I7 : 'the list' versus 'a list'

Authoring Inform 7
1

This is an interesting one. I’m wondering whether the following code is documented/undocumented expected behavior, or is a bug that ought to be reported :

The kitchen is a room.

Dave is a man in the Kitchen. "Bob is carrying [the list of things carried by Bob].".
Sue is a woman in the Kitchen. "Sue is carrying [a list of things carried by Sue].".

The Cup is carried by Bob. The indefinite article of the Cup is "a".
The Teabag is carried by Bob. The indefinite article of the Teabag is "a".
The Sugar is carried by Bob. The indefinite article of the Sugar is "some".

The Saucer is carried by Sue.
The Coffee is carried by Sue. The indefinite article of the Coffee is "some".

Results in the output :

kitchen
Bob is carrying the Cup, the Teabag and the Sugar.

Sue is carrying a Saucer and some Coffee.

So, ‘the list’ results in all the indefinite articles being over-riden, whereas ‘a list’ doesn’t. I’m looking at the I7 documentation and seeing a smattering of both in the various examples. This may be documented somewhere and be a purposeful difference, but I can’t find it.

Ade

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2

Hi,

This behaviour is intended and documented in 5.5 ‘Text with lists’.

Defining an indefinite article for an object will only determine what is printed when an indefinite article is either chosen as appropriate by Inform or specified by the author.

When a definite article is chosen by Inform or specified by the author (which is what you are doing when asking for ‘the list of…’) ‘the’ (or ‘The’) is always going to be the word to appear.

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3

Poor Dave defines himself solely in terms of Bob’s possessions. Perhaps he just needs to be seen. Hence this reply. =)

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4

Thank you!! I didn’t know that! :slight_smile:

I definitely need to get better at searching for stuff in the documentation!

5

Easiest way to track down documentation about phrases, like ‘the list of…’ is to consult the Phrasebook in the Index- in this case under Phrases-> Saying -> Saying lists of things

6

There’s several formulations that overlap here in confusing ways. Here we have the text substitutions “[the list of]” and “[a list of]” and “[A list of]” and “[The list of]”.

If you have the list as a separate variable, like “L is a list of objects that varies,” then you can say “[L with indefinite articles]” and “[L with definite articles]”, as in §21.3.

And then there’s “list the contents of…” which allows the phrases “using the definite article” and “suppressing all articles,” which I believe doesn’t involve the list kind at all. This is in §11.14 and particularly example 177, “Equipment List.”

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