A named action pattern is a categorisation of behaviour.

§1. Behaviour such as "acting suspiciously" is stored as a named action pattern, which is little more than a list of action patterns; a given action falls under this category if it matches one of the patterns.

typedef struct named_action_pattern {
    struct noun *as_noun;
    struct linked_list *patterns;  of action_pattern
    struct wording text_of_declaration;
    struct nap_compilation_data compilation_data;
    CLASS_DEFINITION
} named_action_pattern;

typedef struct named_action_pattern_entry {
    struct action_pattern *behaviour;
    struct parse_node *where_decided;
    CLASS_DEFINITION
} named_action_pattern_entry;

• The structure named_action_pattern is accessed in 4/ap, 4/anaa, 4/act, 4/as, 4/ann, 4/anl, 4/gng, 5/pp, 5/cg, 5/cgl, 5/ts, 6/db, 6/dl, 6/dc and here.
• The structure named_action_pattern_entry is private to this section.

§2. We are allowed to give names to certain kinds of behaviour by "characterising" an action.

void NamedActionPatterns::characterise(action_pattern *ap, wording W) {
    LOGIF(ACTION_PATTERN_PARSING, "Characterising the action:\n$A...as %W\n", ap, W);

    if (<article>(W)) {
        StandardProblems::sentence_problem(Task::syntax_tree(), _p_(PM_NamedAPIsArticle),
            "there's only an article here",
            "not a name, so I'm not sure what this action is supposed to be.");
        return;
    }

    if (APClauses::spec(ap, ACTOR_AP_CLAUSE)) {
        StandardProblems::sentence_problem(Task::syntax_tree(), _p_(PM_NamedAPWithActor),
            "behaviour characterised by named action patterns can only specify the action",
            "not the actor: as a result, it cannot include requests to other people to "
            "do things.");
        return;
    }

    NamedActionPatterns::add(ap, W);
}

§3. So, then, the following adds an action pattern to a NAP identified only by its name, W:

named_action_pattern *NamedActionPatterns::add?Usage of NamedActionPatterns::add:
§2
Parse Clauses - §3.4(action_pattern *ap, wording W) {
    named_action_pattern *nap = NamedActionPatterns::by_name(W);
    if (nap == NULL) nap = NamedActionPatterns::new(W);
    named_action_pattern_entry *nape = CREATE(named_action_pattern_entry);
    nape->behaviour = ap;
    nape->where_decided = current_sentence;
    ADD_TO_LINKED_LIST(nape, named_action_pattern_entry, nap->patterns);
    return nap;
}

named_action_pattern *NamedActionPatterns::by_name?Usage of NamedActionPatterns::by_name:
§4
Actions - §5(wording W) {
    parse_node *p = Lexicon::retrieve(NAMED_AP_MC, W);
    if (p) return ARvalues::to_named_action_pattern(p);
    return NULL;
}

named_action_pattern *NamedActionPatterns::new(wording W) {
    named_action_pattern *nap = CREATE(named_action_pattern);
    nap->patterns = NEW_LINKED_LIST(named_action_pattern_entry);
    nap->text_of_declaration = W;
    nap->compilation_data = RTNamedActionPatterns::new(nap);
    nap->as_noun = Nouns::new_proper_noun(W, NEUTER_GENDER, ADD_TO_LEXICON_NTOPT,
        NAMED_AP_MC, ARvalues::from_named_action_pattern(nap), Task::language_of_syntax());
    return nap;
}

§4. A Preform version of the parser-by-name:

<named-action-pattern> internal {
    named_action_pattern *nap = NamedActionPatterns::by_name(W);
    if (nap) {
        ==> { -, nap }; return TRUE;
    }
    ==> { fail nonterminal };
}

• This is Preform grammar, not regular C code.

§5. And here we test whether a given action name appears in a NAP, which it does if and only if it appears in one of the patterns in the list:

int NamedActionPatterns::covers_action?Usage of NamedActionPatterns::covers_action:
Action Name Lists - §14(named_action_pattern *nap, action_name *an) {
    named_action_pattern_entry *nape;
    if (nap)
        LOOP_OVER_LINKED_LIST(nape, named_action_pattern_entry, nap->patterns)
            if (ActionPatterns::covers_action(nape->behaviour, an))
                return TRUE;
    return FALSE;
}