As I work through a few tutorials on Inform 7, I’ve started to adopt some conventions that make navigating and reading my source text easy.
For example:
- I’ve started to write the first two hierarchical Heading types in all caps to make them stand out in the Contents view
- I like to segregate topics very liberally using headings. I tend to break down my rooms into sections like this:
I like these conventions because they improve scannability and searching.
VOLUME 1 - SETTING
BOOK ONE - CASTLE GROUNDS
Castle Grounds is a region.
Part 1 - Entrance Hall
Entrance Hall is a room in Castle Grounds.
Chapter 1 - Entrance Hall Description
The description of Entrance Hall is "a flowery but brief description here..."
Chapter 2 - Entrance Hall Props
A suit of armor is in the Entrance Hall.
Chapter 3 - Entrance Hall Scenery
A line of colored banners is scenery in Entrance Hall.
Early in story development, these choices don’t matter much. The automatic heading numbering is snappy, and navigation is a breeze. As I get to the end of a project, I notice that the formatting of headings requires minor tweaks every time I use a heading keyword. The heading keyword does not appear in bold text as expected unless I add and remove a space in front of the name.
These are minor annoyances, but they got me thinking… maybe there is a technical reason why I should be less liberal when using headings. Have you found that using fewer headings improves performance?