Supplementary documentation
An alphabetical guide to Inform syntax (plain text file, 170KB). This A-Z of IF features, and how to obtain them using Inform 7, was compiled by Emily Short in February 2007.
Writing with Inform (plain text file, 1.7MB). The current documentation for Inform as a single file in plain text format.
Writing with Inform (zipped archive of minimally formatted HTML, 2.3MB). The current documentation for Inform as a single file in a form of HTML tagged as lightly as possible for the benefit of screen-reading software.
BNF grammar (PDF file, 108KB). A formal Backus-Naur form grammar for Inform 7, extracted mechanically from its source code. (This is technical in nature and probably not especially revealing, but several Inform users have asked for it.)
Support
Bug report form (plain text file, 4KB). The current release of Inform is a public beta, emerging from a long period of research: there will be bugs. Lots, probably. This is how to report them.
Source documentation
Appendix A: The Standard Rules (PDF file, 480KB). This is an annotated listing of the Standard Rules, the Inform 7 extension included in every compilation. It forms Appendix A of the literate-programming source code to Inform 7, which is being published in installments.
Appendix B: The Template Layer (PDF file, 1MB). This is an annotated listing of the Inform 6 code used at run-time to support Inform 7 story files: it is the I7 concept corresponding to the old Inform 6 library, though it is larger and differently organised.
History and future of Inform
January 2007 consultation document (plain text file, 70KB). In January 2007, we compiled together the many suggestions made by Inform 7’s users and tried to map out which we thought were likely to be accepted in future releases, and which we thought impractical. (The accepted proposals began to be implemented from build 4S08, in March 2007, and were completed in build 5T18, in April 2008: see the change log for details.)
Natural Language, Semantic Analysis and Interactive Fiction (PDF file, 336KB). An academic paper giving an account of the theoretical work underlying Inform 7, and explaining many of its design decisions.
SPAG interview (link). The authors of Inform talk about its history and development in issue 44 of the web-based magazine SPAG.
Getting started with interactive fiction
Brass Lantern (link). A selection of articles on all aspects of getting started with IF, from technical trouble-shooting to improving your playing experience.
Beginner's Guide to IF (link). A step-by-step guide to installing IF software and choosing games suitable for a novice player.
Finding interactive fiction to play
Baf's Guide (link). The best way to view the holdings of the Interactive Fiction archive and to select games for play. Baf's Guide to the IF Archive provides reviews and bibliographical information on thousands of games, and makes it easy to search for award-winning works.
IF Ratings (link). Another useful entry-point for players looking for IF to suit their tastes, categorizing games by genre and length of play.
SPAG (link). A web-based magazine, which has run since the early 1990s, and which contains editorials, interviews, and reviews of both commercial and freeware IF.
The medium and its history
The Craft of Adventure (PDF file, 500KB). Chapter 8 from the “DM4” (the Designer’s Manual for Inform 6, fourth edition) as a separate download: it’s not about Inform at all, but a 70pp monograph on the history and practice of what might now be called old-school adventure games.
The Wikipedia on IF (link). The Wikipedia contains what amounts to an excellent encyclopaedia on IF: what it is, the highlights of its cultural history, and so on. This is the main entry and a good jumping-off point.
Twisty Little Passages (link to Amazon.com). Nick Montfort’s book, published by the MIT Press, is kind enough to compare Inform to the invention of the printing press, but is otherwise sound. It’s a cultural history which approaches IF as a literary movement rooted in traditional puzzle-literature.
The Interactive Fiction community
rec.arts.int-fiction (link to Google Groups). The IF community continues to meet at Usenet newsgroups created in 1992, which are for anyone interested in IF, not only Inform users. RAIF’s companion newsgroup is rec.games.int-fiction, where specific titles are discussed.
IF Wiki (link). A wiki website about all things IF. Of particular use are the FAQ page and the pages cataloguing past discussion topics on the aforementioned newsgroups.
PARSIFAL (link). Roger Firth’s spectacular directory, People And Resource Summary - Interactive Fiction Authorship Links, a title which is right up there with the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. PARSIFAL is like this present page, only a lot more so.
Previous versions of Inform
The Inform 6 home page (link). Many people continue to use Inform 6, and since I6 is used by I7 as its code-generator, it remains supported: moreover, I7 extensions have the ability to interface directly with I6 code. So Inform 6 is by no means abandoned.
The Inform 6 Designer’s Manual, 4th Edition (link). The definitive reference material on I6, written by Graham Nelson, originally published by David Cornelson in 2001 and now something of a cult book. New paperback and hardback editions, published by Dan Sanderson, are now available at Amazon.
The Inform Beginner’s Guide (link). The charming and rather more accessible book about I6 by Roger Firth and Sonja Kesserich, which is now available both online and as a paperback from lulu.com. Like the DM4, it covers only Inform 6, not Inform 7.
The format of story files created by Inform
The Z-Machine Standards Document v1.1 (link). The Z-machine is a virtual machine for IF originally designed by Joel Berez and Marc Blank in 1979, and may well be the oldest VM still in use (predating the PostScript printing engine by five years). The current version is 1.1, accepted in September 2005.
The Treaty of Babel (link). A cross-platform agreement for bibliographic data and cover art for interactive fiction story files, to which Inform is a signatory.
The Blorb standard, v2.0 (link). Blorb is a wrapper format for IF, created by Andrew Plotkin in 2000. Whereas development of I7 has not led to changes in the Z-machine specification, experience of using I7 to create blorbs has led to significant extensions here.
Inform 7 for interpreter writers (plain text file, 8KB). Inform 7 compiles standard Z-machine story files, but it wraps them in the Blorb format; also, minor adjustments to existing interpreters are likely to enable them better to handle complex Inform 7-generated story files. Here are the details.
