Version of 'Custom Library Messages' or 'Default Messages' that works?

I can’t get either of these extensions to work (any versions I could find online), whether or not my game uses any other extensions. Has anyone had any luck with them? Is there another extension else I can use, or another kind of method that replicates what these do?

Which version of Inform are you using?

Custom Library Messages at least should work up to 6G6O. When you get to 6L02, the responses mechanism was introduced to Inform (see chapter in the docs - sorry, not at my Inform computer or I’d give more specific direction) which lets you do what Custom Library Messages was previously required to do, and which I assume breaks that extension. If Default Messages uses the same mechanism for changing messages as Custom Library Messages, it would have broken, too.

Again, not being at my Infom computer, I’m not sure if any equivalent of Default Messages exists in the current public library, but that would be a (major, for you) convenience rather than a technical extension to the system, saving you the work of porting those particular messages into the responses system.

-Wade

Ah, whoops. I wrote this question in a hurry earlier and totally forgot to mention that I’m using Inform 7. I knew that these extensions work in 6 and that would explain why they don’t work in 7, that said, I’m still relatively new to Inform (I know how to use 7 fairly well, but still) and I don’t quite understand all of the differences between them (mostly because I haven’t used 6 much).

Mostly what I meant to ask if whether there was any way to adapt or tinker with these extensions to work in 7 (and if so, where someone might suggest I start) or if there was another known method I could use to the same effect.

Ah, sorry. Well the extra trick is… these numbers I’ve been mentioning that begin with 6 all refer to versions of Inform 7 :slight_smile:

Each version of Inform 7 has a release number. If you look across the top of this screen:

http://inform7.com/download/

you’ll see them listed in reverse chronological order. So 6M62, at the left, is the most up to date.

The core of Inform stays the same, but sometimes a major feature is introduced, or some old thing is replaced. Probably the last biggest change was between 6G60 (where Custom Messages etc. would have worked) and 6L02 (where they don’t, as Responses came in.)

Responses in general let you do what Custom Messages used to do - replace the text of Inform’s built-in messages. Except that with responses, the mechanism to change them is also built-in. So if you like what you see in that extension, you can read the adaptive text/responses section in the Inform 7 docs and it’ll tell you how.

On the other hand, I think Default Messages involves a particular set of messages that you’re saying you like? I don’t know enough about that extension and I’m not in a position to investigate it right now, or whether or not its contents have already been migrated to Inform 7 in some form (I mean - maybe it’s already fundamentally part of Inform 7 these days. I just don’t know.) But I hope this at least clears some things up some.

-Wade

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Here is an example, showing how to the code in Counterfeit Monkey that was using Custom Library Messages was changed in order to work with Inform 6M62:

Original Custom Library Messages code in Inform 6G6O version
(In a Google Doc spreadsheet for improved readability)

Code converted to use Responses, for Inform 6M62
(Github)

Note that three of the messages, swearing obscenely, swearing mildly and singing, are commented out. I seem to recall that this was done because there are no corresponding responses. These are implemented in other ways, as can be seen at the bottom of the linked code.

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The swearing and singing actions were removed from the Standard Rules (I forget exactly which version this happened in).

The swearing actions caused some potential issues in educational contexts–if Inform was going to get used in the classroom then it’d be bad for the swear-words to show up in the index, and this led to the synonyms for the actions being listed as “none that I care to tell you about” or something like that, which was very annoying to coders who were running into issues and getting that message.

IIRC the official reason for removing singing was that it was not appropriate in a lot of contexts–like, the player could be underwater or something and then the action wouldn’t make sense. Though doesn’t that apply at least as much to jumping?

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Oh, neat. Thanks for the insight/education guys. I’ll test out an older version of Inform 7 to see if it works for me.

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