In the following code, I want to have Ed at the very end. But because I commented out the non-default descriptions for Dave, he appears at the end, instead.
[code]“abcde” by Andrew Schultz
room 1 is a room.
Abe is a person in room 1. “Abe is just, like, here.”
Bob is a person in room 1. “Bob is just, like, here.”
Chuck is a person in room 1. “Dude! It’s Chuck!”
Dave is a person in room 1. [“Dude! It’s Dave!”]
Ed is a person in room 1. “Finally, Ed is here.”
Rule for choosing notable locale objects for room 1:
set the locale priority of Ed to 9;
set the locale priority of Dave to 2;
set the locale priority of Chuck to 2;
set the locale priority of Bob to 2;
set the locale priority of Abe to 2;[/code]
While I can and should have a better default description of Dave, what would I need to do in the rules to kick a nondescript Dave in front of Ed? And why?
The “printing a locale paragraph about a thing” rule in the standard rules handles printing things in the rooms before the list of nondescript things (“You can also see Dave here”).
Even though you assign a priority to Dave, the standard rules will only print a locale paragraph for a thing if that thing has a non-empty initial appearance:
For printing a locale paragraph about a thing (called the item)
(this is the use initial appearance in room descriptions rule):
if the item is not mentioned:
if the item provides the property initial appearance and the item is not handled and the initial appearance of the item is not "":