Unable to open story file using Inform 7 6M62

Authoring Inform 7
1

I am unable to load a story file after making, saving, and compiling some changes to that file.

Here is what is happening:

  1. I made some changes to the-time-machine.inform, the story file, and compiled it successfully
  2. I quit Inform 7 v1.68.1 (6M62)
  3. Later, when I restarted Inform 7 I was click the story file in the Launcher window
  4. The file does not load.
  5. If I click on the menus I see a “ghost” outline of the menu but no menu contents. At times I also see an outline of the window where the story source code would be displayd but now contents as well
  6. Other story (.inform) and extension (.i7x) files load completely. I can also create new story file.

See video at this link for details - Inform 7 Load Hangs

Prior to this issue I have not updated my operating system or installed any new software

Here is what I have tried:

  • Reverted to previously saved story file
  • Ran CleanMy Mac v4.12.1
  • Rebooting Mac Mini (I am running Monterey on Mac Mini M1, 16GB memory, 1TB storage)
  • Shut Mac Mini down and restarted
  • Updated MacOS
  • Uninstalled Inform 7 v1.68.1 (6M62). Downloaded and reinstalled from Inform 7 site

Nothing seems to have fixed the issue.

It looks like I might have to copy the original source code into a new story file and proceed from there.

Before I do that I would like to know…

  • Does anyone have any other debugging suggestions to try?
  • Has anyone ever encountered this issue before?

Thanks in advance.

2

I haven’t seen this, no.

I’d say the first thing is to copy out the-time-machine.inform/Source/story.ni. (You may have to do “Show Package Contents” if you’re coming in from the Finder.) This is the actual source text of your game. If you have that, you can reconstruct everything else.

If that file is missing or empty, look at your previously saved the-time-machine.inform and try to get it out of that.

Once you have that, you can (at worst) create a new .inform game and paste the text from story.ni into the new game.

3

Thanks @zarf. I created a new .inform project, replaced the empty story.ni file with a copy from GitHub, and am now able to open this new .inform file from Inform 7.

4

This happened again. Followed the same steps (create new .inform project, replace empty story.ni file, etc.) to solve.

  • Inform 7 v1.68.1 (6M62)
  • macOS Monterey v12.6.7

Re-posting here in case anyone else encounters this issue.

5

If it happens again, it will be helpful to zip up the broken project file and let us look at it to figure out how it was broken.

6

@zarf - Excellent idea! I wish I had thought to do that before I deleted the old “broken” project.

If it happens again I will zip the entire directory up and post it in this thread.