What’s the limit for the number of characters in player’s command in Z-code and Glulx? I tried with this I7 code:
[code]Test is a room.
Length testing is an action applying to one topic. Understand “[text]” as length testing.
Carry out length testing:
say topic understood.[/code]
The Mac IDE interpreter says 119 characters with Z-code, 255 with Glulx. Is the limit in the interpreter or in Inform itself? Is there a way to increase the limit?
The limit is defined by the INPUT_BUFFER_LEN constant, which is defined in the Glulx.i6t and ZMachine.i6t files of the I6 template layer.
In Glulx you can increase this as much as you want.
In Z-code I’m not sure what the practical maximum is. (Certainly less than 256.) The current value is a legacy least-guaranteed-maximum from the first generation of Z-code interpreters, but it’s possible that nobody’s bothered testing larger values on current interpreters.
I’m imagining now a game in which the player must enter commands like “say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to the woman with hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia”.