Telling the time - TADS3.1

Authoring TADS
1

I have attached some code that was posted to me earlier. I’m having compile problems with it. This brings up some questions. Can you tell me where in my program I should place this? Is it causing problems because I still haven’t included my time-telling watch into the program? I’ve checked this code with the original that was posted to me and can’t see any copy mistakes

DefineIAction(LookAtTime)
     execAction()
     {
      "The time is <<clockManager.checkTimeFmt('hh:mma')>>\n";
     } 
     // This action should consume no time.
     actionTime = 0;
; 
     VerbRule(LookAtTime}
       'time'
       | 'read'(|'the')'time'
       | 'look''at'(|'the')'time'
       | 'l''time'
        :LookAtTimeAction
        verbPhrase = 'look/looking at the time';

Thanks for any help you can provide.

RonG

2

You have a stray semicolon after the actionTime property in your DefineIAction(LookAtTime) block.

(This trips me up all the time, especially for properties that I add just after writing the method that uses them.)

The code can go anywhere but you will need the clockManager object defined somewhere before it will compile.

3

Thanks much for the help. I think it’s time to get the new reading glasses that I need!

RonG

4

Still having trouble with this:


+watch: AlwaysWorn 'wrist wristwatch/watch' 'wristwatch'
 "It is an expensive, rugged and accurate digital watch that you have had for
  years. It currently reads <<clockManager.checkTimeFmt('[am][pm]h:mm a')>>. "
 dobjFor(Open) { verify() { illogical( 'Only a jeweler could open that
  watch ');}}    “Error is on this line”  <-                              
 dobjFor(LookIn) asDobjFor(Open)
 cannotDoffMsg = "Don't do that! It's crucial that you have your watch at this
                 time."
;   

Tip: you can go to the source location of a compile error
by double-clicking on the error message in this window

----- begin build: Sat Jan 14 11:53:59 2012 -----
>t3make -Fy "C:\Documents and Settings\Frenchy\Desktop\The Magic Forest\obj" -Fo "C:\Documents and Settings\Frenchy\Desktop\The Magic Forest\obj" -o "debug\The Magic Forest.t3" -a -D "LANGUAGE=en_us" -D "MESSAGESTYLE=neu" -v -d -statprefix <@> -statpct "system.tl" "adv3\adv3.tl" "The Magic Forest.t" -res "GameInfo.txt"
TADS Compiler 3.1.0  Copyright 1999, 2010 Michael J. Roberts
The Magic Forest.t(567): error: 
Missing right parenthesis ')' in argument list in invocation of macro
"VerbRule".


Errors:   1
Warnings: 0

t3make: error code 1

Build failed.
----- end build: Sat Jan 14 11:54:02 2012 -----

If I disable each section of the two sections of code, then everything seems better. Now that I have the watch section enabled, I got a compile error in the watch section at the line I have marked.
If I disable the very first code post then the watch code works great. Go figure!

5

In your code from the first post, you have “VerbRule(LookAtTime}” - the right character is a curly brace instead of a paren.

6

I just figured that out also. Go figure! Now I will certainly get new glasses. Now I’m ready to move on to my player and my rooms.

7

This is far and away the worst design decision in C-derived languages. Distinguishing between those characters visually is really difficult.

A related gripe (and again, there’s no help for it!) is that most of the useful keys are positioned under the little finger of the right hand on a QWERTY keyboard. I don’t know where they are on Dvorak, but I have no intention of learning Dvorak, so it doesn’t matter. I’m constantly groping with that finger and hitting a semicolon when I want a single-quote, a backslash when I want a right-bracket, an equals sign when I want a hyphen – aargh!