Access to the keyboard and to textual windows.

§1. Transcript support. This is a mode in which the transcript of text in the main window is being written out to an external file.

VM_TranscriptIsOn tests whether this mode is on. VM_TranscriptOn should be called only if it is off, and tries to turn it on, returning true or false according to whether or not it succeeds. VM_TranscriptOff should be called only if scripting is on. 

[ VM_TranscriptIsOn;
    return ((HDR_GAMEFLAGS-->0) & 1);
];

[ VM_TranscriptOn;
    @output_stream 2;
    return VM_TranscriptIsOn();
];

[ VM_TranscriptOff;
    @output_stream -2;
    if (VM_TranscriptIsOn()) rfalse;
    rtrue;
];

§2. Dictionary Parameters. Each word in the dictionary data structure has two metadata fields, known for traditional Inform 6 reasons as "dictionary parameters 1 and 2". Number 1 is a bitmap: some of the higher bits are written by the I6 compiler only when certain compile options are set, but they will be for the code which I7 generates. Bit 6 is currently never written by I6; bit 5, marking singular nouns, is never used by this parser.

(For speed reasons, reading of DICTPAR1_NOUN and DICTPAR1_PREP is done directly by ParserKit rather than by calling functions here.) 

Constant #dict_par1 = 6;
Constant #dict_par2 = 7;

Constant DICTPAR1_VERB = 1;
Constant DICTPAR1_META = 2;
Constant DICTPAR1_PLURAL = 4;
Constant DICTPAR1_PREP = 8;
Constant DICTPAR1_SING = 16;
Constant DICTPAR1_BIT6 = 32;
Constant DICTPAR1_TRUNC = 64;
Constant DICTPAR1_NOUN = 128;

[ WordMarkedAsVerb w;
    if ((w) && ((w->#dict_par1) & DICTPAR1_VERB)) rtrue;
    rfalse;
];

[ WordMarkedAsMeta w;
    if ((w) && ((w->#dict_par1) & DICTPAR1_META)) rtrue;
    rfalse;
];

[ WorkMarkedAsUntruncatedPlural w b;
    if (w) {
        b = w->#dict_par1;
        if (b & DICTPAR1_TRUNC) rfalse;
        if (b & DICTPAR1_PLURAL) rtrue;
    }
    rfalse;
];

§3. Extracting Verb Numbers. Infocom games stored verb numbers in a single byte in dictionary entries, but they did so counting downwards, so that verb number 0 was stored as 255, 1 as 254, and so on. Inform followed suit so that debugging of Inform 1 could be aided by using the then-available tools for dumping dictionaries from Infocom story files; by using the Infocom format for dictionary tables, Inform's life was easier. 

[ DictionaryWordToVerbNum w;
    return $ff-(w->#dict_par2);
];

§4. Variables and Arrays. 

Global xcommsdir; true if command recording is on

Constant INPUT_BUFFER_LEN = 120; Length of buffer array

Array  buffer    -> 123;            Buffer for parsing main line of input
Array  buffer2   -> 123;            Buffers for supplementary questions
Array  buffer3   -> 123;            Buffer retaining input for "again"
Array  parse     buffer 63;         Parse table mirroring it
Array  parse2    buffer 63;         

Global dict_start;
Global dict_entry_size;
Global dict_end;

§5. Dictionary words. This tests whether an address is probably that of a dictionary word. It's used only for debugging output, so the false positives here (where an address is in the dictionary table, but mid-word) really do not matter. 

[ VM_ProbablyDictionaryAddress addr;
    if (UnsignedCompare(addr, HDR_DICTIONARY-->0) >= 0 &&
        UnsignedCompare(addr, HDR_HIGHMEMORY-->0) < 0) rtrue;
    rfalse;
];

§6. Keyboard Input. The VM must provide three routines for keyboard input:

There are elaborations to due with mouse clicks, but this isn't the place to document all of that. 

