Inform 7: Italics not working?

Authoring Inform 7
1

This is probably a dumb one, but [italic type]words here[roman type] isn’t working for me. Any suggestions on what would disable italics from working? The only extension I am using is Basic Screen Effects by Emily Short.

2

Hi,

I don’t know why the italic type isn’t working, assuming you are using it correctly, i.e., say “[italic type]words[roman type]”. You could try this instead (which is Example 443 in the documentation):

Code:
To say i – beginning say_i – running on: (- style underline; -).
To say /i – ending say_i – running on: (- style roman; -).

Now we can write -  say "[i]words[/i]". The code to do the same for boldface is in the example.

Neil
3

There’s actually a second wrinkle to this. I am exporting my game to parchment. The italics work in parchment, but not in Inform itself. I guess that means it is less of a big deal, since the output is as desired, but it is still bugging me.

4

You should test your game file on some other interpreters, as well, but it sounds like a problem in the IDE display rather than in your code. Are you on Mac, Windows, or Linux?

Is it possible your game font has been changed to something with no italics installed? (The Mac IDE doesn’t have a preference for game font, only for source font. I don’t know what the other platforms are like.)

5

If the original version doesn’t work, chances are this won’t work either.

6

A related but off-topic phenomenon (bug?) I saw the other night -

I tried to use a temporary variable in a loop. I called it I, as in I for Isabelle: ‘Let I be 0’

During the loop I had a phrase which said ‘say I’, intending to print its value. This didn’t say its value but, phrased this way, instead turned on italic printing.

  • Wade
7

You mean, with the example-443 definitions in place?

That happens. The case where it turns up in the standard rules is if you try to declare a local variable S – you can’t say it because “say s” is a defined phrase.

Probably worth reporting, because local variables should always take precedence. Except I don’t know if Inform actually uses that convention.