TADS 2: Error opening input file: How to fix?

Hello all,

I just started my second game with TADS 2, and I compiled it for the first
time, but the debugger says: “TADS 1501: Error opening input file.” This is all it says, it doesn’t specify what line, or even what source file.
I’m not sure what this means, or how to solve it… My game currently
has 9 source files(most of them empty). Anyone know how to solve this,
or at least what TADS is trying to tell me?
I made sure that that TADS knows where the source files are.

Thanks,
James

As the message says, it’s not able to open one of your source files. For each source file you’ve included (I actually can’t remember how you do this in TADS 2 - is it in the file itself?), check that it’s in the right place and has exactly the right name.

Make sure to look for non-obvious typos in the filename like ‘TehFile.t’. And check that the file extensions are all correct. Eg. check that you haven’t accidentally saved a .t file as a .txt. Finally, try closing any text editors or anything that might be hogging the files and stopping TADS from accessing them.

Sorry for the late answer - have been on vacation. You probably solved the problem yourself, but for the sake of completeness…

First of all,

is not quite correct. If the compiler couldn’t find one of the included files, that’d be the error message TADS-107 (and then, it’d tell you what exactly file it couldn’t find). TADS-1501 means it can’t find the “main” game file (whose name should match the resulting .gam file). This is the error one gets if (s)he runs the command-line TADS-compiler tc32.exe specifying a non-existent file on the command line.

If you use TADS Workbench, check the following. Select the command “Settings…” in the “Build” menu. In the dialog box that opens select “Files->Source” in the right pane (as far as I remember, it’ll be selected by default anyway). Then check that the text in the “Source File” input box matches your actual main source file name (including the path) exactly.