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§14.6. Adapting demonstratives and possessives
Consider the following message: how might we make this adaptive?
> MEASURE TOP SHELF
You really are not tall enough to reach that.
The verbal part is easy enough, but "that" needs a new feature.
"[We] really [are not] tall enough to reach [regarding the noun][those]."
This could then adapt to, say,
> MEASURE JAM TARTS
He really was not tall enough to reach those.
Notice that it's "[regarding the noun][those]", not just "[those]". If we wrote "[those]", Inform would make it agree with the player, who was printed earlier in the sentence by the "[We]".
Lastly, how about:
> PUT TEAPOT IN MOUSEHOLE
The teapot's height is just too great.
This time we want:
"[regarding the noun][Possessive] height [are] just too great."
which might adapt to, say,
Our height is just too great.
Alice's height will be just too great.
Actually, "[regarding ...]" can be used for a description of possibly many items, too. For example:
Every turn when the player carries something:
say "Every possession is a worry. I wonder if [regarding things carried by the player][they] still [look] okay in your pocket?"
So if the player carries just a single coin, say, this automatically becomes:
Every possession is a worry. I wonder if it still looks okay in your pocket?
but if the player carries a pair of scissors (a single plural-named item) or a coin and an iPhone, it becomes:
Every possession is a worry. I wonder if they still look okay in your pocket?
Once again these text substitutions are available in capitalised and uncapitalised forms:
In fact "[Those]" and "[those]" do subtly different things, besides the capital letter, because "[Those]" expects to be the subject of the sentence and "[those]" the object, and this makes a difference if the noun in question is a person. If the noun is an odious person called Tilly then
"[regarding the noun][Those] is unacceptable."
"You've never liked [regarding the noun][those]."
would come out as "She is unacceptable" - so "[Those]" becomes "She" - but "You've never liked her" - so "[those]" becomes "her". If we need these in different cases, we can explicitly ask for that:
