Continuing the discussion from Was the DM4 ever open-sourced?:
An excerpt:
Scope
This guide provides comprehensive coverage of four major areas:
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The Inform 6 Language. The full syntax and semantics of the Inform 6 programming language, including lexical structure, data types, expressions, statements, objects and classes, routines, strings, the grammar definition system, and all other language constructs. The language is documented as implemented by version 6.44 of the compiler.
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The Inform 6 Compiler. The operation and configuration of the Inform 6 compiler, version 6.44. This includes command-line invocation, compilation switches and settings, memory configuration, ICL (Inform Command Language) commands, source file organization, conditional compilation, error and warning messages, and the overall compilation model.
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The Inform Standard Library. The standard library, version 6.12.8, which provides the world model, parser, action-processing framework, and runtime infrastructure used by most Inform 6 programs. This includes the object hierarchy, parsing and grammar, actions and action processing, rooms and the map, the player object, non-player characters, light and darkness, scope, timers and daemons, menus and other UI elements, and the complete set of library routines, entry points, properties, attributes, global variables, and defined constants.
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The Target Virtual Machines. The two virtual machines that the Inform 6 compiler targets are the Z-machine and Glulx. This includes the capabilities and constraints of each platform, memory architecture, how Inform 6 constructs map onto each VM, and practical guidance on choosing between them and writing portable code.
In addition, an advanced topics section addresses techniques for extending and customizing the library, working at a low level with VM memory, performance tuning, and other subjects relevant to experienced Inform 6 developers.
… and it’s all GPL-licensed, to boot.
this is awesome
Impressive and well-done work, but there’s a constructive criticism:
I noted a minor but annoying (esp. considering its day-to-day usage) issue: a pair of pictures here is worth more than a thousand words (esp. with my proverbial bad english
)
As one can easily see, the contents sidebar is totally unrolled, and jumping to a specific chapter/section is not a fast thing as should be.
I suggest to recompile the .pdf with the sidebar rolled up, like this (a work done manually, more than a minute for setting this example screenshot):
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

