| Chapter 4: Kinds |

| 4.5. Assemblies and body parts

In the previous chapter, we saw that it was possible to make sub-parts of things. For instance,

> The white door is in the Drawing Room. The handle is part of the white door.

creates a door with an attached handle. But what if we want to say that not just this door, but every door, should have a handle? To do this we first need to create a kind called "handle", since there will clearly need to be many handles. The solution is:

> A handle is a kind of thing. A handle is part of every door.

"Every" is a loaded word and best used sparingly. A sentence like "A handle is part of every handle" would, if taken literally, mean that a handle takes forever to make and is never finished. Inform will reject this, but the moral is clear: we should think about what we are doing with "every". Another restriction is it is not safe to meddle with the three fundamental kinds "room", "container" or "supporter" by making them into assemblies, but in fact this one can be got around quite easily, like so -

> A silver coin is a kind of thing. A banking room is a kind of room. Five silver coins are in every banking room.

The effect of sentences like these is to make what we might call "assemblies" instead of single things. When a banking room is created, so are five more silver coins; when a door is created, so is another handle. Such sentences act not only on items created later on in the source text, but also on all those created so far.

This is especially useful for body parts. If we would like to explore Voltaire's suggestion that history would have been very different if only Cleopatra's nose had been shorter, we will need noses:

> A nose is a kind of thing. A nose is part of every person.

Something to bear in mind, though, is that in play the following may well happen:

> >examine nose
> Which do you mean, your nose, Antony's nose or Cleopatra's nose?

...because the player, being also a "person", is as susceptible to the invention of noses as anyone else.

Note that Inform names the otherwise nameless noses after their owners. It will always do this unless there are multiple indistinguishable things being created, as in the "five silver coins are in every banking room" example: those will all just be called "silver coin".

Something to watch out for is that if we write:

> A nose is a kind of thing. A nose is part of every person. Antony and Cleopatra are people.

then we can begin talking about "Antony's nose" and "Cleopatra's nose": but it is not safe to discuss these before the sentence "A nose is part of every person" which creates them.

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| Example Being Prepared A kind for jackets, which always includes a container called a pocket.

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| Example Model Shop An "on/off button" which controls whatever device it is part of.

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| Example The Night Before Instructing Inform to prefer different interpretations of EXAMINE NOSE, depending on whether the player is alone, in company, or with Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

Suppose that we're going to give every person in the game a nose, but we want references to a nose always to mean the nose of someone *else*, if the player is with one other person. Moreover, on some occasions we're going to be in sight of Rudolph, so actions directed at an unspecified nose should always prefer his. This relies on a somewhat advanced technique from the Understanding chapter, but since it may become useful with assemblies and body parts, it is worth mentioning here. "The Night Before" The North Pole is a room. "Here it is: the famous Pole. From here you can go south (or south-south, or south-south-by-south); or, alternatively, take refuge inside a red-and-white-striped cabin." The cabin is scenery in the North Pole. Instead of entering the cabin, try going inside. Santa is a man in the North Pole. "Santa is pacing around in the snow and trying to psych himself up for the big night." Inside from North Pole is the Candy Cane Cabin. The description of the Cabin is "Striped red and white, but nothing can make this place seem warm and inviting since Mrs. Santa ran off with the Tooth Fairy." The Ice Shelf is south of North Pole. "The ice here has been smoothed into a kind of runway for easy take-off, and ends in a cliff and cold arctic sea." Donner, Vixen, Blixen, and Rudolph are animals in the Ice Shelf. A nose is a kind of thing. A nose is part of every person. The description of Santa's nose is "It's a bit ruddy. You don't like to mention it, but Santa's been dipping heavily into the Grey Goose since Mrs. Santa left town." The description of a nose is usually "Not terribly exciting." The description of Rudolph's nose is "See how it glows!" Next, we'll teach Inform some vocabulary to distinguish between the player and everyone else: Definition: a person is other if it is not the player. Definition: a thing is selfish if it is part of the player and the player can see an other person. Instead of examining a selfish nose: say "You cross your eyes, but can't get a good look." Here is the part that actually determines the preferences. "Does the player mean..." can result in five outcomes: "it is very unlikely", "it is unlikely", "it is possible" (the neutral default), "it is likely", and "it is very likely". This is discussed in greater detail in the Understanding chapter. Here, we want to discourage references to the player's own nose and encourage references to the nose of Rudolph, so: Does the player mean doing something when the noun is a selfish nose or the second noun is a selfish nose: it is very unlikely. Does the player mean doing something to Rudolph's nose: it is very likely. And this part is just for decoration: Rule for writing a paragraph about Rudolph: say "The reindeer are already harnessed and waiting impatiently. The brilliance of [Rudolph]'s nose casts an eerie red glow over [the list of unmentioned animals in the location]." Test me with "x nose / x my nose / x santa's nose / in / x nose / out / s / x my nose / x nose / x rudolph's nose / x donner's nose".

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| Example U-Stor-It A "chest" kind which consists of a container which has a lid as a supporter.

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