[I6] Clarifying Compiler Versions

Hey all. I might start investigating Inform 6 again. So I just wanted to clarify a few things. For Inform 6, I took a look at the releases distribution on GitHub (github.com/DavidKinder/Inform6/releases) and that seems to show 6.33 released in May of 2014 but, more recently (July 2016), a 6.32 was released.

Yet the description of the repo itself says “This is version 6.34 of the Inform compiler.” Note: 6.34. And the release notes seem to indicate specific changes made for that version.

Checking the IF Archive link on the repo, there is only Inform 6.33 from May 2014.

Given that I6 sits behind I7, I also checked out the i6n reference page and it says “the version of Inform 6 used by Inform 7 is Inform 6.32.”

So the confirming parts here are:

(1) Is the version that I7 is using the 6.32 that was released on July 2016?
(2) Does that mean if we’re only using I6, we should use the 6.33 from May 2014?

I ask (1) because I presume that explains the more recent release of a past version. I ask (2) because it seems like 6.33 has been packaged up and thus is considered to be a bit more “official” thus perhaps indicating that the repo of 6.34 wasn’t necessarily canonical yet.

July 2016 is just when the “6.32” tag was applied to a particular revision in the git repository - someone pointed out that 6.32 wasn’t tagged, so I added the tag at the appropriate point. You can see the original release date in http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXinfocomXcompilersXinform6XsourceXold.html: Inform 6.32 was released in November 2010. That the tag date is later does not mean that 6.32 is later than than 6.33.

The head of the git repository is just the current state of the code, which will eventually become 6.34 when there are enough interesting changes to warrant it. As yet there is no Inform 6.34 release, although you could build it yourself and use it if you really wanted one of the features added.

For Inform 6 work, the best thing is probably to simply use the most current released version, which is 6.33. Inform 7 generally uses whatever the latest version of the Inform 6 code is, which may not be an actual release, depending on if Inform 7 really needs some Inform 6 change or not.

6.33 is a usable stable release. The changes since 6.33 have been very minor bug fixes and improvements to the debugging output, which you’re probably not using.

Perfect! Thank you both for the clarification. Currently I’ll be using Inform 6.33 with library 6.12.1 just to get ramped up again.

What OS are you using?

It depends on the classrooms but usually it’s a healthy mix of Mac and Windows. The older classes (in terms of age) are usually on Macs, the younger classes tend to be on Windows or on dual-boot systems where they can choose whatever they feel most comfortable with.

If you’re on MacOS you could always compile the current version from the git repo, or you could download an older version (source only) from the IF archive.
If you’re on windows, there is a version of 6.33 already compiled. (You can compile 6.34 or an older version using MinGW, which works perfectly.)