[SOLVED]Text in the status line without a condition

I’m porting my very small Hugo game “Waiting for The End” to Inform 7, because I want to put it on the web.

In the Hugo version, I have a little ASCII indicator in the right side of the status line. It simply prints “>–” in the prologue section, “->-” in the midgame, and “–>” in the endgame.

Browsing through the Inform 7 documentation, I thought I could achieve this affect like this:

[code]When play begins:
now the right-hand status line is “>–”.

Midgame is a scene. Midgame begins when the player is in the Middle for the first time. When Midgame begins: now the right-hand status line is “->-”.

Endgame is a scene. Endgame begins when the player is in the End for the first time. When Endgame begins: now the right-hand status line is “–>”[/code]

The resulting error message says that Inform was expecting a condition where it found the text strings. Then I tried to put the status line text into a variable, and to change the variable in the scenes:

[code]The status is a text variable. The status is “>–”.

When play begins:
now the right-hand status line is “[status]”.

Midgame is a scene. Midgame begins when the player is in the Middle for the first time. When Midgame begins: now the status is “->-”.

Endgame is a scene. Endgame begins when the player is in the End for the first time. When Endgame begins: now the status is “–>”.[/code]
The same problem occurs, either way.

I guess I shouldn’t have expected my second solution to work, since a variable isn’t a condition. Is there a way to directly access the status line through whatever passes for a “routine” in Inform 7, so I can control the status line with a condition?

This is one of those ones that’ll make you want to punch either yourself or Inform in the face :wink:

All that was wrong with your first code example was that you put a hyphen in the phrase ‘right-hand’. Take that out and it works.

  • Wade

Thanks!

I guess I’ll punch myself, because there is indeed no hyphen in the documentation. Then again, maybe it would have been nice of Inform to be a little more international friendly, since hyphenating compound adjectives is pretty strict rule in American English, and my English teachers drilled the test into my bones – if I can’t equally say “right status line” and “hand status line,” then I have to say “right-hand status line.” So, I guess we’ll call it even. :wink:

Interesting test. I never thought about what rules I’d methodically apply to work it out, meaning I’ve been going on instinct about when to stick the hyphen in and when not to. I think the examples on the following page are pretty good ones:

informatics.sussex.ac.uk/dep … ode24.html

  • Wade