Relations in Inform 6M62 v. Krypton, progressive forms

I spotted one difference between the code of Inform GM62 v. the current release, Krypton. Maybe that’s old hat, but I didn’t find any list of changes, so I’ll just post this and hope for the best.

In the older version, given the code of:

“Hanging relates various things to one thing.
The verb to hang from means the hanging relation.”

the compiler would not only accept “the chain hangs from the pulley”, but also “the chain is hanging from the pulley”. In the newer version, you have to explicitly add:

“The verb to be hanging from means the hanging relation.”

The non-progressive form comes from §13.9 in the documentation and the progressive one from §13.10, and yes, if my code had been perfect in the beginning I wouldn’t have noticed.

yeah, there were a few undocumented changes to verbs in 10.1. I discussed them recently on my inform7tips mastodon account.

Inform 7 verbs prologue: for saying only, for meaning only

10.1 verb changes 1: multi-word verb creation

  • only the first word of a verb is changeable by conjugation (not counting ‘to be able to’): attempting to define an irregular multi-word verb is now a syntax error
  • in 10.1, with a multi-word verb, values of kind verb are created for not just the whole thing with prepositions, but also another for the first word alone
  • but only the first word version is usable in adaptive text. In 9.3/6M62, you had to use any trailing preposition in adaptive text; in 10.1 you must not

10.1 verb changes 2: automatic creation of variant verbs

  • present progressive tense and passive voice versions of author-defined multi-word verbs associated with relations are no longer created (they’re still created for single-word verbs)

10.1 verb changes 3: the project index

  • 10.1’s project index for verbs includes the contractions; 9.3 had those contractions but didn’t include them in its project index
  • 10.1’s project index omits prepositions; the only multi-word verbs are ‘To be able to’, ‘To be able to be’, ‘To be able to see’, ‘To be able to touch’
  • 10.1’s project index doesn’t include ‘for saying only’ verbs
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Thank you, also for the pointer to inform7tips!

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