Is-are with lists

I’m writing a “writing a paragraph about” rule for a supporter and I noticed that, when there’s a list, the Plurality text tokens only refer to the last item in the list:

[code]The game room is a room.

A table is in the game room. It is a supporter. Some marbles are on the table. A pool cue is on the table.

Rule for writing a paragraph about the table:
say “[A list of things on the table] [is-are] carelessly strewn on the table.”

Test me with “take pool cue/look”.[/code]

How do I make is-are respond properly to a list of items?

I’ve done the following:

To say is-are of (catalogue - a list of things): if the number of entries in the catalogue is 1: say "is"; otherwise: say "are".

(though now that I look at it the first line should check whether the sole item in the list is plural-named or acts plural or whatever)

and

For writing a paragraph about the table: if a significant thing is on the table: let L be the list of significant things on the table; say "[The list of significant things on the table] [is-are of L] on the table."; otherwise: say "The table awaits its tea and toast."

If I remember correctly the compiler barfed on “is-are of the list of significant things on the table” but loading that into a temporary variable worked.

This is 6G60 code but I think it’ll transfer to 6L. In 6G60/6L02 there was a bug where The/A list of… wouldn’t capitalize numbers if they appeared first but that should be fixed in the latest version. If not there’s a fix in the attached bug report (which would require updating for 6L02).

Trying to deal with issues like this made me realize why the standard form is “On the table are…” rather than the slightly more natural “…are on the table”! (Which would let you say “Carelessly strewn on the table [is-are a list of things on the table].”)

Doesn’t just “[are]” work as it should in the 6L38 (see documentation 14.2):

The game room is a room. 

A table is in the game room. It is a supporter. Some marbles are on the table. A pool cue is on the table.

Rule for writing a paragraph about the table:
	say "[A list of things on the table] [are] carelessly strewn on the table."
	
Test me with "take pool cue/look/take marbles/look/put pool cue on table/look".

The output’s not very good when there’s nothing on the table, but it works as it should for the marbles and the cue:

Oops! And come to think of it, if you’re using Plurality then you’re using 6G60, I guess.

OK, upgrading to 6L should solve the problem, and if you want to stay in 6G60 then my code should work OKish (with the tweak about checking whether the singular case is plural-named; I suppose [is-are] might actually work there).