The new version of Gargoyle is out! Features include: two new OS ports; new Glk API functions; Treaty of Babel support; Bocfel, the new Z-Machine interpreter; and ScottFree, an interpreter for Scott Adams games.
Thanks again to everyone who has submitted bug reports, sent me patches, or contributed to the discussions on the project mailing list. I’ve tried to include you all on the following credits page; please let me know right away if I’ve missed your name:
Now with support for TADS 3 banner windows! Hurrah!
(Admittedly, I’ve been running a snapshot for a year or so, so my Gargoyle has had banner windows since you first implemented them, but it’s great to finally see them in a public release.)
Speaking for the Z-machine, tab completion for the dictionary would be easy enough; however, it would be ridiculously difficult (if not impossible) to limit tab completion to dictionary words that are “known” by the player. If such limitations were not in place, then the player could easily find object names that are supposed to be secret.
The Z-machine also limits the length of dictionary words. You can refer to a windshield or a windscreen in Moonmist, for example, but the resolution of those words is 6 characters, so you’d only tab complete to windsc or windsh. V4+ games are better in this regard, but still have a limit: In HHGG there is an extinguisher, but it would complete to extinguis.
Couldn’t the tab completion be based on the text already displayed on the screen (perhaps excluding some common words, like ‘the’)? Then the player could never accidentally discover any secrets. And it would really help when spelling some long or hard-to-remember words (for example, the names of the medicine bottles in The Life (and Deaths) of Doctor M).
Decided to not let a whole year go by without a bump. I looked at the source files, but then remembered I program in Python as my brain melted and fled screaming, so hacking in an autocomplete is beyond me, hah.
Hats off! I opened a brief thread about some strange Gargoyle behavior here – well, A Gargoyle question – and though I got some excellent advice there, I’m still curious about the question I raised there. Cheers!