| Chapter 16: Understanding |

| 16.14. Understanding things by their properties

Items are ordinarily understood only by their original given names. For instance, if we have:

> In the Herb Garden is a china pot.

then the player could refer to this as "pot", "china pot" or "china". We can embellish this by adding extra forms:

> Understand "chinese pot" or "chinese vase" as the china pot.

But suppose the pot changes its nature in the course of play? If we have:

> The china pot can be unbroken or broken. The china pot is unbroken. After dropping the china pot: say "Crack!"; now the china pot is broken; change the printed name of the pot to "broken pot".

So now the player would reasonably expect to call it "broken pot", a wording which would have been rejected before. We can achieve this by writing:

> Understand the unbroken property as describing the pot.

which allows "unbroken" or "broken" to describe the pot, depending on its state. This is something of a toy example, but the feature looks rather more useful when there are more pots than just one:

> "Terracotta"

> A flowerpot is a kind of thing. A flowerpot can be unbroken or broken. Understand the broken property as describing a flowerpot.

> After dropping an unbroken flowerpot: say "Crack!"; now the noun is broken; change the printed name of the noun to "broken flowerpot"; change the printed plural name of the noun to "broken flowerpots".

> The Herb Garden is a room. In the Herb Garden are ten unbroken flowerpots.

We then have the dialogue:

> Herb Garden
> You can see ten flowerpots here.
> >get two flowerpots
> flowerpot: Taken.
> flowerpot: Taken.
> >drop all
> flowerpot: Crack!
> flowerpot: Crack!
> >look
> Herb Garden
> You can see two broken flowerpots and eight flowerpots here.
> >get an unbroken flowerpot
> Taken.

and so on and so forth.

There are in fact two slightly different forms of this kind of sentence:

> Understand the broken property as describing a flowerpot.
> Understand the broken property as referring to a flowerpot.

The only difference is that in the "describing" case, the property's name alone can mean the thing in question - so "take unbroken" will work; whereas, in the "referring to", the property's name can only be used as an adjective preceding the name of thing itself - so "take unbroken flowerpot" will work but "take unbroken" will not.

| At present, the implementation of this feature has a restriction: if we define a new kind of value (say, colour) and give it to something as a property, then define a new textual form of one of those values (say making "crimson" a synonym for "red"), this new textual form will not be understood when used adjectivally in the above way.

239
| Example Peers The peers of the English realm come in six flavours - Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess, Duke and Prince - and must always be addressed properly. While a peerage is for life, it may at the royal pleasure be promoted.

Almost all of this example is the flummery of pomp and circumstance: only the first two paragraphs really do anything. "Peers" by Elizabeth II R A title is a kind of value. The titles are Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess, Duke and Prince. A peer is a kind of man. A peer has a title. A peer is usually a Baron. Before printing the name of a peer, say "[title] ". Understand the title property as describing a peer. The House of Lords is a room. Maltravers, Pollifax, Omnium and St Vincent are peers in the House of Lords. Omnium is a Duke. St Vincent is an Earl. Ennobling is an action applying to one thing and one title. Check ennobling: if the noun is the player, say "The Sovereign is the fountain of honour, and may not be ennobled." instead; if the noun is not a peer, say "Commoners should remain so." instead; if the title of the noun is the title understood, say "But that is his title already." instead; if the title of the noun is greater than the title understood, say "As he is already of the rank of [title of the noun], any such letters patent are liable to be deemed invalid, following the precedent of the Buckhurst Peerage Case (1876). Best not." instead. Carry out ennobling: change the title of the noun to the title understood. Report ennobling: say "'Whereas Our Parliament for arduous and urgent affairs concerning Us the state and defence of Our United Kingdom and the Church is now met at Our City of Westminster We strictly enjoining Command you upon the faith and allegiance by which you are bound to Us that the weightness of the said affairs and imminent perils considered (waiving all excuses) you be at the said day and place personally present with Us and with the said Prelates Great Men and Peers to treat and give your counsel upon the affairs aforesaid And this as you regard Us and Our honour and the safety and defence of the said Kingdom and Church and dispatch of the said affairs in nowise do you omit Witness Ourself at Westminster the Fifth day of November in the 43rd year of Our Reign,' you say, with unpunctuated serenity. The new [noun] bows stiffly." Understand "dub [someone] a/an [title]" as ennobling. Test me with "dub st vincent a baron / dub maltravers a marquess / look / examine marquess".

240
| Example Terracottissima The flowerpots once again, but this time arranged so that after the first breakage all undamaged pots are said to be "unbroken", to distinguish them from the others.

241
| Example Snip 2 Strings that can be divided arbitrarily and then named by length.

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