inform621_wince_mips.zip Inform 6.21 for Windows CE MIPS, ported by David Batterham This is a quick-and-dirty port of Inform to Windows CE. This build runs only on devices which use the MIPS CPU (eg. the Cassiopeia series). Inform is a programming language for interactive fiction, written by and (c) Graham Nelson. For more information on Inform, see http://www.gnelson.demon.co.uk/inform.html This port has only been tested on a Cassiopeia E-10, but should work with all MIPS HPCs, PalmPCs and PocketPCs running Windows CE 2.0 or later. It may work on CE 1.x, but I haven't tried. INSTALLATION WinCE Inform is happiest if it lives in the folder "/Storage Card/Program Files/Inform" on your CE device. You can safely create a folder named "Storage Card" even if you don't have an actual storage card. If you have no "Program Files" folder within "Storage Card", you'll need to create that as well, and an "Inform" folder within it. Then, copy ALL the files from the zip archive into the "Inform" folder on your CE device, create a shortcut to the file "inform.exe" and place it in your "/Windows/Start Menu/Programs". If you install the compiler or libraries in a different location, Inform will be unable to locate the library files, unless you explicitly specify the library path using ICL (see below). This is because Windows CE does not have any concept of a "working directory" or "current folder". USING WINDOWS CE INFORM WinCE Inform has very little in the way of user interface - you choose a .inf or .icl file, and a message box tells you whether Inform was successful. Compile time is quite reasonable - on a low-end Cassiopeia E-10, Advent.inf compiles in around 30 seconds. Using ICL files is highly recommended, since this will give you access to all the features of the Inform Command Language. You'll need a basic understanding of ICL to get the most out of this port. Make sure your ICL files have a .icl extension, because all other files will be treated as source files. Without ICL, Inform may put your compiled z-code files in strange places and display other weird behaviour. To avoid this, you should always use an ICL file such as: -U compile "/My Documents/Games/mygame.inf" "/My Documents/Games/mygame.z5" All Inform's warning and error messages are saved to the file "informout.txt" (in "My Documents"), which you can read with a text editor or viewer. They are not displayed on the screen, so you will need to open this file for compiler messages. For your convenience, compiled versions of the library modules "parserm" and "verblibm" are included. Using compiled modules will make your Inform code compile faster. To take advantage of this, you need to use the "-U" switch in your ICL file. For optimal performance, you should turn turn module mode on with -U and leave temporary files OFF. You may need to turn temporary files on (-F1) if you need to compile a very large game and have more storage memory than program memory. I suggest using the following software in combination with WinCE Inform: - A z-code interpreter, such as ZipCE or FrotzCE, so you can test the games you compile - A text file viewer or pager, so you can browse "informout.txt" while keeping your source file open in an editor - A file explorer (if you version of WinCE doesn't have one built-in), so you can move/copy/rename files. KNOWN PROBLEMS - On some WinCE devices, .inf and .icl files will not be displayed in the "Open" dialog box when you have the default "Inform files (*.inf, *.icl)" option selected. If this is the case on your device, simply choose the "All files (*.*)" option. - WinCE Inform has problems with DOS-style pathnames (containing "\"). Fortunately you can use Unix-style pathnames (containing "/") instead. - The "Inform succeeded" message box displayed when Inform exits can be misleading; you should interpret it to mean "Inform has processed your entire source file and exited normally, but might have failed to compile due to errors in your code". You should check the inform.out file to make sure. In contrast, "Compile failed" always means "Inform exited abnormally, without processing your entire source file, because there were too many errors". - If you have other programs open, you may need to go to the desktop to see the message box appear. Don't worry if the desktop doesn't appear immediately; it will appear as soon as Inform has finished compiling your source file. Enjoy. Feel free to e-mail me comments or questions specific to the Windows CE port. For help with the Inform language itself, consult the Inform Designers Manual.