I think it would be best if I create a new section for the Addendum document. At the same time, I’ll work to get the MOVE and TAKE stuff resolved and committed.
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PunyInform v5.9 is out. News:
New debug verbs:
>GOTO UPPER HALLWAY
(Teleport to a room. The name given must be an exact match for a room name, except capitalization is unimportant)
>GOTO 17
(Teleport to a room by object number)
>ROOMS
(List all objects that seem to be rooms (but some false positives can’t be avoided))
>FOREST
(Show all object trees)
>TREE 17
(Show the object tree for an object, by object number)
Also, GONEAR will no longer accept going to an object which doesn’t have a parent. This is accepted in the standard library as well as earlier versions of PunyInform, and puts the player inside the object.
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Rapid fire upgrades! You are keeping me busy.
Thank you for all of the work you do improving the library!!
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The inform6unix package is updated to use PunyInform 5.9. Get it at the usual places.
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Yes, there is often more activity when a jam or comp is on, as we get more reports of problems. Also, both Johan and I are working on games for the comp, so we notice both bugs and features we’re missing.
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PunyInform v5.10 is out.
New features:
- talk_menu extension now allows you to conditionally add a sub-array of conversation topics for an NPC, without affecting the status of those topics. E.g. you may decide that Bob will be happy to talk about his hobbies when he’s at home, but not when he’s behind the counter of his store.
- talk_menu topics are now shown eight at a time even in z3 games.
The release also includes important bug fixes, e.g. avoiding buffer overruns when handling multiple objects in the parser.
As always, read the release notes before upgrading.
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PunyInform v5.11 is out. A bit more flexibility in cheap scenery and talk menu. Several bug fixes in core library and cheap scenery. Upgrading should be a breeze.
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Is there something wrong with the 5.11 file? I was warned by two browsers that it contains malware. Then it will not open in either win 11 or linux.
I tried a couple of different downloads.
Thanks, Jeff
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Thanks for the heads-up!
We’ve made this release the same way as always, i.e. GitHub packages up the latest file versions for us, into a zip-file and a tar.gz-file. There is nothing wrong with any of the individual files that are included in the archive, as the tar.gz-file can be downloaded without warning.
We have now verified manually that the files in the zip-file are identical to the files in the tar.gz-file, down to the last bit. Both archives are safe to download and use, but Windows Defender won’t allow you to download the zip-file.
I tried downloading the zip-file on my Linux machine, running the latest Debian, and I had no issues.
This must be Windows Defender’s heuristics playing us a prank, generating a false positive.
For now, just download the tar.gz-version instead. Windows can open it and extract the files without problems.
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I have now submitted the file to Microsoft for analysis. Hopefully they will make this problem go away.
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Microsoft’s threat/non-threat submission service showed me a scan using the latest malware definition file, which came out seven hours ago, and it doesn’t detect a threat in this zip file. My Windows machine hadn’t picked up this version yet, but I updated it manually now, and it stopped complaining about the file.
The Malware definition file you want to use is v1.421.781.0 or newer.
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Thank you. I never have liked Windows…
Jeff
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Fos, sorry for the partisan comment, but perhaps considering Linux isn’t a bad idea ?
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
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I have been a Linux user since Yggdrasil in the early 90s. My first personal Unix clone was Coherent from Mark Williams Co. running on a Zeos 386 laptop.
Unfortunately, I have proprietary software that requires a Windows computer. 
I’m with you…
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Feels like the security pendulum has swung too far the other way now, if Windows makes it impossible to actually download a file you want to download.
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I dislike Windows very much. Unfortunately, it is a necessary evil. Maybe someday I will purchase another Mac to supplement my RPi.
I’m sure there’s a more suitable forum for this discussion.
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PunyInform v5.12 is out!
Among the news:
- Talk menu now has a debug verb: tmtest. It helps you locate broken topics in talk_menu arrays.
- A talk menu topic can activate another topic using a negative relative reference, e.g. the topic before this one.
- A talk menu topic can inactivate another topic, using an ID or a positive or negative relative reference, without writing a routine.
- The z5 statusline routine covers the space between Score and Moves and the space to the right of Moves with spaces, so parts of the room name won’t be visible. Particulary useful on narrow screens.
- Several nasty parser bugs have been fixed. Using numbers as synonyms should now work fine, as should using numbers to say how many objects you mean, e.g. “press 2” (to press button 2) and “get 2 books” should both work.
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Please note: v5.12 unzips properly in Win 11. It also works as expected on RPi 5 and an Ubuntu server …
Thanks for the update.
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Sorry for the delay. The inform6unix package is updated with PunyInform v5.12 and is available at the usual places.
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