I’m just wondering why it is that the I7 Designer’s Manual that you can find on the web isn’t listed here? In fact it doesn’t seem to be mentioned anywhere on the internet. Is it just a rough draft?
Are you thinking of the “Inform Designer’s Manual”? That’s for Inform 6, not Inform 7. Different language.
I’m talking about this:
ifarchive.plover.net/if-archive/ … 7_3R85.pdf
which has been at this location for at least a year, but no-one ever seems to mention it…
…aaand upon taking a closer look at it I see it’s basically the standard I7 documentation prettied up and with a few chapters switched around. Ignore me then 
The manual in that nice format would certainly have deserved a separate mention, if it were not that is in too many respects out of date (it’s for an Inform 7 version from 2006).
Jeff Nyman once started a series of Inform 7 tutorials—The Well-Versed Informer—that are not at all bad.
The three existing parts of this series, “The Well-Versed Informer”, “Inform Foundations“, and “Descriptions and Locale”, can all be downloaded in PDF format from Zurlocker’s IF-site “Z-Machine Matter”:
http://www.z-machine-matter.com/2010/11/jeff-nyman-tutorials.html
Also by Jeff Nyman are these “Hitchhiker’s Guides” to Inform 7 Rules and Relations (mentioned in this thread):
I have to say, I started with the regular Inform 7 manual, and while it is excellent, I’d still be sitting here shaking my head if not for recipe manual. Using both has been perfect. As a traditional PHP programmer, I thought I’d just need Writing with Inform, but found myself feeling really lost with the levels of abstraction at times.
The two together are the perfect match.
New resource for the list:
Welcome To Adventure: A Quick-Start Guide to Inform 7
The fastest path from zero to game, using the Inform 7 engine.
This tutorial is aimed at giving people a minimum I7 toolbox to make a game rather than a comprehensive understanding of the language.
Does anyone know what’s up with the links to the manuals on the I7 site? They’ve been 404 for evermore it seems like.
It’s been reported, but since 6L38 it doesn’t seem like Graham has touched Inform.
inform7.com/mantis/view.php?id=1403
He has, in fact, but it’s in the form of some deep internal surgery, rather than looking at bug reports.
Yeah I assumed that would be the case, sorry if it sounded more negative than I intended. Would it help to someone else be able to update the website?
Is there a backup of the Recipe Book anywhere, perhaps?
Quick note: If I can assist with the website in any way I would be happy to. It does seem to need some TLC.
Yes, it would be nice if the website:
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Had 6L38-compatible source for the seven examples (Shin has recently completed this work: shin-sekai-no-kami.webspace. … f:examples )
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Was updated to point to 6L38-compatible extensions; github.com/i7/extensions has most of them it appears
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Ideally had a page for each extension that in turn has links to that extension’s version history, since there will still be reason for pre-6L02 extensions, for legacy reasons.
As a fledgling author trying to jump into the I7 6L38 wagon, I heartily second these suggestions. Otherwise, I7 is very difficult to work with as it stands.
I would say, also a bit of a newbie, that I7 is a very powerful tool that presents as a very simple thing. It’s a bit like “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang*” - it’s a simple boring old car for going down the shops with and pootling around. Then you turn this, twiddle that, suddenly the whole thing takes off and flies you to some bizarre country you never heard of.
of course, if you don’t twiddle those knobs right or your not yet a very good pilot, the whole thing could get quite messy.
Luckily this board is a handy resource for fledgling aeronauts. But there’s no substitute for jumping off and flapping your arms 
*I just watched Joanna Lumley’s biography of Ian Fleming, which had his original drawings of CCBB
The documentation including with the actual IDE is up to date, no? Or have I just not noticed it being broken?
The Recipe Book is slightly outdated in parts. Or at least in one part, where it talks about using Emily Short’s Plurality extension, which AFAICT isn’t included with the latest version since the latest version has that kind of functionality built in directly.