| Chapter 5: Text |

| 5.4. Text with lists

The useful substitution "[list of description]" prints out, as an English sentence, a list of all the objects which match the given description. For instance,

> "The places you can go are [list of rooms]."

Any description can be given and, as we shall see, descriptions can be very flexible indeed:

> "Mr Darcy glares proudly at you. He is wearing [list of things worn by Darcy] and carrying [list of things carried by Darcy]."

And, if this were from a dramatisation of the novel by Miss Fielding rather than Miss Austen, we might find:

> Mr Darcy glares proudly at you. He is wearing a pair of Newcastle United boxer shorts and carrying a self-help book.

If the description matches nothing - for instance, if Darcy has empty hands - then "nothing" is printed. A more insidious problem is that the list may end up either singular or plural. We might be expecting that the example above will produce something like:

> The places you can go are Old Bailey, Bridget's Flat and TV Centre.

But if there is only one room, then the result would be:

> The places you can go are Bridget's Flat.

which is wrong. We can get around this with careful wording and a slightly different substitution:

> "Near here [is/are list of rooms]."

which uses "is" or "are" as appropriate. Lastly, we can also make the items listed take the definite article by writing:

> "Mr Darcy impatiently bundles [the list of things carried by Darcy] into your hands and stomps out of the room."

which might result in

> Mr Darcy impatiently bundles the self-help book and the Christmas card into your hands and stomps out of the room.

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| Example Control Center Objects which automatically include a description of their component parts whenever they are examined.

51
| Example Tiny Garden A lawn made up of several rooms, with part of the description written automatically.

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