![]() | Inform was one of the Engineering and technology good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake. | ||||||||||||
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Current status: Delisted good article |
I moved this page to here from Inform programming language because a) Inform is not strictly just a programming language, but also a compiler and a software suite, and b) because just "Inform" is simpler and more general. Any complaints? Adam Conover
IFLibrary.com/org appears to be gone. The IFLibrary.com link used to work (I think), but IFLibrary.com fails (demanding authorization) and IFLibrary.org is expired. Alan De Smet | Talk 13:47, May 16, 2005 (UTC)
Speaking of "some other 'Inform'", interestingly enough the language list includes a database language called "INFORM" (but not this Inform). Ddawson 11:53, 6 September 2005 (UTC)
I believe the difference between Inform 6 and 7 is large enough to warrant a separate Inform 7 page. Agree/disagree? Kwi | Talk 21:53, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/8ecdb479ed8e354a/eb097d1cec010e3d# 84.66.226.132 12:22, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
Given the relative youth of Inform 7, there isn't much that's "notable." However, firsts are usually notable. "Mystery House Possessed" probably deserves mention as it was the first publically released I7 game (albet a very early prototype of I7). The real "firsts" unfortunately wasn't a single game, but a set of six, with half released two months before I7 was. For now I've just listed the lot. Alan De Smet | Talk 02:08, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
"Forcing a player to confront their own complicity" when describing Rendetion is viewpoint bias. First, it assumes that the presentation of rendition facilities by the game is accurate and that the players have incurred some sort of guilt even if the presentation is correct. To state that it is a political art experiment is accurate and sufficient. Ideally, some mention of the game's political viewpoint should be made known, but explaining that within the flow of the paragraph proved too cumbersome. Silverstarseven (talk) 20:24, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
This edit by 131.107.0.103 had lots of good stuff. However, that change reformatted the Natural Inform source code example like most traditional source code: monospace font with fixed line lengths. The designer of Inform 7 (which Natural Inform is part if) really wanted it to "look like a book". Thus source code is typically formatted in paragraphs. The default Inform IDE defaults to proportional fonts. I tried to lay out the source code to reasonably resemble how the editor displays the code. Thus I've reverted 131.107.0.103's formatting for that section to my previous version. Alan De Smet | Talk 02:00, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
Is the very detailed table with the "History of Inform releases" really necessary? I think that at least the entries for beta releases and bug fix releases could be removed without much loss. — Tobias Bergemann 14:01, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
From the article: "Photopia, by Adam Cadre, is generally credited as being the first truly puzzleless work of interactive fiction. It placed first in the 4th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition. Its appearance was a pivotal point in the history of the medium."
"Mercy", by Chris Klimas predated Photopia. Ralphmerridew 20:53, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
help me: "Lanier" by "Anonymous." To say frontdoorstat... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 207.218.218.166 (talk • contribs) 23:12, November 14, 2006 (UTC) ((Huge chunk of Inform 7 code deleted as it's off topic (See below). If you really want to see it here's the old version - Alan De Smet))
INFORM is also a programming language for MOTOMAN robots (see www.motoman.com), used especially in the MX MRC and NX100 controllers. 154.20.152.71 20:05, 16 December 2006 (UTC)wiki@kienapfel.ca
I do not consider this article ready for good article status. Comments on problematic individual criteria follow.
1b. The lead section ought to be a summary of the rest of the article, but at the moment it's devoted to information on the history of Inform that isn't repeated later in the article. Also, the paragraph beginning "Although Inform and the Z-Machine..." is not about the Inform 6 compiler, as far as I can tell. It should be moved. The comparisons with TADS and Hugo do not belong in the "See also" section; I suggest giving it a section to itself.
1c. Article fails the Wikipedia:Lead section guidelines, as noted above.
1d. Given the article's subject matter, it isn't too bad in its use of jargon, but if "Z-machine" is an abbreviation for "Z-code virtual machine", that ought to be made clear.
2a, 2b. It would be unreasonable to expect inline citations for every statement about Inform, since most could only reference the system itself, or associated documentation. However, citations are necessary for statements about the intention behind the system, such as "The concept is to imitate an author's copybook..." Also, the comparison with TADS and Hugo in the "See also" section is entirely unreferenced.
