§1. Whereas extensions are a familiar concept to most Inform users, "kits" are not. They provide what can be large bodies of pre-compiled material. As with extensions, different projects may use different sets of kits, but some are compulsory, and others nearly so. For an English-language work of interactive fiction being made with the Inform apps, the kits will be:
Architecture32Kit + BasicInformKit + EnglishLanguageKit + WorldModelKit + CommandParserKit
or perhaps Architecture16Kit instead of Architecture32Kit, depending on whether the project is being compiled to a 16-bit or a 32-bit platform.
However, if the "Basic Inform" checkbox is ticked on the Settings panel for the project, the kits will instead be:
Architecture32Kit + BasicInformKit + EnglishLanguageKit
And these are also the defaults when Inform projects are compiled from the command line, with the optional -basic switch forcing us into the second case.
It is possible to create new kits, and to choose different selections of kits to include. For documentation on how, see A Guide to Kits (in inbuild).
Architecture16Kit
A kit of Inter code providing runtime support for projects being compiled to 16-bit platforms, such as the Z-machine virtual machine via Inform 6.
Architecture32Kit
A kit of Inter code providing runtime support for projects being compiled to 32-bit platforms, such as the Glulx virtual machine via Inform 6, or to executables via C.
EnglishLanguageKit
A kit of Inter code providing runtime support for programs compiled with English as their natural language.
WorldModelKit
A kit of Inter code providing runtime support for interactive fiction projects with a simulated world.
CommandParserKit
A kit of Inter code providing runtime support for interactive fiction projects with a command parser interface.
DialogueKit
A kit of Inter code eventually to provide runtime support for dialogue, an experimental new feature of Inform which is not yet implemented.