9.2. Bags, Bottles, Boxes and Safes

| Chapter 9: Props: Food, Clothing, Money, Toys, Books, Electronics |

| 9.2. Bags, Bottles, Boxes and Safes

The kind "container" allows one thing to contain others. Things are sometimes containers automatically, sometimes by instruction:

> The match is in the matchbox. The bucket is a container.

The matchbox, like the bucket, is a container. Containers come in all sizes and have a variety of behaviours, mainly controlled by the properties we give them: they can be "open" or "closed", "opaque" or "transparent" (when closed), "openable" or not, "lockable" or not, "enterable" or not. The basic ideas of containment are to do with carrying and sometimes hiding the contents, and Inform makes this easy. Allowing for locking and unlocking is again straightforward:

> The strongbox is a locked container. The little steel key unlocks the strongbox.

For a container with a combination lock, rather than a key, see Safety; for a more sophisticated safe requiring digits dialed over multiple turns, see Eyes, Fingers, Toes.

Trachypachidae Maturin 1803 provides a bottle that is stoppered with a cork: when it is closed, the cork is part of the bottle, but otherwise the cork becomes a separate object we can carry around.

The normal assumption is that there is no problem with any two portable items being carried together, but in reality they may affect each other. (For effects like magnetism, or getting each other wet, or setting each other on fire, see the Physics chapter.) Here is a cat which, if boxed up with one or more items of food, will eat something each turn until all is gone:

> The player carries a wicker basket and a scarlet fish. The cat is an animal in the wicker basket. The fish is edible.

> Every turn when the cat is in a container (called the bag) and something edible (called the foodstuff) is in the bag:
> remove the foodstuff from play;
> say "With mingled sounds of mewing and chomping, the cat nibbles up [the foodstuff]."

The examples below provide subtler effects, adapting text to the current situation. In Cinco, the container's name changes depending on what it contains: putting beef in a taco allows the player to call it a SHREDDED BEEF TACO. In Unpeeled and Shipping Trunk, the description of something inside a container changes according to other things are alongside it. This is taken further in Hudsucker Industries, which describes the contents of a container as a group.

Finally, any action that destroys a container has to consider what to do with the things inside. Fallout Enclosure demonstrates a zapping action that destroys cash registers and shelves but leaves their contents tidily behind.

See Liquids for a SHAKE command that makes containers rattle when there are contents

See Glass and Other Damage-Prone Substances for opening containers by cutting into them

See Fire for fire damage that spreads between containers and their contents, leaving fireproof objects intact

See Volume, Height, Weight for containers breaking under the weight of their contents

See Heat for keeping things warm in insulated containers

See Furniture for chests with lids that can support other objects

See Modifying Existing Commands for ways to allow the player to unlock with a key he isn't currently holding

287
| Example Safety A safe whose dial can be turned with SPIN SAFE TO 1131, and which will open only with the correct combination. |
WI

421
| Example Eyes, Fingers, Toes A safe with a multi-number combination, meant to be dialed over multiple turns, is implemented using a log of the last three numbers dialed. The log can then be compared to the safe's correct combination. |
WI

It is not difficult to implement a safe which can be set to a single number to open; but a more common scenario in the real world is for the safe to open on a sequence of numbers when they have been dialed in the right order. For IF, this means that we have to keep running track of the last N digits the player has dialed, dropping the first digit and adding a new one to the end each time the player re-dials the safe. This is a perfect occasion for lists: "Eyes, Fingers, Toes" The Addams Wine Cellar is a room. It contains a closed lockable locked container called a safe. The safe has a list of numbers called the current combination. The safe has a list of numbers called the true combination. The true combination of the safe is {2, 10, 11}. Understand "set [something] to [a number]" as setting it numerically to. Setting it numerically to is an action applying to one thing and one number. Instead of examining the safe: if the number of entries in the current combination of the safe is 0, say "You haven't dialed the safe to any combination yet."; otherwise say "You have dialed the safe to [the current combination of the safe].". Check setting something numerically to (this is the block setting numerically rule): say "[The noun] cannot be set." Instead of setting the safe numerically to the number understood: truncate the current combination of the safe to the last 2 entries; add the number understood to the current combination of the safe; if the safe is locked and the current combination of the safe is the true combination of the safe: say "You dial [the number understood], and [the safe] gives a joyous CLICK."; now the safe is unlocked; otherwise if safe is unlocked and the safe is closed and the current combination of the safe is not the true combination of the safe: say "You spin the dial, and [the safe] snicks locked."; now the safe is locked; otherwise: say "You dial [the number understood] on the safe." Test me with "x safe / set safe to 10 / x safe / set safe to 29 / x safe / set safe to 2 / x safe / set safe to 10 / x safe / set safe to 11 / open safe / set safe to 14 / close safe / set safe to 15 / open safe".

327
| Example Trachypachidae Maturin 1803 Bottles with removable stoppers: when the stopper is in the bottle, the bottle is functionally closed, but the stopper can also be removed and used elsewhere. Descriptions of the bottle reflect its state intelligently. |
WI

309
| Example Cinco A taco shell that can be referred to (when it contains things) in terms of its contents. |
WI

326
| Example Shipping Trunk A box of baking soda whose name changes to "completely ineffective baking soda" when it is in a container with something that smells funny. |
WI

331
| Example Unpeeled Calling an onion "a single yellow onion" when (and only when) it is being listed as the sole content of a room or container. |
WI

329
| Example Hudsucker Industries Letters which are described differently as a group, depending on whether the player has read none, some, or all of them, and on whether they are alike or unlike. |
WI

59
| Example Fallout Enclosure Adding an enclosure kind that includes both containers and supporters in order to simplify text that would apply to both. |
WI

Previous | Contents | Next