.
= Inform 7 programming language
=Notable features include strong bias towards declarative rule-based style of programming and ability to infer types and properties of objects from the way they are used. For example, the statement "John wears a hat." creates a "person" called "John" (since only people are capable of wearing things), creates a "thing" with the "wearable" property (since only objects marked "wearable" are capable of being worn), and sets John as wearing the hat.
Another notable aspect of the language is direct support for relations which track associations between objects. This includes automatically provided relations, like one object containing another or an object being worn, but the developer can add his/her own relations. A developer might add relations indicating love or hatred between beings, or to track which characters in a game have met each other.
Inform 7 is a highly domain-specific programming language, providing the writer/programmer with a much higher level of abstraction than Inform 6, and highly readable resulting source code. General-purpose logical and arithmetic statements are written in natural language (see e.g. the "Physics" example in The Inform Recipe Book).
In early Inform 7, the compiler translates the code to Inform 6, much like CFront did with C++ and C. The current compiler (as of version 10 of 2022) is additionally able to translate the code directly to C for a native executable, and to generate an "index mini-website" describing the story.
= Example game
=Statements in Inform 7 take the form of complete sentences. Blank lines and indentation are in some places structurally significant. The basic form of an Inform 7 program is as follows:
The following is a reimplementation of the above "Hello Deductible" example written in Inform 7. It relies on the library known as "The Standard Rules" which are automatically included in all Inform 7 compilations.
= Notable games written in Inform 7
=Mystery House Possessed (2005), by Emily Short, was the first Inform 7 game released to be public. It was released as part of the "Mystery House Taken Over" project.
On March 1, 2006, Short announced the release of three further games:
Bronze (an example of a traditional puzzle-intensive game) and Damnatio Memoriae (a follow-up to her award-winning Inform 6 game Savoir-Faire) were joined by Graham Nelson's The Reliques of Tolti-Aph (2006). When the Inform 7 public beta was announced on April 30, 2006, six "worked examples" of medium to large scale works were made available along with their source code, including the three games previously released on March 1.
Emily Short's Floatpoint was the first Inform 7 game to take first place in the Interactive Fiction Competition.
It also won 2006 XYZZY Awards for Best Setting and Best NPCs. Rendition, by nespresso (2007), is a political art experiment in the form of a text adventure game. Its approach to tragedy has been discussed academically by both the Association for Computing Machinery and Cambridge University.
See also
Interactive fiction § Development systems lists software similar to Inform
TADS The Text Adventure Development System (TADS), another leading IF development system
Further reading
Inform 6
The official manual of Inform is Graham Nelson's Inform Designer's Manual: it is a tutorial, a manual, and a technical document rolled into one. It is available online for free at Inform's official website, and two printed editions are available: a softcover (ISBN 0-9713119-0-0) and a hardcover (ISBN 0-9713119-3-5).
The Inform Beginner's Guide by Roger Firth and Sonja Kesserich (ISBN 0-9713119-2-7) attempts to provide a more gentle introduction to Inform. It is available for free at Inform's official website.
Inform 7
The SPAG Interview - An interview with designers Graham Nelson and Emily Short about the development of Inform 7. This interview was made shortly before its release and published on the same day as the initial release.
"Natural Language, Semantic Analysis and Interactive Fiction" - A paper on the design of Inform 7 by designer Graham Nelson.
References
External links
Cloak of Darkness: Inform Archived August 30, 2016, at the Wayback Machine presents the same, short game implemented in both Inform 6 and Inform 7, as well as other languages for comparison.
Inform 6 - Official web site
Inform 6 FAQ Archived October 10, 2016, at the Wayback Machine at Roger Firth's IF Pages provides details on programming in Inform 6.
Inform 7 - Official web site.
The Interactive Fiction Archive provides many Inform tools, examples, and library files.
Playfic is a web-based interface for creating and sharing new games using Inform 7.
Guncho is a multiplayer interactive fiction system based on Inform 7 with a combination of MUD-like and web-based interfaces.
INFORM (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements) is an independent registered charity located in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College, London; from 1988-2018 it was based at the London School of Economics. It was founded by the sociologist of religion, Eileen Barker, with start-up funding from the British Home Office and Britain's mainstream churches. Its stated aims are to "prevent harm based on misinformation about minority religions and sects by bringing the insights and methods of academic research into the public domain" and to provide "information about minority religions and sects which is as accurate, up-to-date and as evidence-based as possible."
History
The founding of INFORM was motivated by a shared impression among clergy and academics that groups hostile to cults often aimed to feed rather than alleviate enquirers' fears. During the 1980s, the British Home Office received many complaints related to cults and NRMs from concerned parents, but did not feel that any of the existing counter-cult and anti-cult groups deserved state funding. Answering the need for a body that would disseminate well-researched, impartial, and easily understood information, Eileen Barker, a leading sociologist of religion based at the London School of Economics and Political Science, established INFORM in 1988 with the support of the Home Office, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Hume and other mainstream churches. Eileen Barker argued that the media have an interest in attracting and keeping readers, most of whom are likely to be attracted by sensational stories. Suppliers of information may well have an agenda that leads them to adjust their product to meet a perceived demand.
