>If you are wondering what on earth one might want "at the object" for
>consider the example of being "at the table" while eating dinner.
>Technically it's basically a container object like a chair. You want to be
>able to leave the table, exit the table, get up, stand up, etc etc...
>however the description of being "in" the table is no good <G>.
Well, though I can't offer you any specific Inform examples since I
am thoroughly unInformed, I could mention what I did a while back when
tackling this problem in TADS.
Essentially instead of making the table an enterable object I played
with its accompanying chair. After all, you don't sit on the table -
you sit on a chair and are thereby sitting "at" the table. (ah it's
fun how the idiosyncratic idioms of language make programming games
that emulate natural language so much harder!) I made my game accept
"sit at table" and convert that to "sit on chair" but never bothered
to alter the player's description - s/he just gets stuck with "Boring
Room, on the chair" or somesuch. Anyway, just a random thought.
- Neil K.
-- 49N 16' 123W 7' / Vancouver, BC, Canada / n_k_guy@sfu.ca