| Chapter 3: Things |

| 3.10. Properties holding text

The properties we have seen so far have all been either/or: either open or closed, either transparent or opaque, either fixed in place or portable, either openable or not openable. However, some properties can have a much wider range of possibilities. For instance, the "description" of a room is the text revealed when the player first enters it, or types "look". This needs to be textual: Inform would complain if, for instance, we tried to set the description of something to the number 42. We have already seen a concise way to set the description of a room:

> The Painted Room is north of the Undertomb. "This is the Painted Room, where strange wall drawings leap out of the dark at the gleam of your candle: men with long wings and great eyes, serene and morose."

This does the same thing as:

> The Painted Room is north of the Undertomb. The description of the Painted Room is "This is the Painted Room, where strange wall drawings leap out of the dark at the gleam of your candle: men with long wings and great eyes, serene and morose."

Or even:

> The Painted Room is north of the Undertomb. The description is "This is the Painted Room, where strange wall drawings leap out of the dark at the gleam of your candle: men with long wings and great eyes, serene and morose."

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