Its founding aim was to provide neutral, objective and up-to-date information on new religious movements (NRMs) to government officials, scholars, the media, and members of the general public, in particular to relatives of people who have joined a new religious movement, as well as religious or spiritual seekers. Founder Eileen Barker retired from directing Inform in 2020 and from its Board of Governors in 2022 (although she is still active as an Observer).
Activities
INFORM, based in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London, researches and collects information on new religious movements and makes this data available to all interested parties – government officials, researchers and the media as well as relatives of people who have joined a new religious movement. Seeking to dispel the often inaccurate and distorted information disseminated about new religious movements in the media, INFORM aims to provide reliable information, based on in-depth research, about the character, policy and origins of new religious movements, as well as information about what motivates converts, and how movement membership tends to affect members' subsequent lives and careers. INFORM does not itself perform counselling, but refers enquirers to a nationwide network of qualified experts. Where parents have lost all contact with their son or daughter, INFORM may be able to put them in touch with a go-between who has established lines of communication to the movement. In some instances, INFORM has arranged meetings between families and founders or officials of new religious movements.
Since 1988 INFORM has been holding regular seminars about thematic topics and new and minority religions, and recent seminars have been conducted online and recordings are available.
INFORM maintains a database and historical archives which it draws upon to provide information for enquirers and researchers. It has produced summary information about some individual groups and traditions on its website. More recently INFORM staff and affiliates have provided Factsheets for the Religion Media Centre and the Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millennial Movements (CDAMM). INFORM publishes a book series with Rougledge on Minority Religions and Spiritual Movements which "addresses themes related to new religions, many of which have been the topics of Inform seminars. The series editorial board consists of internationally renowned scholars in the field."
Recently INFORM has been involved in the AHRC-funded Abuse in Religious Contexts and in a Culham St Gabriel's-funded project exploring the teaching of Religion and Worldviews in English schools.
Reception
In a book of essays in tribute of Eileen Barker, Bryan R. Wilson, a leading scholar of religion from Oxford University, stated that INFORM has often managed to resolve or defuse the deeply emotional conflicts surrounding membership in a new religious movement.
INFORM has been criticised by anti-cult organisations, in particular the Family Action Information Resource (FAIR) chaired by former Conservative Home Office minister and anti-cult campaigner Tom Sackville, who cut INFORM's Home Office funding in 1997. In 1999, it was reported that INFORM was facing closure, due to lack of funds.
By 2000, Home Office funding was restored, prompting Sackville to warn that INFORM might provide government with bad advice, adding, "I cancelled INFORM's grant and I think it's absurd that it's been brought back." Criticism of INFORM has focused on Barker's reluctance to condemn all new religions as "cults". Barker responded to the criticism by saying, "We are not cult apologists. People make a lot of noise without doing serious research – so much so that they can end up sounding as closed to reason as the cults they're attacking. Besides, I imagine FAIR was disappointed not to get our funding."
During 2021 a letter to The Lancet cited research from Inform-associated authors, suggesting that the sociological approach to studying "cults" which emphasises "inquisitive dialogue and contextual understanding" might be usefully applied to the anti-vax movement.
Funding
INFORM has a policy of not accepting money from any of the new religious movements or any other organisation that might wish to prejudice the outcome of its research. INFORM has received funding, project grants and assistance in kind from different branches of the British government including the Home Office; Department for Education, Department of Communities and Local Government/Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, European Research Council, the Church of England, the Catholic Church, the Methodist Church; and trusts and foundations including the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM), Culham St. Gabriel's, the Spaulding Trust, J.P.Getty, Nuffield, Wates, and the Jerusalem Trust, amongst others. Affiliated researchers have been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Academy, Leverhulme, and the Department of Health. In addition, INFORM receives some donations from enquirers.
Articles
"Cults need vigilance, not alarmism", article in the Church Times, 2008-06-20, by James A. Beckford, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick and chairman of INFORM's management committee
Eileen Barker (2006) "What should we do about the Cults? Policies, Information and the Perspective of INFORM." pp. 371–95 in The New Religious Question: State Regulation or State Interference? (La nouvelle question religieuse: Régulation ou ingérence de l'État?), edited by Pauline Côté and T. Jeremy Gunn. Brussels: Peter Lang.
Eileen Barker (2001) "INFORM : Bringing the Sociology of Religion to the Public Space." In P. Côté (Ed.), Chercheurs de dieux dans l’espace public - Frontier Religions in Public Space (pp. 21–34). University of Ottawa Press.
Inform Associated Books
Eileen Barker (1989) New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction. London: HMSO.
Jean La Fontaine (1998) Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England. Cambridge University Press.
Jean La Fontaine (2009) The Devil's Children: From Spirit Possession to Witchcraft: New Allegations that Affect Children. Routledge.
