Boxed quotations

Authoring Inform 7
1

I am trying to use boxed quotations in my game. I haven’t made a test release of the game, yet, to see if the boxed quotation shows up correctly (the game isn’t close to being finished). But when I tried it in the right-hand pane of the Inform 7 (6M62), it didn’t show up correctly. Could this be because my status line has two lines of text, instead of the usual one (I am using E. Short’s Basic Screen Effects)?? The bottom line of the quote appeared right under the status line.

Thanks

2

Are you working in Z-code or Glulx?

3

Glulx. I think I read somewhere that that might be a handcap with something like this…?

4

Seems to display correctly when I try it.

"Test Case" by Andrew Plotkin.

Include Basic Screen Effects by Emily Short.

The player carries a rock.

The Kitchen is a room.

The Bathroom is south of the Kitchen.

Rule for constructing the status line:
	deepen the status line to 2 rows;
	center "[location]" at row 1;
	rule succeeds.

Instead of jumping:
	display the boxed quotation 
    "And 'the wabe' is the grass-plot round 
    a sun-dial, I suppose? said Alice, 
    surprised at her own ingenuity."

The status line is unduly flickery. (The Mac IDE handles this case badly; other interpreters don’t have this problem.) But it displays the right thing.

snap

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5

I tried it in a test-release, and it worked correctly, I guess, but it was so unobtrusive (there was other text in that part of the screen), that I barely noticed it had appeared, and I wonder if players will ever notice it at all. I guess I wanted it to appear in an actual box, centered on the screen, like in the old Z-games (Trinity, Jigsaw, etc). Is there a way I can get it to appear as an actual box in the center of the screen?

Thanks for your help.

6

No, Glulx doesn’t support overlapping text panes that way.

7

I guess I could do something like put it in bold text like this–

At the time when the messenger leaves:
    say "[bold type]";
    display the boxed quote "Some such phrase  -- Some Such Author";
    say "[roman type]";
    etc etc

Would that work?

Thanks Zarf

8

This isn’t exactly what you asked for, but I went through a similar mental process a few months ago when I was looking for a way to display Trinity-style boxed quotations, and wound up just deciding to print them directly in the main text pane, along the lines of a chapter-heading epigraph in a book.

For what it’s worth, here’s (more or less) what I’m doing:

Include Basic Screen Effects by Emily Short.

Section Headings for Chapters

ind is always "[fixed letter spacing]                    [variable letter spacing][no line break]".    [conveniently specify a constant number of spaces to avoid copying and pasting and worrying about whether I missed one or put too many in]

To quotedly say (witty saying - some text):
	repeat with line_no running from 1 to the number of lines in the witty saying:
		say "[fixed letter spacing]                         [variable letter spacing][line number line_no in the witty saying][line break]"

To print a/the/-- title page for chapter (Which Chapter  - a number):
	say "[paragraph break][italic type](Press any key to continue.)[roman type][paragraph break]";
	wait for any key;
	repeat with X running from 1 to 3 begin;
                say paragraph break;
	end repeat;
	say "[ind][ind]Chapter [Which Chapter]";
	repeat with X running from 1 to 4 begin;
		say paragraph break;
        end repeat;
	let the witty quote be the quote corresponding to a chapter number of Which Chapter in the Table of Chapter-Heading Quotes;
	say the witty quote;
	repeat with X running from 1 to 5 begin;
                say paragraph break;
        end repeat.

Table of Chapter-Heading Quotes
Chapter Number	Quote
1	"[ind]I am a man with no ambitions[line break][ind]And few friends, wholly incapable[line break][ind]Of making a living, growing no[line break][ind]Younger, fugitive from some just doom.[paragraph break][ind]    - Kenneth Rexroth, 'The Advantages of Learning'"

[etc.: more lines]

Then I can simply write print a title page for chapter 5 whenever that becomes appropriate.

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9

Thank you so much Patrick—I will definitely try something like that!

By the way, if you are up for some playtesting, I certainly have some stuff in the making!

Thanks

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10

I’m down for some playtesting! PM me when you’d like me to get started!

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