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<title>DM4 §16: Reading matter and consultation</title>
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<a id="p141" name="p141"></a>
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<h2>§16 Reading matter and consultation</h2>
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<blockquote>Making books is a skilled trade, like making clocks.<br>
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— Jean de la Bruyère (1645–1696)</blockquote>
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<p class="normal"><span class="atleft"><img src="dm4-141_1.jpg" alt=""></span>
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“Look up figure 18 in the engineering textbook” is a
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difficult line for Inform to understand, because almost anything could
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appear in the first part: even its format depends on what the second
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part is. This kind of request, and more generally</p>
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<p class="syntax">><tt>look up</tt> ‹<span class="token">any words here</span>› <tt>in</tt> ‹<span class="token">the object</span>›<br>
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><tt>read about</tt> ‹<span class="token">any words here</span>› <tt>in</tt> ‹<span class="token">the object</span>›<br>
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><tt>consult</tt> ‹<span class="token">the object</span>› <tt>about</tt> ‹<span class="token">any words here</span>›</p>
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<p class="normal">cause the <code>Consult</code> action. In such cases,
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the <code>noun</code> is the book and there is no <code>second</code>
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object. Instead, the object has to parse the ‹<span class="token">any words here</span>› part
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itself. The following variables are set up to make this possible:</p>
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<p class="syntax"><code>consult_from</code> holds the number of
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the first word in the ‹<span class="token">any…</span>› clause;<br>
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<code>consult_words</code> holds the number of words in the
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‹<span class="token">any…</span>› clause.</p>
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<p class="normal">The ‹<span class="token">any words here</span>›
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clause must contain at least one word. The words given can be parsed
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using library routines like <code>NextWord()</code>,
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<code>TryNumber(word-number)</code> and so on: see
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<a href="s28.html">§28</a> for full details. As usual, the
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<code>before</code> routine should return <code>true</code> if it
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has managed to deal with the action; returning <code>false</code>
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will make the library print “You discover nothing of interest
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<p class="indent">Little hints are placed here and there in the
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‘Ruins’, written in the glyphs of a not altogether
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authentic dialect of Mayan. Our explorer has, naturally, come
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equipped with the latest and finest scholarship on the subject:</p>
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<p class="lynxonly"></p>
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Object dictionary "Waldeck's Mayan dictionary"
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with name 'dictionary' 'local' 'guide' 'book' 'mayan'
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'waldeck' 'waldeck^s',
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description "Compiled from the unreliable lithographs of the
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legendary raconteur and explorer ~Count~ Jean Frederic
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Maximilien Waldeck (1766??-1875), this guide contains
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what little is known of the glyphs used in the local
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ancient dialect.",
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Consult:<a id="p142" name="p142"></a>
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w1 = NextWord(); ! First word of subject
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w2 = NextWord(); ! Second word (if any) of subject
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if (consult_words==1 && w1~='glyph' or 'glyphs') glyph = w1;
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else if (consult_words==2 && w1=='glyph') glyph = w2;
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else if (consult_words==2 && w2=='glyph') glyph = w1;
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else "Try ~look up <name of glyph> in book~.";
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'q1': "(This is one glyph you have memorised!)^^
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Q1: ~sacred site~.";
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'crescent': "Crescent: believed pronounced ~xibalba~,
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though its meaning is unknown.";
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'arrow': "Arrow: ~journey; becoming~.";
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'skull': "Skull: ~death, doom; fate (not nec. bad)~.";
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'circle': "Circle: ~the Sun; also life, lifetime~.";
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'jaguar': "Jaguar: ~lord~.";
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'monkey': "Monkey: ~priest?~.";
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'bird': if (self.correct) "Bird: ~dead as a stone~.";
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"Bird: ~rich, affluent?~.";
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default: "That glyph is so far unrecorded.";
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<p class="normal">Note that this understands any of the forms “q1”,
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“glyph q1” or “q1 glyph”. (These aren't genuine
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Maya glyphs, but some of the real ones once had similar names, dating
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from when their syllabic equivalents weren't known.)</p>
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<a id="ex25" name="ex25"></a>
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<p class="aside"><span class="warning"><b>•</b>▲▲
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<b><a href="sa6.html#ans25">EXERCISE 25</a></b></span><br>
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To mark the 505th anniversary of William Tyndale, the first English
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translator of the New Testament (who was born some time around
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1495 and burned as a heretic in Vilvorde, Denmark, in 1535), prepare
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an Inform edition.</p>
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<p class="dotbreak">� � � � �</p>
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<p class="aside"><span class="warning">▲▲</span>
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Ordinarily, a request by the player to “read” something
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is translated into an <code>Examine</code> action. But the “read”
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verb is defined independently of the “examine” verb
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in order to make it easy to separate the two requests. For instance:</p>
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<p class="lynxonly"></p>
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Object textbook "textbook"
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with name 'engineering' 'textbook' 'text' 'book',
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description "What beautiful covers and spine!",<a id="p143" name="p143"></a>
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"The pages are full of senseless equations.";
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<<Examine noun>>;
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Extend 'read' first * legible -> Read;
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<p class="aside">Note that “read” causes a <code>Read</code>
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action only for <code>legible</code> objects, and otherwise causes
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<code>Examine</code> in the usual way. <code>ReadSub</code> is coded
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as a translation to <code>Examine</code> as well, so that
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if a <code>legible</code> object doesn't provide a <code>Read</code>
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rule then an <code>Examine</code> happens after all.</p>
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<p class="aside"><span class="warning"><b>•</b>
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<b>REFERENCES</b></span><br>
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Another possibility for parsing commands like “look up ‹<span class="token">something</span>›
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in the catalogue”, where any object name might appear as the
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‹<span class="token">something</span>›, would be to extend the grammar
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for “look”. See <a href="s30.html">§30</a>.</p>
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