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I'll eat my hat if I get a good answer to this...I suspect that although I'm a rank beginner in Inform 7, and I'm guessing this isn't that hard, there are probably not many people here who are familiar with Inform 7. Still, nothing ventured...

I'm trying to create a custom response to a "pull" action. Unfortunately, I think the "pull" action doesn't normally expect a second noun. So I'm trying something like this:

The nails are some things in the Foyer.  The nails are scenery.
Instead of pulling the nails:
    If the second noun is nothing:
        say "How?  Are you going to pull the nails with your teeth?";
    otherwise:
        say "I don't think that's going to do the job."

But while this compiles, and the first part works, the "I don't think..." section is never called...the interpreter just responds "I only understood you as far as wanting to pull the nails." Do I have to create my own custom action for this? Overwrite the standard pull action? Am I missing something simple that will allow me to get this to work?

Beska
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1 Answers1

8

Have you extended “pull” from the Standard Rules to accept a second noun? As I understand it(*), the standard “pull” doesn't know about “with”. I guess something along the lines of:

Pulling it with is an action applying to two things.
Understand "pull [something] with [something preferably held]" as pulling it with.

Instead of pulling the nails:
    say "How?  Are you going to pull the nails with your teeth?";
Instead of pulling the nails with something:
    say "I don't think that's going to do the job."

*: Warning: I don't understand it at all, and have no idea what I've talking about. :-) I've avoided version 7 of Inform as some kind of Chomskyian nightmare...

bobince
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  • No, haven't tried that yet...and something along these lines is what I was expecting. But, so far, I've been unable to find...well...*anything* in the Inform 7 documentation relevant to figuring out which verbs take second nouns, which don't, and what to do about it. This should at least give me a good starting point to work with. +1 and I'll let you know. – Beska Apr 29 '10 at 20:20
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    And, yes, 7 syntax is an author's dream and a coder's nightmare. – Beska Apr 29 '10 at 20:21
  • Holy macaroni. That nailed it precicely...no modifications needed. Pretty darn good for a 7-avoider. (This is my first attempt in either 6 or 7, though I've read the docs for both.) – Beska Apr 29 '10 at 20:30
  • Ha, fantastic! Maybe I should take up I7 yet! Yeah, I couldn't see much doc for the Standard Rules. I guess they *are* their own doc, right? [shudder] – bobince Apr 29 '10 at 20:41
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    You can find a complete set of actions in the Actions Index. This isn't part of the manual, it's generated by the compiler. In the IDE, click the Index tab, then Actions below that. Any action whose name has "it" in the middle takes two nouns. – Tara McGrew May 11 '10 at 00:48