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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:

"[Those]" or "[those]"
"[Possessive]" or "[possessive]"

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:

"[those in the nominative]"
"[Those in the accusative]"


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arrow-left.png Back to §14.5. Adapting text referring to other things
arrow-right.png Onward to §14.7. Can, could, may, might, must, should, would

*ExampleOlfactory Settings
Some adaptive text for smelling the flowers, or indeed, anything else.