
Infocom's ZIL programming language user's guide (1989) [pdf] - gnosis
http://www.xlisp.org/zil.pdf
======
sp332
If you want to see how the tools have progressed, check out Inform 7.
<http://inform7.com/> The IDE has features that automate playthroughs, like
integration tests. The I7 language itself is an excellent, extensible DSL.

~~~
ConstantineXVI
To be clear, Inform isn't related to ZIL other than both targeting the
Z-machine.

~~~
sp332
Right, Graham Nelson reverse-engineered the Z-machine, and wrote the Inform
language to target it. Versions 1-6 were more cryptic DSLs
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inform_7#Example_game> whereas Inform 7 reads
like plain English <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inform_7#Example_game_2>

Edit: ok several mistakes in a small paragraph :) Nelson didn't solely
reverse-engineer the z-machine, and Inform 1-5 were quite different from v6.

~~~
AimHere
I think the credit for the reverse engineering of the Z-machine goes to a lot
more people than merely Graham Nelson. Nelson himself only claims 'a few
pieces of the Jigsaw' in the Z-machine standards, at [http://www.inform-
fiction.org/zmachine/standards/z1point0/in...](http://www.inform-
fiction.org/zmachine/standards/z1point0/index.html) . He is the main man
behind Inform, of course (and I reckon that his collaborator for Inform 7,
Emily Short, is just his pseudonym too...)

~~~
msbarnett
Emily Short has appeared at a number of interactive fiction panels and the
like. She's definitely a real, and very talented, person, and in a Male-
centric field, it's somewhat insulting to see people assuming that she must
just be a man's pseudonym.

~~~
sp332
First, it's a joke. Second, it's a compliment to both of them because they are
_only_ alike in being top-notch writers and programmers. It's like comparing
Hammet to Chandler, not Shakespeare to Milton.

------
Rudism
My earliest computer gaming memories are of playing Zork with a friend on his
C64. Good games and good times! I wonder if the yung'uns of today will look
back on their Xbox live or MMOG multiplayer sessions with as much nostalgia.

~~~
WalterGR
_I wonder if the yung'uns of today will look back on their Xbox live or MMOG
multiplayer sessions with as much nostalgia._

They will, just as our parents look back at the games of their youth with
similar nostalgia.

------
comatose_kid
I worked with David a long while back at VM Labs - fun times, and my first
introduction to people who used and liked lisp.

