16.15. Understanding things by their properties

| Chapter 16: Understanding |

| 16.15. 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;
> now the printed name of the pot is "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. And, since the player might well use a different adjective but with the same idea in mind, we can even add:

> Understand "shattered" or "cracked" or "smashed" as broken. Understand "pristine" as unbroken.

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;
> now the printed name of the noun is "broken flowerpot";
> now the printed plural name of the noun is "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.

300
| Example Aspect Understanding aspect ratios (a unit) in the names of televisions. |
RB

301
| Example Hymenaeus Understanding "flaming torch" and "extinguished torch" to refer to torches when lit and unlit. |
RB

302
| 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. |
RB

303
| 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. |
RB

304
| Example Channel 1 Understanding channels (a number) in the names of televisions. |
RB

305
| Example Channel 2 Understanding channels (a number) in the names of televisions, with more sophisticated parsing of the change channel action. |
RB

> Our previous implementation of televisions ("Channel 1") doesn't allow the player to type things like TUNE FIFTIES TELEVISION TO CHANNEL 4 nor does it deal with player input like TUNE TO CHANNEL 4 ON FIFTIES TELEVISION or TUNE TO CHANNEL 4 where no television is specified. When we are designing commands which involve two elements (here, a television and a channel number), it's usually a good idea to allow the player to specify those elements in either order, as we saw demonstrated briefly in "New commands for old grammar". We might, therefore, want to add a few refinements: first by defining a "[channel]" token that will accept input of the forms "[number]" and "channel [number]", and second by creating some additional "Understand" lines that will accept variant versions of the player's input. "Channel 2" Section 1 - Televisions in General A television is a kind of device. A television has a number called the channel. Understand the channel property as referring to a television. Understand "channel" as a television. Changing the channel of it to is an action applying to one thing and one number. Understand "tune [television] to [channel]" or "change channel of [television] to [channel]" as changing the channel of it to. Understand "tune [something] to [channel]" or "change channel of [something] to [channel]" as changing the channel of it to. Understand "tune to [channel] on [television]" or "change to [channel] on [television]" as changing the channel of it to (with nouns reversed). Understand "tune to [channel] on [something]" or "change to [channel] on [something]" as changing the channel of it to (with nouns reversed). Understand "[number]" or "channel [number]" as "[channel]". Check changing the channel of something to: if the noun is not a television, say "[The noun] cannot be tuned to a channel." instead. Carry out changing the channel of something to: now the channel of the noun is the number understood. Report changing the channel of something to: say "You tune [the noun] to channel [number understood]." Instead of examining a television: if the noun is switched off, say "[The noun] is currently turned off." instead; let the chosen channel be the channel of the noun; if the chosen channel is a current channel listed in the Table of Television Channels: choose row with current channel of the chosen channel in the Table of Television Channels; say "[output entry][paragraph break]"; otherwise: say "Snow fills the screen of [the noun]." Table of Television Channels
> current channel | output
> 0 | "The screen of [the noun] is completely black."
> Section 2 - The Scenario The Office is a room. The widescreen TV is a television in the Office. The fifties TV is a television in the Office. And we add the scenario-specific content to our Table of Television Channels; in the case of channel 13, we provide for a changing sequence of events using text variations. Table of Television Channels (continued)
> current channel | output
> 4 | "A gloomy female news anchor describes the latest car bomb in Baghdad: 104 dead today, and no sign of change."
> 5 | "A couple of contestants in spangled scarlet outfits are performing an energetic paso doble."
> 13 | "[one of]On-screen, Ichiro is up to bat with one man on second and no outs.[or]Ichiro has singled to first and the other man is on third.[or]The next batter is in the middle of flying out.[or]Everything looks rosy until the men in black pull off a double-play and retire the side.[or]The channel has cut to a commercial.[stopping]"
Test me with "test one / test two". Test one with "change channel of fifties tv to 4 / x channel 4 / switch on fifties / x channel 4 / switch on widescreen / tune fifties tv to channel 5 / x channel 5 / x fifties tv / x channel 4". Test two with "tune to channel 13 / widescreen / tune channel 13 to channel 5 / tune channel 5 to channel 3 / widescreen / x channel 3".

306
| Example Tilt 1 A deck of cards with fully implemented individual cards, which can be separately drawn and discarded, and referred to by name. |
RB

307
| Example Terracottissima Maxima Flowerpots with textual names that might change during play. |
RB

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