Kinds of action

Authoring Inform 7
1

Chapter 7.15 in the manual describes “Kinds of Action.” But these aren’t really kinds, are they?

appropriate behavior is a kind of action

…does not compile.

I’d like to do something like this:

[code]A scene has a kind of action called the purpose. A scene has a text called the objection.

Prologue is a scene. The purpose of prologue is early behavior. The objection of prologue is “It’s too early for that!”

Waiting or looking or examining is early behavior.

Before doing something during a scene (called the moment):
unless the purpose of the moment:
say “[the objection of the moment]” instead.[/code]

Or possibly:

Propriety relates various actions to various scenes. The verb to be appropriate to implies the propriety relation.
2

Good question. Offhand I don’t see a way to make it work. Even if we assume that “kind” is, in this case, merely a synonym for “category” and doesn’t refer to the actual kind construct, there still seems to be no way to assign a category of behavior to a scene. Nor am I able to see how to construct a before rule that works as you seem to want, even with reference to a specific scene.

I tried this:

[code]Waiting is early behavior.
Looking is early behavior.
Examining something is early behavior.

A scene has a text called the objection.

Prologue is a scene. The objection of prologue is “It’s too early for that!”

Before doing something during prologue:
if the current action is not early behavior:
say “[the objection of prologue]” instead.[/code]

This compiles, but it doesn’t work. Even when I try the action ‘jump’, for instance, I get the default library response, not the objection of the prologue.

Hopefully, smarter people than me will be able to sort it out.

–JA

3

Yeah, they’re not kinds at all, just a to-decide-whether phrase under the hood.[ NAP_0; if ((action ==##Wait)) rtrue; if ((action ==##Look)) rtrue; if ((action ==##Examine) && ((noun ofclass K2_thing))) rtrue; rfalse; ];

You can get what you want…[code]A scene has a rule called the appropriate behavior.

When play begins, now the appropriate behavior of the prologue is early behavior as a rule.

To decide what rule is (C - a condition) as a rule: (- {C} -).[/code]…but you have to initialize it when play begins, and since there’s no such thing as “the current scene”, then we can’t say “…when doing the appropriate behavior of the current scene…” which undercuts the usefulness of such a property. (Or do you have a trick up your sleeve, Mikee?)

Given that, it’s usually easiest to tie the scene & koa together via rule: Before early behavior during prologue:

4

That raises a number of interesting possibilites. Can you create your own “to decide” rule and then use it as a condition for an Instead rule?

To decide whether an action (called the attempt) is universally acceptable: If the attempt is early behavior, decide yes; If the attempt is late behavior, decide yes; Decide no;

Glad you asked…

[code]The current episode is a scene that varies.

A scene can be episodic.

When an episodic scene (called the installment) begins: Now the current episode is the installment.
[/code]

I suppose so. Oh well.