Hi Jim, As I said I'm not sure weather it is intentional or some other reason, but the point you made about it being basically impossible to cover every way to type a certain command is one reason I have been strongly thinking of using a menu in any text adventures I write. There are so many ways to phrase the same command at times that it can be confusing how to phrase it for the interpreter. With a menu you simply scroll to or select the most likely command and you are on your way. Plus if the menu commands are bound to certain hot keys like t for take, u for use, x for examine, etc it is obviously quicker than sitting there typing it out word for word. While most Inform interpreters support shortcuts for commands like examine, north, south, east west, drop, etc you still have to type out what it is you want to do with that command like "d item" or "x item" which still is a lot of typing after a while.
Perhaps the best reason for a menu is it limits you to the choices that are valid, and you don't spend a lot of unnecessary time spinning your wheels so to speak. What I mean by that is if you are new to a text adventure you have no clue what is and is not important. So you may spend lots of time examining everything such as the walls, floor, shelves, tables, etc only to get a response like "you don't see anything interesting here" which is a waste of time, but necessary because there is nothing to indicate what is and is not important to the game. If you have an examine menu it would most likely only display the items in the room that had any use thus saving time examining unnecessary things. Cheers! On 7/11/13, Jim Kitchen <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Thomas, > > Not sure, could be intentional, but could also just be the amount of time > and effort or lack of skill the programmer put into writing the command > interpreter. > > I still don't think that it can be all that easy to write a command > interpreter that would except all of the ways that people might think of to > type basically the same command in. But some definitely do better than > others. > > BFN > > Jim > > If it has syntax, it's not user freindly! > > [email protected] > http://www.kitchensinc.net > (440) 286-6920 > Chardon Ohio USA > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
