PlatypusConversion Guide for Platypus release 4

Send questions, comments, and bug reports to Anson Turner.

This document is intended to explain the process of converting an existing Inform game into a Platypus-compatible one. Needless to say, it does not cover all aspects of Platypus, only those that are relevant to converting existing code.


1. Basics

a) First, make sure your compiler will be able to find the Platypus files. Note that both the standard library and Platypus have files called "English.h", which are different. (So don't try to put them in the same directory.)

Then, change your include statements:

         Include "Parser";      ----->      Include "First";
         Include "Verblib";     ----->      Include "Middle";
         Include "Grammar";     ----->      Include "Last";

b) At the start of your code, insert:

         Constant MAX_COMPATIBILITY;

This constant triggers many changes in the library which make it far easier to get standard-library based code working under Platypus. Or at least it used to. As of release 4, it does absolutely nothing. But insert it anyway. Come on, it's fun. You know you want to.

c) Change any instances of the condition

         if (location == thedark)

to

         if (InDark(player))

d) Change all other references to location or real_location to player.location. E.g.:

         if (location == Foyer)

becomes

         if (player.location == Foyer)

e) Replace all instances of the scenery attribute with a combination of static and concealed. E.g.:

         has scenery

becomes

         has static concealed

f) Replace any uses of @output_buffer 3 xxx; with OpenBuffer(xxx);

Replace any uses of @output_buffer -3; with CloseBuffer();

g) If you have a LibraryMessages object, change it to be ofclass MessageCogs (it does not have to be named LibraryMessages), and rename its "before" property to "messages".

h) If any of those messages contain the characters # or &, you must double them. So # would become ## and & would become &&. These characters have special uses in library messages (which are filtered through PrintX()).

i) And that's all! Well, except for the 47 more things that follow.

j) Rename properties as follows:

  Old name New name
  before respond_early
  after respond_late
  react_before meddle_early
  react_after meddle_late
  life respond

k) However, indirect responses, such as for ##LetGo or ##Receive instead go in an indirect property, switching on the "real" verb (e.g. ##Take or ##Insert):

  Old name New name
  before respond_early_indirect
  after respond_late_indirect
  life respond_indirect

l) Change any references to direction objects to use "dir" in place of "_obj". That is:

         n_obj    becomes    ndir
         ne_obj   becomes    nedir
         u_obj    becomes    udir
         etc.

m) Change all direction properties into a single dirs property for each room. For example:

         n_to Lounge, se_to Spodgeville;

would become

         dirs ndir Lounge   sedir Spodgeville;

or

         dirs [ d;
             if (d == ndir) return Lounge;
             if (d == sedir) return Spodgeville;
         ];

See the entry for dirs in the Reference for more details.

n) Declare all of your rooms to be ofclass Rooms. Change their name properties to contain their actual names. (You can also use the adjective property.) If you want to give them names of "scenery", see the included "scenery.h" library.

o) Change all "move x to y" statements into MoveTo(x,y) calls. This will ensure that objects have appropriate position attributes set (inside, upon, under). Without them, objects in containers will not be in scope.

Your "remove" statements do not need to be changed.

p) Likewise, change PlayerTo(destination, flag) to MoveTo(player,destination,0,flag). (The third parameter is for specifying a position attribute. If none is provided, the routine will set an appropriate one.)

q) Add a call to SetDefaultObjectPositions() to your Initialise() routine. This will ensure that objects have appropriate position attributes at the start of the program, and save you from editing all their "has" lines.

r) Change any initial, when_on, when_off, when_open, and when_closed properties into describe properties.

s) If you are using the task-scoring system, create an object for each task with a points property, and change the corresponding call to Achieved([task object]). E.g.:

         Object make_fry_key "making the french fry key" with points 5;

         Achieved(make_fry_key);

t) Similarly, if you are awarding points for entering certain rooms or picking up certain objects, give those rooms and objects points properties. (You don't have to call Achieved() for them.) Hint: use a class.

u) The maximum_score global replaces constant MAX_SCORE. It will be calculated automatically by adding all positive points properties, but you can override this by setting it manually at startup.

v) Eliminate the door and lockable attributes. The provision of door_to and with_key indicate that an object is a door and/or is lockable. The door_dir property is no longer used either; the library figures this out for itself.

w) Replace the enterable attribute with an allow_entry property. It takes an attribute parameter which indicates the position of entry: inside, upon, or under. [Pause while readers fantasize.] The attribute will be one appropriate to the object, so if it is not a hider, for instance, allow_entry will never be called with under. It returns true to allow entry, false to not allow entry. But, for the simplest cases:

         allow_entry [; rtrue; ]

x) Similarly, allow_push (if provided) is called with a direction object, and returns true to allow the object to be pushed in that direction. This takes the place of the old method of handling PushDir.

y) E-mail me a ranting, all-caps diatribe about how your code still isn't working under Platypus on account of the 32 other things that I can't think of at the moment.

z) I just figured I might as well finish off the alphabet.

And that should take care of the most common cases. Thank you for using Platypus, the only alternative Inform library named after an animal that has feet like a duck but is furry. As of this writing.

[Document ends.]

-- Anson Turner
(formatted by John G. Wood)


This page originally found at http://www.elvwood.org/InteractiveFiction/Platypus/Convert.html
Last updated: 14 March 2002

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