Chapter 5: Text
5.9. Making new substitutions

If we have some textual effect which needs to occur in several different messages, we might want to create a new text substitution for it. For instance:

The Missile Base is a room. "[security notice]Seems to be a futuristic missile base." M's Office is east of the Missile Base. "[security notice]Admiral Sir M.- M.- glares up from his desk."

To say security notice:
    say "This area is a Prohibited Place within the meaning of the Official Secrets Act 1939. "

This is only the tip of the iceberg in how to define ways to do things using "To...", as we shall see. The definition makes "say the security notice" a new phrase known to Inform. A text substitution is exactly a phrase whose name begins with "say" (well - except for the "say" phrase itself), so the effect is that "[security notice]" is a new text substitution. Several of the examples in this chapter make use of this trick.


55
 Example  Fifty Ways to Leave Your Larva
Using text substitution to make characters reply differently under the same circumstances.

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 Example  Fifty Times Fifty Ways
Writing your own rules for how to carry out substitutions.


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