Before I even begin, let me say that I am not of the opinion that it would
be a good thing if I7 development/progress would be limited by the
limitation of stone-age computing OK? 
New features possible by modern
computers must be able to emerge. What i would like to know is if there is a
possibility for me and other users who wish to use the latest i7 for retro
computers/old mobiles, to change a setting, disable something before
compiling etc in order to produce binaries that will work on new and old
hardware alike? The late 6G60 version worked very well on all my older
devices.
Let me explain. I wrote a work of IF in i7, a z8 in 2013 on version 6G60 and it would run
flawlessly In MS-DOS on 33 mhz, 4mb ram, 486 laptop. (Even on 16.5 mhz it
was completely playable). Almost all z8’s works well on this system
(including many z8’s that i extracted from zblorb files). My source was big,
contained tons of extensions and the binary was around 400k.
If i try to do something similar with the latest version, even in a 2 room,
1 object story it will be so slow that it is completely unplayable.
I noticed that the binary becomes huge compared when compiled with the
6G60 version of i7. (Lol, in Inform6 one could replace library with the “Minform”
library (2004), making the 5 rooms 3 objects binaries shrink to around 20 Kb !)
So therefore i wonder if there is something i can do about what to
compile and what not to compile when producing the binary.
3 Questions:
-
Can ANYTHING in i7 post-6G60 version, be changed, disabled or whatever
in order to produce a faster and/or smaller playable z8? If so, how? -
If this is not at all possible, could a few simple options for old
hardware/phones be built into future versions of i7? Maybe the code is so
complex that it is simply not possible to do this easily? Or, could minor changes that
would not take a lot of time and effort for the developers be done? Simple things,
like giving options to switch on/off some heavy stuff before compiling? (See 1.) -
Last resort: (This one is for people that likes to hack n tweak). Could
one make a tweak for oldschool by changing stuff not within the settings of i7
but by some workaround? For example replace one file or another from a older
version or change something that happens in the editable files that are part
of inform? Even if one would loose a lot of functions, some extensions would not work,
and there would be a few error messages that one could live with? In short, ANYTHING
to make binaries that will work well without having to stay in the i7 6G60 version
forever?
I do not have high hopes for 2 or 3 being in range of what is possible, but at least i have
asked about it. Ok, i,m now going to test the brand new Frotz for DOS v2.44
Thank you!