Could it be a bug?

[A_J_Mako]

I wrote a simple story that basically recreates the Bridge of Death scene from Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Tested it several times in Inform 7, then did a Release for Testing. I tried the game in Windows Frotz several times and it worked fine. I tried the Parchment web version several times and it worked fine. Loaded the story file on my phone to test it with Xyzzy and Text Fiction. In both apps, the story consistently failed to recognize a correct answer to the third question. The response always looked something like this:

Who you gonna call?> ghostbusters
ghostbustersThe bridgekeeper chuckles gleefully and you are launched into the Gorge of Eternal Peril!

Eternal Peril

I went over my code several times trying to figure out why the story would fail only on some interpreters. Addie confirmed the story wasn’t working and looked at the Xyzzy code, but couldn’t find a fix.

That’s the setup. I finally traced the source of the problem. In my original code, I was using:

if "[the player's command in lower case]" matches the text "[answer entry]":

I changed it to:

if "[the player's command]" matches the text "[answer entry]", case insensitively:

That resolved the Android issue. So the question is, could there be a bug associated with the “in lower case” tag that only manifests in certain interpreters and only when applied to the player’s command?
bridge-of-death-r1.txt (12.1 KB)

[zarf (Andrew Plotkin)]

Is it possible? Yes. It doesn’t seem likely, but something obviously went wrong somewhere.

You could narrow down the situation by adding debug output:

say “DEBUG: [the player’s command] -> [the player’s command in lower case]”;

…and seeing if anything looks wrong.

[A_J_Mako]

Thanks zarf. I made a quick test:

The Compartment is a room. "This would be a lovely room, if there was any way out of it." The bulkhead is a backdrop. "At one point the bulkheads were painted a color known as 'gun-metal gray.' Now they are a dark, reddish-not-quite-black." Understand "bulkheads" as the bulkhead. The bulkhead is everywhere. After reading a command: say "DEBUG: [the player's command] -> [the player's command in lower case][line break]"; if "[the player's command in lower case]" matches the text "wall": say "What a civilian might call 'walls,' you call a bulkhead."; reject the player's command;
Running a test release on Windows Frotz and I get:

Compartment
This would be a lovely room, if there was any way out of it.

look at walls
DEBUG: look at walls → look at walls
What a civilian might call “walls,” you call a bulkhead.

look at bulkhead
DEBUG: look at bulkhead → look at bulkhead

At one point the bulkheads were painted a color known as “gun-metal gray.” Now they are a dark, reddish-not-quite-black.

Running it on my Android phone with either Xyzzy or Text Fiction, I get:

Compartment
This would be a lovely room, if there was any way out of it.

look at walls
DEBUG: look at walls → look at walls
look at wallslook at wallslook at wallsYou can’t see any such thing.

look at bulkhead
DEBUG: look at bulkhead → look at bulkhead
look at bulkhead
At one point the bulkheads were painted a color known as “gun-metal gray.” Now they are a dark, reddish-not-quite-black.

With ACTIONS and RULES we get on Xyzzy:

look at walls
[Rule “After reading a command” applies.]
DEBUG: look at walls → look at walls
look at wallslook at wallslook at wallsYou can’t see any such thing.

look at bulkhead
[Rule “After reading a command” applies.]
DEBUG: look at bulkhead → look at bulkhead
look at bulkhead
[Rule “declare everything initially unmentioned rule” applies.]
[examining the bulkhead]
… (truncated) …
[Rule “standard examining rule” applies.]
At one point the bulkheads were painted a color known as “gun-metal gray.” Now they are a dark, reddish-not-quite-black.
… (truncated) …

Looks like “in lower case” is doing something more to the player’s command than just changing the case, but only on certain operating systems?