Constant for the prompt string

Authoring Inform 6
1

The prompt string "> " could be a constant, which would make it possible to remove the space between the prompt character and the input, as seems to be the case for Infocom games.

> EAT APPLE
>EAT APPLE

1 Like
2

As it turns out, it is. Do this to skip the space:

Constant MSG_PROMPT 1000;

[ LibraryMessages msg p1 p2;
  switch(msg) {
	MSG_PROMPT:
		print ">";
		rtrue;
  }
  p1 = p2;
];
3

It’s funny that you should mention that. I just created a z3 version of my PunyJam entry and created an Atari 8-bit disk image. When I ran the game, there was a [MORE] prompt at the start of the game, so I pressed the spacebar. When the “> ” prompt appeared, I thought the spacebar had been registered as a key stroke, so pressed backspace, then entered a command, only to be told that it wasn’t understood. It turns out that the backspace was entered as the first character in the string. Don’t ask me why.

4

With monospaced bitmap fonts, this character space seems unusual.