Spanish Wearing Mechanics

[tajmone]

@Rich15, sorry for the late reply but it has been a long day and I couldn't get to the PC any earlier.

Ok then, in this Discussion I'll present you the main obstacle I'm facing now in updating the Spanish library.

We've recently updated the English library code that handles the mechanics of wearing items (clothes, glasses, backpacks, etc.) — you can read the full Discussion of the changes at #18, in case you're curious, but here I'll provide you with an overview of the task and its problems.

The Basic Classes in ALAN

But let's start with an overview of ALAN's predefined classes system...

ALAN provides IF authors with some basic classes which can be used to create the various "things" that populate an adventure world, as shown in this diagram:

The classes in grey color are only related to player input commands (i.e. literal strings and numbers), whereas the classes in yellow are the abstract blueprints from which concrete game "objects" are created (instantiated).

The Old Wearing System

For the wearing mechanics, we're dealing with two main classes: actor (the potential wearer) and object (the potential item being worn).

Since only some objects are wearable, we define a wearable attribute on every object, which can either be true or false, depending on whether the object is a wearable item or not — we could have created a wearable class, but the attribute is more flexible in this case, and the library uses quite a number of attributes to control different properties of objects (eatable, readable, etc.).

So, the English library module defines the wearable attribute in the wear.i module:

Add to every object
  Is not wearable.
End add.

As you can see, the language is very close to English prose, it's almost like reading text rather than code (but it's not a natural programming language, like Inform7).

Now, when an object is IN the Hero (the player character in the game), the the player is carrying that object (i.e. it's in the inventory). Actors, like objects, can be given the Container property, which allows to place object inside them.

The question arises: how can the game distinguish between items which are just carried by the Hero and those which are worn by him?

The old wearing mechanics of the libraries used a trick to this end, it would create an entity instance called the worn, and move therein all worn items by the player. So the command 'wear X' would result in item X being moved into this worn entity, which has the sole purpose of holding the items worn by the player at any moment in the game.

Since objects of the entity type are always "in scope" (i.e. considered in the current room/location of the player) they would always be reachable in the game.

The New Wearing System

The above solution worked well at the time (i.e. 10+ years ago) but in the meantime ALAN introduced some new language features that end up clashing with the worn entity, so we decided to adopt a simpler approach, even though it adds more code to the library.

In the new system, worn is just a true/false attribute, so any item is either worn or not worn at any given moment (and of course, the library code ensures that only items which are wearable can end up being worn).
We've also added a wearer attribute to easily track who's wearing the item, which now allows also non-player characters to wear items. The definition shown above has now become:

Add to every object
  Is not wearable.
     not worn.
  Has wearer nobody. -- dummy actor = unworn state. (see people.i)
End add.

Please note that the keywords IS, HAS and CAN are just aliases of each other, and they all refer to attributes of the true/false type, and they are provided to make the source code more intuitive to read — but

Has wearer nobody.

could have just been written

Is wearer nobody.

or even

Can wearer nobody.

the use of has just makes it clear what the attribute role is.

I've started the adaptation work for the Spanish Foundation Library in a dedicated development branch, so I'll be able to ensure that everything works fine before putting the code in the actual library, as well as add some tests. This temporary development branch can be seen here:

https://github.com/alan-if/alan-i18n/tree/dev_alan-es_wearing

My main problem right now is translating correctly the new attributes and messages.

In the English library, the change from worn being an entity to becoming an attribute didn't have any "prose implications" — before the library code had to check if an object was in worn, now it checks if is worn.

The equivalent modules in the Spanish library are the llevar.i and inventario.i files, which currently hold the following definitions, respectively:

Add to every object
  Is not llevable.
End add to object.

and

The llevado IsA entity
  Container
  -- etc. etc.
End the llevado.

Translation Questions

Here are some linguistic doubts I need help with:

• Can the llevado identifier previously used for the entity also be used for the attribute? i.e. would it makes sense to read in the code is llevado, is not llevado, make object llevado, etc.?

During my attempt to dig into the Spanish dictionary, I got the impression that the term "llevado" actually means "carried", rather than "worn". But no matter how many translators I tried, I couldn't find a term specifically indicating an item being worn (remember, it's not just clothing, but glasses, etc.).

The whole point of this attribute is to distinguish items which are simply carried by actors from those which are actually worn, so it would be good to ensure the term is specific enough.

Please, note that these identifiers are only internal references to the adventure source code, so they don't affect the text shown in the actual game; but since this is a reusable library, its terminology should be as explicit as possible, so that anyone reading an adventure source can intuitively understand what the code does.

• How can we translate the wearer attribute?

Again, my search attempt didn't lead to any terms I could feel confident with.

Here are some practical examples of how this attribute is used in the code with the English library:

If obj is worn ...
Make glasses not worn.
If wearer of obj = Hero ...
Set wearer of wearer of jacket to nobody.

So, although the ALAN language keyword remain English words, the idea is that the use of Spanish identifiers should result in code which can be read and understood easily by any native Spanish speaker which understands the basic words of the ALAN language (is, not, verb, make, etc.).

Also note that these attributes will have to be uses "as they are", regardless of the gender and number of the object they refer to — it's always assumed the attribute refers to the class, not the specific instance. So if it's an object attribute, it should take the gender and number form of the Spanish equivalent of the term "object"; and if its an attribute specific to a custom created class, it should follow the name of that class, etc.. That's to keep things simple.

