Re: Is there anyone who does NOT use IF-tools...


30 Apr 1995 15:45:47 GMT

Marcus-Christopher Ludl <e9226344@stud1.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
> Isn't anybody out there interested in the things BEHIND the game? The
> algorithms for parsing, compressing string data, general coding... To
> all who use Inform and TADS (and similar tools): Please don't feel
> personally offended, I'm just looking for others who could be
> interested in such things...

Designing a good parser for adventure games is an interesting challenge,
as the input language to an adventure game lies partway between the pure
context-free grammar of programming languages and the complex ambiguous
semantics-dependant grammar of natural language.

However, I think most would-be IF authors realise that if they wait
until they have finished writing a good parser and run-time, then their
game itself will never be finished.

Exactly the same is true in many other disciplines: compiler-writers use
Lex and Yacc to write parsers, even though the results aren't as good as
their hand-coded parser would have been, because they want to finish
writing their compiler; people who do natural language processing use
large, clumsy, ready-made parsers like the Core Language Engine because
they want to get on with their research rather than spending several
years designing the right tools.

--
Gareth Rees