if-resources

(by Peer Schaefer, peer@wolldingwacht.de)

recept.h: Clever containers for Inform 6.21

Alpha-testing one of my games I discovered that it was possible to put a vacuum-cleaner into a purse. That told me two things: (1) To be an alpha- oder beta-tester you have to be absolutely nuts. (2) Containers should be aware of volume, size and weight.

I hacked something out and think it works satisfactory now. It's now ready for beta-testing and has the following features:

• Objects can provide the following three new properties: weight, volume, size
• Containers can provide the following three new properties: capacity_weight, capacity_volume, capacity_size
• If one dimension (weight, volume or size) of an object is greater than the respective capacity of the container, the object can't be stored in that container.
• Volume and weight of objects in a container are automatically added up (you can override this; see documentation).
• The weight of childrens (objects inside an object) is automatically added to the weight of an object that is a container.
• All six new properties can be a numerical value or a routine that returns a numerical value. In this way you can set a dimension/capacity to a constant, but you can also create sophisticated mathematical routines (by this you could e.g. create magical bags that weigh less than their contents).
• Notice: weight and volume need no explanation. Size is the maximum length in any direction. In example, a walking-staff has a low volume and weight, but a great length (= size). Vice-versa a quiver for arrows can hold anly a small volume and weight, but can store many long arrows.

Full documentation (with four examples) is included in the file.

OK, OK, it's no masterwork. It's a relatively simple and small library contribution. Some of you cool programmers out there might even consider it to be trivial. But it's complex enough to confuse a dull programmer like me, and large enough to contain some bugs.

An here are the downloads:

• recept.h (the Inform621 header file, ASCII-format)
• recept.hqx (the same, in BinHexed ASCII)

Bug-reports, suggestions, corrections of my bad english (or just congratulations) are welcome! Send to Peer Schaefer, peer@wolldingwacht.de.

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