The Mac OS X version of Inform release 6E72 is now available, to be followed by versions for other platforms. This version offers no new features, but fixes a number of bugs from the 6E59 release that were deemed critical or serious. (Some bugs considered mild or cosmetic remain.)
The change log lists the bugs fixed, and more detail about them can be found at the bug tracking site.
Thank you very much, Em.
Unfortunately, there appears to be an issue in the IDE under pre-10.6 versions of the Mac OS, such that Inform refuses to run the compiled game in the IDE or to release it properly. This appears to be intermittent and has a workaround (closing a newly-made project and opening it again) under 10.5; in one case on a PPC for 10.4, the workaround does not work.
For more background on this issue, see these bug reports: 1 2.
The workaround also does not work for me on 10.5 (reported on the bug tracker).
I’m coming to Inform from a series of discussions in indie gaming. I’ve heard it’s the most accessible system to use. So I was initially surprised when I went to the download page (inform7.com/download/) and saw there was no Windows version. Then I realized that “6E72” seems to be a bug fix release.
There is a Windows version for “6E59”. So does this mean that none of the fixes were relevant for Windows? There’s no indication on the download page that an updated verison for Windows is needed. Is that accurate? (The only indication seems to be in this thread here, which luckily hasn’t moved too far down the list, that other versions are coming.) This seems like a confusing way to expect people to know what version is okay.
I’ll assume it’s logical to start playing around with “6E59” on Windows but I wanted to make sure.
What it means is that the maintainer of the Windows version of Inform 7 hasn’t finished getting it ready yet - it will come eventually. You should start with 6E59 for now, and hopefully the 6E72 version will both come soon and not require you to change any of your code. I agree it’s not the best situation, but it’s how it is…
Okay that’s not an issue for me. I actually don’t mind if one is in the works and a little delayed. It’s just not the most friendly way to present things to someone coming at it for the first time. “6E59” investigation begins …
I think this should be improved because for a newcomer landing on inform7.com, reading through it, deciding to give it a go and clicking on the Download link there is really no indication that the software exists on Windows platform.
Maybe a placeholder for Windows with a link to the page with the previous version or something else would help. I don’t think many people would experiment further by clicking on the rather arcane sounding links 6E59 etc.
Yeeah, possibly. For what it’s worth, it’s rare for there to be a discrepancy in release platforms of more than a few days, so this is not a common state of affairs.
It probably brings up a better question: why is there a discrepancy in releases at all? Isn’t Inform one common platform? I get that there’s different IDE’s but from what I read here (inform7.com/sources/), it seems like the IDE is just an interface to the underlying Inform 7 system.
Either way, probably doesn’t matter. As you say, if the releases for the common system are rarely out of whack, this probably doesn’t matter too much. (I do like that there is a history of the releases available on the download page.)
Inform is designed to be distributed as a unified application. People who really want to play with an IDE-free command line version are welcome to do so, but for a large part of the audience, that would be a mystifying and unfriendly experience.
The Windows build of 6E72 is now available from the above linked page.
Each of the IDEs is made by different people. I’m not sure how the code sharing happens among them, but when a new release comes it often takes a few days for all the IDEs to be ready, though as the releases have usually been quite separated, it doesn’t prove a problem for long. I guess Graham likes to get it out as soon as he can, even if that means it’s Mac only at first?
A question about the Windows version of 6E72:
Obviously it’s recommended to just follow the instructions. However if one already has 6E59 installed, would any problems be forseeable if one were to just open the installer shell with 7zip or a similar program and place the update files in the appropriate folders rather than uninstalling 6E59/running the installer for 6E72?
Thanks.
That should work fine: the installer doesn’t really do much beyond copying the files and setting up icons.
Packages for Fedora 13 and Ubuntu 10.04 are now available there also. They will be followed by packages for other distributions in the coming days.
I’m having some trouble with the new Windows build… the following test code
[code]“Test” by Me
Roomy is a room.[/code]
returns:
The only thing I did different was, I previously installed Inform 7 where it wanted to (C:\Inform 7). This time, I decided to install it with my other IF stuff, in C:\Interactive Fiction\Tools and Interpreters\Inform 7. That’s the only difference. Can this have caused it somehow? Is anyone else experiencing this?
I can’t see any particular reason for installing in a different directory making any difference. Try installing it in the default location and if that works, we have a bug…
Well, unsurprisingly, it didn’t change a thing - I still get the error, wherever I installed it. In fact, I only mentioned the different installation drive because it’s the only thing I changed.
The weird thing is, you’d expect other people to have this problem. I have seen no mention of it elsewhere. And yet I have just re-downloaded and re-installed, am using the most minimalist legal code possible, and I still get an error.
If there is any information I can give you about my system specs that might help you track this down, do let me know.