Instead Of If/Otherwise Conditional Question

Authoring Inform 7
1

I am trying to code whether or not you can attempt to pickup an object using Instead Of and the If/Otherwise conditional (11.6-11.8) but I’m having difficulty making the Otherwise part of it work.

With just an If statement the code compiles successfully. You can attempt to pick up the heavy box but it slips out of your hands and drops to the floor.

"picking-up"

Empty Room is a room. 
A table is a supporter in Empty Room.
A heavy box is a thing on the table.

Instead of taking the heavy box:
	if the heavy box is on the table:
		say "You try to move the heavy box but it slips out of your hands and drops to the floor.";
		move the heavy box to Empty Room.

But when I add the Otherwise, to prevent you from attempting to pick up the heavy box from the floor.

"picking-up"

Empty Room is a room. 
A table is a supporter in Empty Room.
A heavy box is a thing on the table.

Instead of taking the heavy box:
	if the heavy box is on the table:
		say "You try to move the heavy box but it drops to the floor.";
		move the heavy box to Empty Room.
	otherwise:
		say "No way, that box is much too heavy to try and lift a second time."

I get an this error message when trying to compile.

You wrote 'otherwise' [but the punctuation here ':' makes me think 
this should be a definition of a phrase and it doesn't begin as it 
should, with either 'To' (e.g. 'To flood the riverplain:'), 'Definition:', 
a name for a rule (e.g. 'This is the devilishly cunning rule:'), 'At' 
plus a time (e.g. 'At 11:12 PM:' or 'At the time when the clock chimes') 
or the name of a rulebook, possibly followed by some description of the 
action or value to apply to (e.g. 'Instead of taking something:' 
or 'Every turn:').

I have been reading through the documentation and trying several variations on what is outlined in 11.6-11.8 without success. I’m sure it’s something simple and I’ll keep working on it, but I thought I would ask here as well.

Thanks in advance.

2

You need a semicolon before the “else”.

(I said that so many times in freshman intro-to-C-programming… but it’s true in I7 as well.)

Instead of taking the heavy box:
	if the heavy box is on the table:
		say "You try to move the heavy box but it drops to the floor.";
		move the heavy box to Empty Room;
	otherwise:
		say "No way, that box is much too heavy to try and lift a second time."

Each line in the rule must end with a colon or semicolon, except the last. That’s how the compiler knows where the rule ends.

Okay, a blank line also ends the rule. So you could write this:

Instead of taking the heavy box:
	if the heavy box is on the table:
		say "You try to move the heavy box but it drops to the floor.";
		move the heavy box to Empty Room;
	otherwise:
		say "No way, that box is much too heavy to try and lift a second time.";

This is a matter of style, or which you find easier to remember.

3

@zarf I knew it had to be something simple like that. Thanks for clarifying.