3.7. Properties depend on kind

| Chapter 3: Things |

| 3.7. Properties depend on kind

Properties depend very much on kind. It makes no sense to ask whether a room is transparent or opaque, for instance, so Inform will not allow this either to be specified or queried.

Another way that kind influences properties can be seen from an earlier example:

> The Gazebo is a room. A billiards table is in the Gazebo. On it is a trophy cup. A starting pistol is in the cup.

The cup, the pistol and the table are all allowed to have the "fixed in place" property, but in fact only the table actually has it: the cup and the pistol are created as "portable" instead. This is because Inform knows that most things are portable, but that supporters - such as the table - are usually fixed in place. If this assumption is wrong, we need only add the line:

> The table is portable.

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| Example Disenchantment Bay 1 A running example in this chapter, Disenchantment Bay, involves chartering a boat. This is the first step: creating the cabin. |
RB

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