All About Dynamic Object Creation in Inform January 10, 2006
Posted by samwyse in Interactive Fiction.add a comment
New authors frequently don’t fully understand the difference between classes and objects. Don’t take offense, it is a common problem with which new authors often struggle. I don’t think that it is Inform specific, either; you need to understand the same concepts to use TADS’ mechanisms, or if you want to becom a professional C++ or Java programmer. (more…)
Why Newbies don’t like IF January 10, 2006
Posted by samwyse in Interactive Fiction.add a comment
Good games teach you the set of commands that you need to play the game. Almost every IF game extends the “standard” grammar in some way or another. This makes it easy to fall into a “guess the verb” puzzle. The trick to to remember Chekov’s gun and apply it in reverse. If you are going to use the verb “transmorgrify” in the third act, you need to introduce it in the first. (more…)
Ghost Package January 5, 2006
Posted by samwyse in Uncategorized.add a comment
This is interesting. I sent a package (part return) to Dell via DHL. The tracking number is 18923687624. If you go to their tracking page and enter that number, you’ll see that it is “With delivery courier” with “Est. Delivery Date: 1/3/2006″. I tried calling DHL on the 4th, and was told that since they get so many packages, things sometimes get backed up at Dell. Well, now it’s the morning of the 5th, and it’s still apparently on a truck somewhere.
Of course, what I really think happened is that it forgot to get scanned when it was delivered. Still, I wonder how long it will remain in this state before someone notices.
Update: On January 6th, the package tracker finally started showing that my package had arrived on the 3rd. I find it interesting that it took three days to get that information into the system.
Is democracy obsolete? January 4, 2006
Posted by samwyse in Uncategorized.add a comment
Democracy, our least bad system of government, is on its way out. Can we invent a better new system? Perhaps. But today’s political correctness does not allow one to say “There may be a political system which is better than Democracy”. The result of this prohibition will be an inevitable return to some kind of totalitarian rule.
