| Chapter 6: Descriptions |

| 6.4. Defining new adjectives

Suppose we want to coin a word for supporters currently supporting something. We can do so with the following sentence:

> Definition: A supporter is occupied if something is on it.

Note the colon, which is essential, and the usage of "it" in the definition part to refer to the object in question. (For this purpose we would write "it" even if we were defining a term about, say, a woman instead of a supporter, so that "she" or "her" might seem more appropriate.)

This creates the adjective "occupied", and gives it a definition valid for supporters. That restriction on validity means that non-supporters would always fail the description "something occupied"; which might be unfortunate if we wanted to walk about rooms being occupied. We could give a second definition thus:

> Definition: A room is occupied if a person is in it.

These are entirely different senses of the word "occupied" - a mantelpiece is occupied if an invitation is on it, but for a drawing room to be occupied there must be human presence - and Inform applies whichever sense is relevant when deciding whether or not a given object is "occupied".

Newly defined adjectives cannot be used when creating things, because they are not explicit enough. Inform could not satisfy:

> The Ballroom is occupied. The bucket is a large container.

because there is not enough information: by whom is the Ballroom occupied? How large, exactly? On the other hand, newly defined adjectives are very helpful in conditions and for rules, as we shall see later on.

60
| Example Finishing School The "another" adjective for rules such as "in the presence of another person".

Previous | Contents | Next