Fido

Example 419

★

A dog the player can name and un-name at will.

Suppose we'd like to have a dog which the player is allowed to name himself. We'd like to deal correctly with both

>name the dog fido

and

>name the dog "fido"

so we'll also need to strip quotation marks out of the command. We can do this as follows:

Play/modify in Borogove

Play in Quixe

"Fido"

The Back Yard is a room.

A dog is an animal in Back Yard. The dog has some text called the nickname. The nickname of the dog is "nothing". Understand the nickname property as describing the dog.

Rule for printing the name of the dog when the nickname of the dog is not "nothing":

say "[nickname of the dog]"

Naming it with is an action applying to one thing and one topic. Understand "name [something] [text]" as naming it with. Check naming it with: say "You can't name that."

Instead of naming the dog with "nothing":

now the nickname of the dog is "nothing";

now the dog is improper-named;

say "You revoke your choice of dog-name."

Instead of naming the dog with something:

let N be "[the topic understood]";

replace the text "'" in N with "";

now the nickname of the dog is "[N]";

now the dog is proper-named;

say "The dog is now known as [nickname of the dog]."

Test me with "name the dog Fido / name the dog Lawrence / look / x lawrence / name Lawrence nothing / look / x lawrence".

Back Yard
You can see a dog here.

>(Testing.)

>[1] name the dog fido
The dog is now known as fido.

>[2] name the dog lawrence
The dog is now known as lawrence.

>[3] look
Back Yard
You can see lawrence here.

>[4] x lawrence
You see nothing special about lawrence.

>[5] name lawrence nothing
You revoke your choice of dog-name.

>[6] look
Back Yard
You can see a dog here.

>[7] x lawrence
You can't see any such thing.