3a. The article provides inadequate information on the history of Inform. For example, one wouldn't know from reading it that the Z-machine was originally used by Infocom. (The reference to "the several-decades-old Z-machine" would be very confusing to a reader with no knowledge of the topic.)
3b. The paragraph beginning "This can also be written with the word print_ret..." seems unnecessary to me. This article isn't a manual, so it's sufficient to show example code for a "hello world" program without discussing other ways it could have been written.
4a, 4b. The article is probably okay here, although I don't know enough to judge whether the comparisons with TADS and Hugo may be open to dispute.
5. There's some discussion above about splitting the section on Inform 7 into a different article. If that's on the agenda, then GA nominations should be left until afterwards. If that idea has been abandoned, then stability is no problem. EALacey 18:29, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
Well, it's a great article, and I don't have a huge number of suggestions (possibly due to time). One thing that does bug me is the "further reading" section at the end of each level 2 section. If it was up to me, all further reading would be combined in one place, near the references/external links. Otherwise, good job! ~ G1ggy! Reply 06:42, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
This article is actually not qualified for GA status, as it uses several copyrighted images with no Fair use rationale. Since those are very easy to put in place, I will leave the GA status for now, but if fair use rationales have not been added within one week (Friday, May 11th) I will remove it from the list at that time. --Masamage ♫ 22:36, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
Perhaps the 'Inform 7 programming language' section should mention that it is turing complete? J.D. Clemens implements a turing machine in 'The amazing interactive turing machine'. (the game source and story file can be found at the games website[[1]]). I didn't add it to the article because I'm not sure this is a verifiable source, although it seem to me it probably is as anyone can download and run the game. --86.14.194.232 00:21, 21 June 2007 (UTC)Glyph
As a side note, if you have a background in programming you may find the Inform 7 turing machine abstraction quite interesting. I thought having it coded in Inform 7 pseudo-prose was quite cool. --Glyph 86.14.194.232 02:16, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
Here's a place to collect possible sources for citations, say if you found a promising article, but don't have time right now to properly add it into the article. — Alan De Smet | Talk 18:30, 30 June 2007 (UTC)
I deleted the link to the Inform 7 wiki. I appreciate the intent of the wiki, and I wish it the best. However, Wikipedia should limit itself to links that are useful today, not to links that hopefully will be useful in the future. If the I7 wiki becomes popular and full of original content, by all means we should reconsider it then. — Alan De Smet | Talk 04:21, 7 December 2007 (UTC)
Is anyone else concerned that this article does not convey how truly awesome inform 7 is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.189.98.44 (talk) 18:59, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
I've re-added Rendition (video game) to the Notable games written in Inform 7. At this point in time there are relatively few notable games. There is no imminent danger of the list overwhelming the article. Rendition is apparently notable enough to support its own article with several third party citations. In the event that more notable games written in Inform 7 and the list starts growing a bit long, we should revisit this decision. I should note that this was also discussed at Talk:Interactive_fiction#Rendition.3F, and in that case I yield that Rendition, while notable, is perhaps not notable enough compared the many other possible entries to be specifically called out in Interactive fiction. — Alan De Smet | Talk 03:39, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
I am deleting the "Inform 7 compiler" section. It merely repeats two pieces of information from the "Inform 7" section shortly above it. If you disagree please feel free to revert and fix this another way. --Sorpigal (talk) 21:43, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Actually, I'm new to wiki, so bear with me if I ask stupid questions. Does anyone have verified information on the licensing model of Inform 7? I just searched the site in vain, looked at the manuals and stuff but couldn't find anything even approaching license information. The article says: "Proprietary, but freely distributable", but where's that piece of information from, I wonder? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.184.60.127 (talk) 01:20, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
In the gnome-inform7 help, I found this information: The compilers Inform 6 and Natural Inform are copyright (c) 1993–2007 Graham Nelson. Cerebral maniac (talk) 08:44, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
The statement "The code sample below is usable in Inform 7, but not without special demarcation indicating that it is embedded legacy code." seems to be false. After hours of searching through Google and all the manuals, I can find no mention of this "special demarcation". My own testing shows that Inform 6 will not work on its own in Inform 7. If no one comes up with a source I will delete this within a few days. luther93 (talk) 14:32, 11 April 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. I added the citation.luther93 (talk) 15:30, 12 April 2010 (UTC)
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