| Chapter 8: Change |

| 8.14. Counting the number of things

It is very often useful to know how many things are in a given situation, and for this purpose we have the "number of ..." construction. For instance:

> the number of edible things carried
> the number of things on the table
> the number of people in the Dining Room

Whereas "a woman is holding an animal" makes the same test as "an animal is held by a woman", getting the same result, counting is not so even-handed:

> the number of women holding animals
> the number of animals held by women

are different questions and, unless the ration is strictly one lapdog per baroness, will have different answers. If Cruella de Vil has 101 dalmatians, they may be very different indeed.

It can also be helpful to count things with no particular location, like so:

> the number of rooms
> the number of closed doors

For instance:

> When play begins, change the right hand status line to "Explored: [number of visited rooms]/[number of rooms]".

Previous | Contents | Next