From: jcm...@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Joe Mason) Subject: [ZMachine] Interpreter for Linux Date: 1998/09/03 Message-ID: < Eyq8D5.67L@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 387665954 Sender: ne...@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) Organization: University of Waterloo Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction Wow, looks like we've got a lot of Linux people here. I think its about time we got the Linux interpreters up to par with the DOS/Windows ones. So here's where we stand right now: Console - Frotz works for most things, but doesn't support sound or graphics. The recent push-the-boundaries ZMachine Abuse (SameGame, I believe?) pointed out some problems with colour, etc. that the DOS version doesn't have, though. The v6 features and sound are implemented in the main Frotz code, but call OS-dependent routines which are stubs at the moment. X - Zarf's XZip looks very nice (especially once you get used to the split-off status line, which I hated at first but actually prefer now). It's missing a few things which I would consider necessary in a GUI, though, like dialogue boxes for Save/Restore. Also missing everything Frotz is, but (if I'm not mistaken) there are no entry points for it in the basic Zip code, so it would be tougher to graft on then in Frotz. Here's what's in progress: KFrotz, which will require the QT toolkit. I'd prefer to have a separate version which doesn't require this kit as well. XGlk, which Zarf just mentioned he's starting on, and should make things easier to port in the future. So here's what we need to do: 1) Get the console version of Frotz to work right with SameGame. This should make sure it handles the colour and mouse stuff correctly. Also, check it for compliance with other character sets (I believe SameGame does this too). 2) Get sound to work with console Frotz. (Possibly graphics as well, using SVGAlib). 3) Get a good graphical interpreter which supports V6. I think it would probably be better to port Frotz to X instead of working to extend XZip. For 1 and 2 - who's maintaining Unix Frotz right now (anybody?) If not, do we have a volunteer to do either or both of these? For 3 - I think our best bet would be to wait for XGlk, and then use that to create XFrotz. Zarf - need anyone to help you with XGlk? As for features of the X interpreter, I think it should (like WinFrotz) allow Save/Restore/Restart/etc. from the menus, to avoid having to go back to the command line and restart the thing every time. Also, as long as we're doing all this, might as well make it Blorb compliant, huh? Now, I'd be willing to help with some of this, but I don't know how much time I'll have. I'm already looking at Rumil's Inscribe, which I haven't gotten a chance to look at for weeks now, but which I expect to take up a lot of my playing-around-on-my-own-time time once I get some. Also, I've never done anything in X. Is there anyone with more experience (and, more importantly, more free time) who'd like to work on any of this? Is there anybody who's already working on any of this? Joe -- I think OO is great... It's no coincidence that "woohoo" contains "oo" twice. -- GLYPH
From: Alizari Petrofsky <Ali...@Petrofsky.Berkeley.CA.US> Subject: Re: [ZMachine] Interpreter for Linux Date: 1998/09/04 Message-ID: <871zpr13xe.fsf@app.dial.idiom.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 388086555 References: <Eyq8D5.67L@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Organization: The Vegetable Liberation Front Mime-Version: 1.0 (generated by tm-edit 7.106) Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction jcm...@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Joe Mason) writes: > I think its about time > we got the Linux interpreters up to par with the DOS/Windows ones. > > Console - Frotz works for most things, but doesn't support sound or graphics. > The recent push-the-boundaries ZMachine Abuse (SameGame, I believe?) pointed > out some problems with colour, etc. that the DOS version doesn't have, though. > The v6 features and sound are implemented in the main Frotz code, but call > OS-dependent routines which are stubs at the moment. My working version of unix-frotz has improved graphics stubs which make all four infocom v6 titles playable. I use the same logic as in dumb-frotz to scale pictures to the character-cell grid and display them as boxes using the curses box-drawing characters. I sent diffs to Galen Hazelwood a couple months ago. If anyone else wants them, just ask. > X - Zarf's XZip looks very nice ... You forgot the most important category of unix user interfaces: emacs. For now the best way to play Z-games in emacs is to run dumb-frotz in a shell buffer, but I'm working on the design of a Z interpreter written entirely in emacs lisp. I hope to start coding in earnest in November (when I'll have some time off), and release something next year. I have a few neat feature ideas about which I'm very excited. I'd say more about them but the descriptions won't fit in the margin of this email. Suffice it to say that, similar to emacs itself, the interpreter will have undo features going far beyond those of its competitors. It will also be extremely slow and memory-intensive. Wa-hoo! (Or is that "BWWAHAHAHA!"?) It's also quite likely never to get off the drawing board, of course. -al