Inform 7 Resource Masterlist

Hidnook · May 29, 2025, 1:53am

Inform 6

I7 compiles to Inform 6 before that gets compiled to Glulx or z-code. The I6 Standard Library isn’t involved; I7 uses the I6 Template Layer that every Inform installation has under Internal/I6T (once Appendix B of the docs): their comments often document things that aren’t documented elsewhere.

Sometimes the best/only way to do something is by interacting directly with the I6 layer, as many extensions do. Other times I7 behaviors can be best understood as artifacts of I6 representations. Sometimes, reading your project’s auto.inf (the I6 code that I7 generated) is useful to investigate problems.

Designer’s Manual (DM4) / Reference Addendum
I6 Technical Manual
Translation of I6 Entry Points into I7 (4X60)
Much more at [I6] The list of Inform 6 documentation

Useful threads/posts

The first thing you need to understand about Inform is
Most common 'mistakes' and 'crutches' for those starting out with inform 7?
The hidden secrets of Inform 7
Command-line Inform 7: how to use ni, inform6, and cBlorb by CLI for 9.3/6M62 (includes details on a project’s files and directory structure)
Performance Best Practices (there are some expensive things to avoid, but there’s no substitute for profiling to see where your game is spending its time)
Good coding style in Inform 7
QA: Checklist for authors of IF and Inform 7 IF in particular • One tester's game polish tips for parser authors
If you’re encountering memory limits in compilation, see Memory Limit and Storage Variable Limit settings or try Inform 6 6.36 or higher, which does away with these limits
Limits on command length
Bubbling Beaker awards: novel and powerful techniques
Rulebooks are a bit like switch statements... and yet different ; Subroutine-ish things
Inform7/10 Reference Manual
Using the I7 Windows IDE with the NVDA screenreader

Licensing

How to Organize/Structure Your Project

There’s no one answer, so here are multiple answers (see games with available source code for examples.)

Splitting the story into multiple files
I7 Code Organization and Efficiency
Juhana Leinonen’s Structuring I7 Code
Ryan Veeder’s How to Write the Way I Write in I7
Effective structuring and layout of code - Inform 7

Bugs

9.3 is no longer maintained, but 10.1 fixes several bugs in 9.3. Use the I7 bug tracker to find the status of known bugs or report more. If you’re not sure whether you’ve found a bug, ask in the I7 category with code displaying the issue.

The 6M62 Patches by Friends of I7 extension provides fixes for some known issues in 9.3/6M62.

The Inform 6 that shipped with 9.3/6M62 was 6.33N. The current version is 6.41. Bugs in (the current) Inform 6 can be reported at the Inform 7 bug tracker

The old Inform 7 suggestion forum is accessible via Wayback Machine.

Infrastructure

Inform 6 compiles to your choice of glulx or the Z-machine (v8 only – I7 games don’t fit in the other versions).

Glulx

Glulx interpreter apps include one (or more) of:

glulxe (C), reference implementation, glulxe debugger available
git (C) (predates the source control system by the same name)
quixe (Javascript)

Others:

Zag (Java)
Emacs-glulx (Elisp)

Glulx Inform Technical Reference

Glk

Glulx I/O is via the Glk API; glulx terps must be built with a Glk library (Emacs-glulx/Zags’ are built-in).

cheapglk (no window, no status line, just streams of input and output; of interest largely for testing and development)
glkterm (curses library, widely available for anything UNIX-ish)
glktermw (“wide char” glkterm for Unicode characters beyond Latin1)
GlkOte (Javascript implementation used by Quixe and Lectrote)
cheap-glkote is the Glkote variant underlying the ElseIFPlayer
remglk (Receives/emits JSON objects on stdin/stdout; can represent multiple windows and most Glk events)
CocoaGlk (used by the I7 Mac IDE)

Glk per its spec doesn’t offer the text color control that would be necessary to match the Z-machine. The non-standard Gargoyle Glk extensions can do so. Implementations including them:

garglk (the Gargoyle multi-system interpreter)
WindowsGlk (Windows IDE)
Async Glk Typescript implementation used by Parchment / iplayif.com
Chimara GTK3 widget (Linux IDE)
Spatterlight’s Glk implementation
Others in IFArchive

Differences between javascript & C Glk APIs

The results of display the boxed quotation look bad with Glk. Spatterlight, Gargoyle, Lectrote, and Parchment use Glk not just for Glulx but also for Z-machine I/O, so Z-machine games inherit boxed text quotes looking bad in those apps.

Glk via network:

remote-if Websockets or AJAX to RemGlk
glknode HTTP API to cheapglk
glulxe-httpd HTTP API to cheapglk; support for sessions & transcripts, see langworth.com

Glk References

Glulx Inform Technical Reference
The Game Author’s Guide to Glulx Inform
Roger Firth and Adam Thornton’s Brief Glk, via Grokking Glk
Adam Cadre’s Gull: an introduction to Glulx Inform

Z-machine

There are countless Z-machine interpreters, e.g.

