Chapter 6: Commands
6.12. Clarification

Some commands and some objects raise special challenges when it comes to working out the player's intention.

Sometimes this can be done with good rules about the assumptions Inform should make. Alpaca Farm demonstrates a USE command, always a challenge because USE can mean very different actions with different items.

There are also times when we need to ask the player for more information. Apples demonstrates how sensibly to use properties to disambiguate between similar objects, while Walls and Noses rephrases the disambiguation question when special objects are involved: examining one of the walls of the room will make the game ask "In which direction?" and EXAMINE NOSE will lead to "Whose nose do you mean, Frederica's, Betty's, Wilma's or your own?"


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* Example  Alpaca Farm
A generic USE action which behaves sensibly with a range of different objects.

WI
318
* Example  Apples
Prompting the player on how to disambiguate otherwise similar objects.

WI
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*** Example  Walls and Noses
Responding to "EXAMINE WALL" with "In which direction?", and to "EXAMINE NOSE" with "Whose nose do you mean, Frederica's, Betty's, Wilma's or your own?"

WI


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