[ VM_KeyChar win  key;
    if (win) @set_window win;
    @read_char 1 -> key;
    return key;
];

[ VM_KeyDelay tenths  key;
    @read_char 1 tenths VM_KeyDelay_Interrupt -> key;
    return key;
];
[ VM_KeyDelay_Interrupt; rtrue; ];

[ VM_ReadKeyboard a_buffer a_table ix;
    read a_buffer a_table;
    for ( ix = 2 : ix <= (a_buffer->1) + 1 : ix++ )
        if (((a_buffer->ix) < 32) || ((a_buffer->ix) == 160)) a_buffer->ix = 32;
];

§7. Buffer Functions. A "buffer", in this sense, is an array containing a stream of characters typed from the keyboard; a "parse buffer" is an array which resolves this into individual words, pointing to the relevant entries in the dictionary structure. Because each VM has its own format for each of these arrays (not to mention the dictionary), we have to provide some standard operations needed by the rest of the template as routines for each VM.

The Z-machine buffer and parse buffer formats are documented in the DM4.

VM_CopyBuffer(to, from) copies one buffer into another.

VM_Tokenise(buff, parse_buff) takes the text in the buffer buff and produces the corresponding data in the parse buffer parse_buff — this is called tokenisation since the characters are divided into words: in traditional computing jargon, such clumps of characters treated syntactically as units are called tokens.

LTI_Insert is documented in the DM4 and the LTI prefix stands for "Language To Informese": it's used only by translations into non-English languages of play. 

[ VM_CopyBuffer bto bfrom i;
    for (i=0: i<INPUT_BUFFER_LEN: i++) bto->i = bfrom->i;
];

[ VM_PrintToBuffer buf len a b c;
    @output_stream 3 buf;
    switch (metaclass(a)) {
        String: print (string) a;
        Routine: a(b, c);
        Object, Class: if (b) PrintOrRun(a, b, true); else print (name) a;
    }
    @output_stream -3;
    if (buf-->0 > len) print "Error: Overflow in VM_PrintToBuffer.^";
    return buf-->0;
];

[ VM_Tokenise b p; b->(2 + b->1) = 0; @tokenise b p; ];

[ LTI_Insert i ch  b y;
    Protect us from strict mode, as this isn't an array in quite the
    sense it expects
    b = buffer;

    Insert character ch into buffer at point i.
    Being careful not to let the buffer possibly overflow:
    y = b->1;
    if (y > b->0) y = b->0;

    Move the subsequent text along one character:
    for (y=y+2 : y>i : y--) b->y = b->(y-1);
    b->i = ch;

    And the text is now one character longer:
    if (b->1 < b->0) (b->1)++;
];

§8. Dictionary Functions. Again, the dictionary structure is differently arranged on the different VMs. This is a data structure containing, in compressed form, the text of all the words to be recognised by tokenisation (above). In I6 for Z, a dictionary word value is represented at run-time by its record number in the dictionary, 0, 1, 2, ..., in alphabetical order.

VM_InvalidDictionaryAddress(A) tests whether A is a valid record address in the dictionary data structure.

VM_DictionaryAddressToNumber(A) and VM_NumberToDictionaryAddress(N) convert between record numbers and dictionary addresses. 

[ VM_InvalidDictionaryAddress addr;
    if ((UnsignedCompare(addr, dict_start) < 0) ||
        (UnsignedCompare(addr, dict_end) >= 0) ||
        ((addr - dict_start) % dict_entry_size ~= 0)) rtrue;
    rfalse;
];

[ VM_DictionaryAddressToNumber w; return (w-(HDR_DICTIONARY-->0 + 7))/DICT_ENTRY_BYTES; ];
[ VM_NumberToDictionaryAddress n; return HDR_DICTIONARY-->0 + 7 + DICT_ENTRY_BYTES*n; ];

§9. Command Tables. The VM is also generated containing a data structure for the grammar produced by I6's Verb and Extend directives: this is essentially a list of command verbs such as DROP or PUSH, together with a list of synonyms, and then the grammar for the subsequent commands to be recognised by the parser. 

[ VM_CommandTableAddress i;
    return (HDR_STATICMEMORY-->0)-->i;
];

[ VM_PrintCommandWords i da j;
    da = HDR_DICTIONARY-->0;
    for (j=0 : j<(da+5)-->0 : j++)
        if (da->(j*DICT_ENTRY_BYTES + 14) == $ff-i)
            print "'", (address) VM_NumberToDictionaryAddress(j), "' ";
];

§10. Action functions. This looks up the address of a function like TakeSub from the table of "action subroutines". 