Frotz
Bocfel, Glk-based; used by Gargoyle; see Bocfel’s man page for its useful command-line flags
ifvms.js, Javascript; used by Parchment and Lectrote
gluzma Glulx assembly
zig Inform 6
jszm 700 lines of javascript
for fun:

Z-machine References

Z-machine 1.1 standard, annotated
Z-machine spec errata
Z-machine standard: unclear aspects/ambiguities
Michael Ko’s Internal Secrets of Infocom Games
Jeff Nyman’s Zifmia: Z-machine terp tests

Tools and Projects

@Zarf’s

blorbtool.py – manipulate blorbs
ifsitegen.py – go from a zcode file, glulx file (.ulx), or blorb to a playable website; processes images from blorbs better than I7 itself
I7 source highlighter with I7 to HTML and Inform 7 to rtf options
regtest – regression testing for IF running on any interpreter that uses simple input and output streams for I/O, like Frotz’ dfrotz variant or anything built with CheapGlk, or with anything using RemGlk; Nils Fagerburg wrote a regtest bash completion script
profile-analyze.py – parse profiling data from glulxe (when compiled with the VM_PROFILING flag)
Atom syntax highlighting

Others

@Dannii’s Parchment is an I7 web template; the project also:
- powers iplayif.com: for any game directly downloadable from the web, you can create a URL making it playable in a browser
- can build a single-html-page version of a game
@Mathbrush 's Bisquixe I7 Template for easier styling ; Beginner’s Guide to Styling Inform Releases with Bisquixe
Jacques Frechet’s glulx-strings extracts all strings from zcode or glulx (even in blorbs); glulx-strings web app
@Natrium729’s I7 Text Extractor – extracts strings from Inform 7 source (for ease of proofreading)
Blaze Alan Marshall’s mrifk Glulx reverse compiler and disassembler
ztools: the Infocom toolkit includes txd, a zcode disassembler
Allen Garvin’s ztool, python port of (most of) ztools
glulx to C decompiler (glulxtoc)
@Juhana’s IF recorder is a Parchment plugin to save transcripts
Gren Drake’s glulx-assemble (a glulx assembler)
zzo38’s glasm (a glulx assembler)
Chris Spiegel’s zdevtools (zcode assembler/disassembler)
Compile C to Glulx
reform: reverse compile Z-code to I6
cBlorb (used by 9.3/6M62; 10.1 uses inblorb)
Unz: unpack Z-machine file info

Legacy

Ron Newcomb’s I7 port of the I7 parser (6G60) There have been changes to the parser since this was current, but the documentation section at the bottom constitutes the best documentation of the I7 parser extant.
Ron Newcomb’s Naga (zip archive) which strips away nearly all of the Standard Library (6G60)
Textfyre used a modified Glulx with I/O abstractions different from GLK
Erik Temple’s Glimmr graphics framework; Glimmr Github repo; Glimmr archive including demos (6G60)
Guncho, the multiplayer I7 April Fool’s Day joke that wasn’t
Brady Garvin’s i7grip Glulx debugger (6G60)

I7 in translation

Manifesto for the translation of I7 (PDF) (6G60) by Graham Nelson
Swedish (6G60) by Felix Larsson
Italian (6M62) by Massimo Stella, maintained by Leonardo Boselli
French (6L38) by Nathanaël Marion
Spanish (6M62) by Sebastian Arg (see also centro de documentación Inform 7)
German (6G60) by Team GerX

Hosting

You can upload your game to the IF Archive; once accepted, pass its URL to IPlayIF.com, the resulting URL will be to a playable-online copy of your game. (See, e.g., many games on IFDB)
Borogove.io hosts games online for free, either uploaded or built with borogove.app
Playfic is similar but uses 6G60
if you release along with an interpreter you can make your game playable on the web, provided that the website would deliver them as regular web pages and not just downloads (e.g. Google Drive doesn’t work). A (free) itch.io account would work; games on itch.io can be private or shared just with playtesters.

Miscellany

IFwiki’s rec.arts.int-fiction threads on Inform 7

Ryan Veeder’s

Jeff Nyman:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Inform 7: All About Rules (c. 5U92)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Inform 7: Relations (c. 5U92)
The Well-Versed Informer (PDF) (5Z71)
The Well-Versed Informer: Foundations (PDF) (5Z71)
The Well-Versed Informer: Descriptions and Locale (PDF) (5Z71)
Introduction to I7 (c. 6L02)
The Rules of I7 (c. 6L02)
The Actions of I7 (c. 6L02)

@emshort:

@mathbrush’s 77 Verbs serves as a trainer in default available commands.

An Inform 7 quine by @Juhana

"Updating

John Timmons’ Inform Snippets and Inform Manual (PDF) (c. 5U92-6F95)

inform7tips: fresh I7 tidbits Monday-Friday.

Archived I7 website sitemap: many links above are to archive.org copies of pages no longer on the Inform 7 website.

Language Comparisons

IF Resource Links has much more of interest to IF authors in general, not specific to I7.