Omitting something from list of contents of a container

Authoring Inform 7
1

Hey, I’m having a little trouble with one or two things.

edit: using Inform 7

Specifically I don’t want the contents of a wheelbarrow to be listed after examining the wheelbarrow. How do I accomplish that? edit: Actually I just want to change the text of the listing of the contents.

edit: I tried “Rule for deciding concealed possessions of the wheelbarrow: yes.” and “Before listing contents of the wheelbarrow: now the rocks are not marked for listing.” No dice. I want it to say “The wheelbarrow is piled high full of rocks.” Not “In the wheelbarrow are some rocks” that’s lame.

edit: The wheelbarrow has parts, including a wheel and some nuts and bolts securing the wheel, which I want to be examinable.

edit: the chopping problem and turning off problem is solved now.

2

This is a very common situation. It’s common enough that it seems possible it will one day be addressed in the Standard Library or at least in an extension.

You could write an Instead rule for examining the wheelbarrow, or if you want to generalize the way containers are described, you can rewrite the examine containers rule.

This thread has some discussion of how to do that, using Emily Short’s Complex Listing extension:

https://intfiction.org/t/listing-initial-appearances-inline/1226/1

3 
Instead of examining the wheelbarrow:
   if the number of things in the wheelbarrow is 0, say "You see an empty wheelbarrow.";
   otherwise, say "The wheelbarrow is piled full of rocks.".