Alan Interactive Fiction Language

Adventure Writing for Everyone

FEATURE: There was no way to print $500, as that was interpreted as a symbol.
BUGFIX: There was no way to create synonym for 'the'.
BUGFIX: Compiler did not adhere to "Option Debug." in the source.
BUGFIX: You could say "Container Taking <x>" without warnings or errors even if the class <x> was not allowed in container (actors and locations).
BUGFIX: Description Checks was not respected when auto-listing instances at a location.
BUGFIX: Improved error handling for syntax errors in names, which previously could cause a System Error.

FEATURE: compiler now figures out the most general class taken transitively by containers and uses that instead of entity where applicable
FEATURE: MacOS application to run text-only interpreter in a terminal
BUGFIX: if the hero was already defined as something other than an actor, declaring it the compiler crashed
CLEANUP: corrected implementation of transitivity
CLEANUP: rebuilt Makefiles for building on Windows10 and 64-bit, continuous integration with Jenkins etc. etc. after move to new machines and other infrastructure

Details: Written by Administrator; Last Updated: 02 October 2016; Hits: 1965

MAJOR FEATURE: 'Indirectly' keyword to complement 'Directly In', allowing explicit transitivity of containment, see the manual
FEATURE: The hero is now a container by default
FEATURE: The hero may inherit from any subclass of actor
FEATURE: Actor scripts are now aborted if an error, such as an extraction failure, occurs
FEATURE: Debugger shows symbolic name of events when tracing
FEATURE: WinAlan now generates the output file in the correct directory if a source file is dropped on the WinAlan icon
BUGFIX: Locating something inside itself hanged the interpreter, now generates controlled Application Error
BUGFIX: For Each loops with In-filters did not take transitivity into account, might now detect more errors
BUGFIX: Initial locations in containers did not consider the Taking <class> of the container
BUGFIX: Debugger section trace crashed on verb bodies in locations

Details: Written by Administrator; Last Updated: 23 December 2014; Hits: 1871

MAJOR FEATURE: the class of parameters and locals can now be asserted using If .. Isa .. allowing general restrictions in parameter restrictions and more specific access (attributes, scripts, containers) with the If-statement
FEATURE: Attributes inherited from entity can now be referenced for literals
FEATURE: Debugger now has a command to toggle a levels of trace off and on
FEATURE: Debugger now lists the programmer name of instances as well as the player name
FEATURE: Debugger can now list instances matching a wildcard pattern ("instance a*")
FEATURE: Compiler now flags all occurrences of a multiply defined identifier
BUGFIX: Out of memory error in interpreter for very large game fixed
BUGFIX: sometimes locating a location At itself crashed the interpreter
BUGFIX: comparing strings with '<>' did not work
BUGFIX: using a location identifier as a direction sometimes caused a compiler crash
BUGFIX: A DEBUG message would be printed in some games in some circumstances

Details: Written by Administrator; Last Updated: 27 December 2013; Hits: 1798

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"Alan definitely met my expectations. I was able to create two pretty large, complex games with no prior programming experience."

Byron Campbell

Changes in Alan V3.0beta6