| Chapter 16: Understanding |

| 16.6. Actions applying to kinds of value

Almost all actions apply to things: the player picks them up, pushes them, looks at them and so on. Only occasionally do we need to recognise other kinds of value: but when we do, we can, as in the example called "Safety":

> "Safety"

> The Vault is a room. "Snug yet paranoid, this represents the state of the art in cheerless security." The Safe is here. "A mammoth safe, with a dial which can spin to any number, has pride of place. It must weigh about the same as a small car, so don't get any ideas." In the Safe is a silver florin. The Safe is closed and fixed in place. Understand "dial" as the Safe.

> Spinning it to is an action applying to one thing and one number. Check spinning it to: if the noun is not the Safe then say "[The noun] does not spin." instead. Report spinning it to: say "Click! and nothing else happens."

> Understand "spin [something] to [a number]" as spinning it to.

> After spinning the closed Safe to 1384: change the Safe to open; say "Clonk! and the safe door swings slowly open, revealing [list of things in the Safe]."

The substitution "[a number]" matches any number (actually any whole number that is not too large) typed by the player. Inform checks the various kinds being used to make sure that everything matches, so, for instance, this would be disallowed:

> Understand "spin [something] to [something]" as spinning it to.

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| Example Tom's Midnight Garden A clock kind that can be set to any time using "the time understood"; may be turned on and off; and will advance itself only when running. Time on the face is also reported differently depending on whether the clock is analog or digital.

Time can also be understood as a token, and the time parsed will be recorded as "the time understood". So therefore, if we wish for clocks which may be set: "Tom's Midnight Garden" A clock is a kind of device. A clock has a time called the current time. A clock can be analog or digital. The current time of a clock is usually 9:01 AM. The description of a clock is "It shows the time to be [if analog]about [the current time to the nearest five minutes in words][otherwise][the current time][end if]." Understand "set [clock] to [time]" as setting it by time. Setting it by time is an action applying to one thing and one time. Instead of setting a clock to something: say "[The noun] can be set only to a time of day, such as 8:00 AM, or midnight." Carry out setting a clock by time: change the current time of the noun to the time understood. Report setting a clock by time: say "You set [the noun] to [time understood]." Every turn: repeat with item running through switched on clocks begin; change the current time of the item to one minute after the current time of the item; end repeat. The Hall is a room. The grandfather clock is a fixed in place analog clock in the Hall. The travel clock is a switched on digital clock in the Hall. When play begins: change the right hand status line to "[time of day]". Test me with "examine grandfather clock / set it to midnight / switch it on / wait / wait / wait / examine it / set travel clock to 4:12 / examine it".

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| Example Ibid. A system which allows the author to assign footnotes to descriptions, and permits the player to retrieve them again by number, using "the number understood". Footnotes will automatically number themselves, according to the order in which the player discovers them.

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