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How to read this guide

Now that you've begun reading this guide, let me tell you how to read this guide! There have been several requests in the newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction for an "Inform for Dummies" manual. I thought I'd try my hand at writing one. As of the moment I created this page, I have known about Inform for a whopping two weeks. I am currently reading the Inform Designer's Manual (DM) for the second time. I hope to learn more about Inform through the writing of this guide, and I hope to teach others who would be lost reading a technical work like the DM.

This guide assumes you have no programming experience (because that's what people have asked for). It does assume you've played games like Zork, or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or even perhaps just Adventure (aka Colossal Caves), and that a statement like "GET THE GOLDEN AXE" doesn't make you think, "What kind of game is that?"

This guide will teach you how to program games in Inform. It will not teach you how to write games without programming, because I personally believe that is impossible.

Occasionally I will use a word that I think you may not know, at least as it relates to programming. I make these words bold to indicate that they may be looked up in the glossary. I will often go on to explain the word in that same chapter, but the glossary provides a compact reference of all the terms I consider important.

At other times I may feel that some extra information is necessary or interesting but that it doesn't belong in the main text. I will then create a [footnote]. You can click on the footnote and your browser will scroll it into view. Hit the Back button when you're done reading it.

Inform was created by an Englishman. He writes and spells like an Englishman. At times I will point out places where Americans must beware of spelling traps. This will be indicated with a US flag and the words "American Alert!"
US Flag American Alert!
(I made the flag myself. It's acceptable, but if anyone has a nicer one, please e-mail it to me. No animated GIFs of waving flags, please.)

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