Routledge-Inform Book Series
Notes
References
Beckford, James A.; Richardson, James T. (2003), "Introduction", in Beckford, James A.; Richardson, James T. (eds.), Challenging religion: essays in honour of Eileen Barker, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, ISBN 978-0-415-30948-6
Barker, Eileen (2006), ""What should we do about the Cults? Policies, Information and the Perspective of INFORM"", in Côté, Pauline; Gunn, T. Jeremy (eds.), The New Religious Question: State Regulation or State Interference?(L'a nouvelle question religieuse: Régulation ou ingérence de l'État?) (PDF), Peter Lane
Barker, Eileen (2001), "INFORM: Bringing the Sociology of Religion to the Public Space", in In P. Côté (Ed.) in (ed.), 'Chercheurs de dieux dans l'espace public - Frontier Religions in Public Space', University of Ottawa Press, pp. 21–34 {{citation}}: External link in |chapter= (help)
Chryssides, George D. (1999a), Exploring New Religions, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-8264-5959-6
Chryssides, George D. (1999b), "Britain's anti-cult movement", in Wilson, Bryan R.; Cresswell, Jamie (eds.), New religious movements: challenge and response, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-20050-9
Chryssides, George D.; Wilkins, Margaret Z. (2006), A reader in new religious movements, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-8264-6168-1
Fautré, Willy (2006), "Non-state actors and Religious Freedom in Europe", in Andreopoulos, George J.; Kabasakal Arat, Zehra F.; Juviler, Peter H. (eds.), Non-state actors in the human rights universe, Kumarian Press, ISBN 978-1-56549-213-4
Inform: About Us, retrieved 24 November 2022
Inform: Data Protection and Research Ethics, retrieved 24 November 2022
ICSA (2009), Profiles: Eileen Barker, Ph.D., OBE, FBA, archived from the original on 3 January 2010, retrieved 19 December 2009
Mylan, Sophie; Hardman, Charlotte (2021), COVID-19, cults, and the anti-vax movement, vol. 297, The Lancet, p. 1181
Telegraph staff (2000-07-31), "Cult advisers in clash over clampdown", The Daily Telegraph, retrieved 19 December 2009
Thomson, Alan (1999-02-12), "Cult-watch centre faces closure", Times Higher Education, retrieved 19 December 2009
Wilson, Bryan R. (2003), "Absolutes and relatives: problems for NRMs", in Beckford, James A.; Richardson, James T. (eds.), Challenging religion: essays in honour of Eileen Barker, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, ISBN 978-0-415-30948-6
External links
INFORM website
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Cut Nyak Dhien
- Penelitian kualitatif
- Rujukan
- Pachinko (seri televisi)
- Informan
- Gyeongseong Creature
- Eurico Guterres
- Dimash Kudaibergen
- Kamala Harris
- Informan bahasa
- Inform
- INFORM
- ArchINFORM
- Inform (disambiguation)
- ChemInform
- JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics
- InformNapalm
- Project Inform
- Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association
- Information content
- 1
- 2
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
Bioskop Online, bioskop21, BioskopKeren, Cinemaindo, Dewanonton, DrakorIndo, DramaQu, Dunia21, DutaFilm, Ganool, gudangmovie, gudangmovie21, IndoXX1, Indoxxi, KorDramas, LayarKaca21, Layarkaca21 INDOXXI, LK21, LK21 XXI, Nonton drama, Nonton Movie, Pahe.in, PusatFilm21, Western, Germany, Italy, Spain
Sergio Leone
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003)
Action, Adventure, Bioskop Online, bioskop21, BioskopKeren, Cinemaindo, Comedy, DramaQu, Dunia21, DutaFilm, Ganool, gudangmovie, gudangmovie21, IndoXX1, Indoxxi, LayarKaca21, Layarkaca21 INDOXXI, LK21, LK21 XXI, Nonton drama, Nonton Movie, Pahe.in, PusatFilm21, Brazil, USA
McG
Crank (2006)
Action, Bioskop Online, bioskop21, BioskopKeren, Cinemaindo, Crime, Drakor ID, DrakorIndo, DramaQu, Dunia21, DutaFilm, Ganool, gudangmovie, gudangmovie21, IndoXX1, Indoxxi, KorDramas, LayarKaca21, Layarkaca21 INDOXXI, LK21, LK21 XXI, Nonton drama, Nonton Movie, Pahe.in, PusatFilm21, Thriller, USA
Brian Taylor
WWII From Space (2012)
Bioskop Online, bioskop21, BioskopKeren, Cinemaindo, Dewanonton, Documentary, Drakor ID, DrakorIndo, DramaQu, Dunia21, DutaFilm, Ganool, gudangmovie, gudangmovie21, History, IndoXX1, Indoxxi, KorDramas, LayarKaca21, Layarkaca21 INDOXXI, LK21, LK21 XXI, Nonton drama, Nonton Movie, Pahe.in, PusatFilm21, War, United Kingdom, USA
Simon George
No More Posts Available.
No more pages to load.