[ VM_ActionFunction act;
    return #actions_table-->act;
];

§11. The Screen. Our generic screen model is that the screen is made up of windows: we tend to refer only to two of these, the main window and the status line, but others may also exist from time to time. Windows have unique ID numbers: the special window ID \(-1\) means "all windows" or "the entire screen", which usually amounts to the same thing.

Screen height and width are measured in characters, with respect to the fixed-pitch font used for the status line. The main window normally contains variable-pitch text which may even have been kerned, and character dimensions make little sense there.

Clearing all windows (WIN_ALL here) has the side-effect of collapsing the status line, so we need to ensure that statuswin_cursize is reduced to 0, in order to keep it accurate. 

[ VM_ClearScreen window;
    switch (window) {
        WIN_ALL:    @erase_window -1; statuswin_cursize = 0;
        WIN_STATUS: @erase_window 1;
        WIN_MAIN:   @erase_window 0;
    }
];

[ VM_ScreenWidth  width charw; return (HDR_SCREENWCHARS->0); ];

[ VM_ScreenHeight; return (HDR_SCREENHLINES->0); ];

§12. Window Colours. Each window can have its own foreground and background colours.

The colour of individual letters or words of type is not controllable in Glulx, to the frustration of many, and so the template layer of I7 has no framework for handling this (even though it is controllable on the Z-machine, which is greatly superior in this respect). 

[ VM_SetWindowColours f b window;
    if (clr_on && f && b) {
        if (window == 0) {  if setting both together, set reverse
            clr_fgstatus = b;
            clr_bgstatus = f;
            }
        if (window == 1) {
            clr_fgstatus = f;
            clr_bgstatus = b;
        }
        if (window == 0 or 2) {
            clr_fg = f;
            clr_bg = b;
        }
        if (statuswin_current)
            @set_colour clr_fgstatus clr_bgstatus;
        else
            @set_colour clr_fg clr_bg;
    }
];

[ VM_RestoreWindowColours; compare I6 library patch L61007
    if (clr_on) { check colour has been used
        VM_SetWindowColours(clr_fg, clr_bg, 2); make sure both sets of variables are restored
        VM_SetWindowColours(clr_fgstatus, clr_bgstatus, 1, true);
        VM_ClearScreen();
    }
];

§13. Main Window. The part of the screen on which commands and responses are printed, which ordinarily occupies almost all of the screen area.

VM_MainWindow() switches printing back from another window, usually the status line, to the main window. Note that the Z-machine implementation emulates the Glulx model of window rather than text colours. 

[ VM_MainWindow;
    if (statuswin_current) {
        if (clr_on && clr_bgstatus > 1) @set_colour clr_fg clr_bg;
        else style roman;
        @set_window 0;
    }
    statuswin_current = false;
];

§14. Status Line. Despite the name, the status line need not be a single line at the top of the screen: that's only the conventional default arrangement. It can expand to become the equivalent of an old-fashioned VT220 terminal, with menus and grids and mazes displayed lovingly in character graphics, or it can close up to invisibility.

VM_StatusLineHeight(n) sets the status line to have a height of n lines of type. (The width of the status line is always the width of the whole screen, and the position is always at the top, so the height is the only controllable aspect.) The \(n=0\) case makes the status line disappear.

VM_MoveCursorInStatusLine(x, y) switches printing to the status line, positioning the "cursor" — the position at which printing will begin — at the given character grid position \((x, y)\). Line 1 represents the top line; line 2 is underneath, and so on; columns are similarly numbered from 1 at the left. 

[ VM_MoveCursorInStatusLine line column; 1-based position on text grid
    if (~~statuswin_current) {
         @set_window 1;
         if (clr_on && clr_bgstatus > 1) @set_colour clr_fgstatus clr_bgstatus;
         else                            style reverse;
    }
    if (line == 0) {
        line = 1;
        column = 1;
    }
    @set_cursor line column;
    statuswin_current = true;
];

[ VM_StatusLineHeight height  wx wy x y charh;
    if (statuswin_cursize ~= height)
        @split_window height;
    statuswin_cursize = height;
];