Writing I6 in Inform 7 IDE

Authoring Inform 7
1

I saw it is possible to write an Inform 6 project in the Inform 7 IDE (at least on Mac, I don’t know if it was implemented on other OSes). However, I have not found how to include libraries (say, to write a game in French). Is that even possible ? I tried to put the library near main.inf in the .inform folder, and in several folders inside the materials folder.

If it’s not, I guess I’ll use the old-school way, command line and a standard text editor like TextWrangler (by the way, can TextWrangler color I6 source?).

Thanks.

EDIT: I just realised I could use Inform 7 to write my .inf file and compile it with the command line (so the I7 IDE only acts as a text editor for the syntax highlighting).

2

I prefer to write I6 code using a traditional text editor, but a couple things:

  • If you create an I6 project in the I7 IDE and go to the settings panel, you’ll find a drop down menu for Library. Right now, it has 6/11 and Standard (an alias for 6/11). I’ve tracked the location of these libraries down to /Applications/Inform.app/Contents/Resources/Library (within the app bundle itself). You could try dropping (a symbolic link to) your French library in there. I tried this with the current lib 6/12 release and, after I restarted Inform, 6/12 appeared in the menu and I was able to compile a game with it.

  • The IDE often deletes files within a project’s .inform subtree, including the contents of Source. I think the premise is that we’re supposed to view an Inform project (everything under .inform) as an opaque blob and not mess with it. The “proper” way to add files to an I6 project via the IDE is with the file inspector (Window -> Show Inspectors -> Project Files), which displays a list of files and has + and - buttons for adding and removing them. This allows you to have multiple source files and to use third party library contributions.

3

So you have to use the inspector. Well, I would never have guessed it. I think it’s better I don’t mess with the content of Inform.app, because I’ll have to do it again each time I install a new version.

For now I’ll use the Inform IDE as a text editor to open my .inf files, which are not part of a .inform folder (they haven’t been created with I7). If I can manage to have TextWrangle highlight I6 syntax, then I’ll switch to it.

Thanks !