Compiler Error Messages Table of Contents System Details

D HOW TO USE THE SYSTEM

D.1 Compiling

This version of the Alan Adventure Development System is a traditional batch compiler. This means that the actual development system is a compiler which reads text files created using any normal text editor. To compile an adventure use the following command in a command shell:

 
alan <adventure>

where <adventure> is the name of the main file containing your adventure source text. The compiler will add an extension, .alan (or .ala on PCs), if none is supplied. The option -help will give a brief help on other options to the compiler.

The output from the compiler, alan, is two files, an adventure code file adventure.acd, and an adventure data file, adventure.dat.

D.2 Compiler Switches

The compiler supports the following switches:

Giving an extra hyphen before the option reverses its meaning, e.g. --warnings means don't show warnings. Switches may be abbreviated.

D.3 Running the Adventure

To play the generated adventure the Alan interpreter, arun, is executed with the adventure name as a parameter.

 
arun <adventure>

No extension on the adventure name is allowed.

If the interpreter program is copied to a different name it will look for code and data files with the same name. Any parameters or switches will be ignored. For example, by copying the arun program to adventure the interpreter will, when started under the new name, directly look for the files adventure.acd and adventure.dat . The three files adventure , adventure.acd and adventure.dat thus makes a complete game package which is easy to start using the single command:

 
> adventure

D.4 Interpreter Switches

The interpreter supports the following switches:

In later versions an interactive development environment is envisioned but this is still far away. So you have to be content with the debugging support described in Debugging for now.

Compiler Error Messages Table of Contents System Details