| Chapter 17: Activities |

| 17.13. Printing room description details of something

1. When it happens. When an item is listed in the miscellaneous collection of items present in a room (the ones which do not deserve their own paragraphs): this is normally the last paragraph of a room description.

2. The default behaviour. A bracketed piece of extra information is added for certain items such as containers:

> You can also see Po and a cage (empty) here.

The " (empty)" (note initial space) was added by this activity. (Note that this activity is not responsible for describing further items visible because of the item in question: that is, it does not print the text such as "(in which is a notepad)" which would appear if there were contents. If we want to remove such text, we should use "omit contents in listing": see the activity "for printing the name of something".)

3. Examples. (a) To get rid of such addenda entirely, try:

> Rule for printing room description details: stop.

(b) To add a new form of addendum:

> Rule for printing room description details of a person:
> say " (at last, someone to talk to)" instead.

If both examples (a) and (b) are in place at once, we might now read:

> You can also see Po (at last, someone to talk to) and a cage here.

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| Example Rules of Attraction A magnet which picks up nearby metal objects, and describes itself appropriately in room descriptions and inventory listings, but otherwise goes by its ordinary name.

Often we have some salient features of an object that we want to make sure the player notices whenever looking at the item in a room or in inventory. At other times, we may prefer to allow the name of the item to be printed bare. So for instance: "Rules of Attraction" A metal form is a kind of thing. A magnet is a kind of metal form. Every turn: repeat with item running through nonmagnetic metal forms which are not part of something begin; if item is in a container which contains a magnet (called attractor) begin; say "[The item] sticks to [the attractor]."; now the item is part of the attractor; end if; end repeat. The horseshoe magnet is a magnet carried by the player. The nail is a metal form carried by the player. The Barn is a room. In the Barn is a bucket. In the bucket is a metal form called the iron hook. Definition: a thing is nonmagnetic if it is not a magnet. Rule for printing room description details of a magnet (called attractor): if something is part of the attractor, say " (stuck to which [is-are the list of things which are part of the attractor])". After printing the name of a magnet (called attractor) while taking inventory: if something is part of the attractor, say " (stuck to which [is-are the list of things which are part of the attractor])". Before taking a touchable thing which is part of a magnet (called attractor): move the noun to the holder of the attractor. Test me with "i / put horseshoe in bucket / look / get horseshoe / i / drop horseshoe / i / look / get all / put all in bucket / i / x magnet / get nail / i".

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