So, these are the Spanish terms which I'm currently stuck with, and which I'd like to also understand better how they are understood and used, so I can take in better the library code and how it's perceived by a native speaker.

But as I start to tweak the various verbs, I might also have to deal with translating new messages, and handling correctly their gender, number and animate/inanimate status (aka GNA) to ensure the messages are correctly printed with all types of nouns.

Thanks!

[Rich15]

Hi @tajmone! Thanks for answering and explaining the background.

Answers to translation questions.

• Can the llevado identifier previously used for the entity also be used for the attribute? i.e. would it makes sense to read in the code is llevado, is not llevado, make object llevado, etc.?

In Spanish, wear has no single-word translation. Instead we usually use llevar puesto (to wear clothes on = llevar ropa puesta, ponerse ropa). I think llevado is understandable, but it could be confused with "carried", so puesto would sound more natural, even when is more colloquial.

is puesto and make object puesto sound better and are less confusing, because someone could think of is not llevado as is not carried.

(Note: "vestido" would also work, but it only applies to clothes like pants and shirts, not to shoes or glasses.)

---

• How can we translate the wearer attribute?

The best translation I can come up with is "portador". This could also mean "carrier", but again, the verb wear and Spanish translations don't get along so well.

Taking your example:

If obj is worn ...
Make glasses not worn.
If wearer of obj = Hero ...
Set wearer of wearer of jacket to nobody.

To Spanish:

If obj is puesto ...
Make glasses not puesto. //or "puestos"?
If portador of obj = Hero ...
Set portador of portador of jacket to nobody.

If it has any syntax mistakes please let me know :)

Additional Comment on llevable

As I said before, "llevar" could either mean "to wear" or "to carry", so llevable could be wearable or carriable.

Some other verb I thought could be used was "ponible". Looking for the RAE definition I found:

Said from a garment: That can be weared in different occasions or matchs well with other clothes.

So I don't know if "ponible" suits good, but as puesto could be used for worn, ponible would be a good substitute for wearable.

(Note: vestible could also work, but ponible is from the same verb of puesto)

---

I hope this helped and if you got other questions please let me know :)

[tajmone]

@Rich15, thanks for the very detailed explanations, that's exactly what I needed to clarify the context. Being a native Italian speaker, I can often pick the similarities between Spanish and Italian, but there's always the danger of "false friend" misleading me (e.g. "burro" is "butter" in Italian, but "donkey" in Spanish).

From all the considerations above, I think using ponible and puesto is a good choice, so we keep those strictly related attributes semantically close to each other, and portador should be fine for "wearer" — after all, authors are aware that in order to check if an item is carried it's sufficient to check if it is IN the actor, therefore it will be implicit that "portador" refers to worn items (a worn item being also carried).

OK then, today I'll try to implement all the wearing mechanics changes to Spanish library. Right now we have only the Vampiro sample adventure to test the library, but I'm not sure it contains any wearables, so I'll try to set up some dedicated tests for this.

Bear in mind that I still have no idea how complete the original Spanish library was. I noticed a couple of untranslated messages and a few comments here and there, and the library seems to production ready, but it would be good to check if all the Spanish grammar is in place.

So far, I just sifted through the grammar code quickly, but I'll look into it with more details, in case there's room for optimizations. E.g. for the Italian library, after testing various approaches I ultimately settled for allowing authors to specify the required article of an instance as a method to initialize all the required attributes:

The pizza is a object
  Has articolo "la".
End the.

When the adventure starts, the library initialization code will deduce from the article "la" that it's a female singular noun, and set all the required attributes accordingly (in grammatica.i):

  Initialize
    [...]

    Depending on articolo of this
      = "lo" then
        Make this not femminile.
        Make this not plurale.
        Set this:vocale to "o".
        Set this:prep_DI to "dello".
        Set this:prep_A  to "allo".
        Set this:prep_DA to "dallo".
        Set this:prep_IN to "nello".
        Set this:prep_SU to "sullo".

      = "la" then
        Make this femminile.
        Make this not plurale.
        Set this:vocale to "a".
        Set this:prep_DI to "della".
        Set this:prep_A  to "alla".
        Set this:prep_DA to "dalla".
        Set this:prep_IN to "nella".
        Set this:prep_SU to "sulla".

as you can see, this spares authors having to manually define all of these attributes, especially all the various prepositions which follow a noun's gender and number. But of course, the Spanish language might differ from Italian in this respect, so what's feasible in the former doesn't necessary work for the latter. But this illustrates why I'm striving to grasp the details of how the pALANte library works, because unless I'm aware of the library mechanics and its linguistic implications I could compromise it with any changes I make to the code.

Bear in mind that ALAN is completely language-agnostic, i.e. it doesn't support any specific language (of course, as a programming language, the ALAN keyowrds are in English, and the few default necessary definitions too). But unlike other IF authoring systems, it's up to the user to decide how to shape the adventure world, starting from scratch — there are no predefined verbs in ALAN.

This is an aspect of ALAN which I really love, because usually most standard libraries can feel too big or too small, to specialized or too generic. The goal of these new Foundation Libraries is to provide for each language a basic set of verbs and a minimum adventure world infrastructure to start building adventure with — and, of course, the grammar modules required by each language, to handle articles, prepositions, etc. So, working on this project is a "coding adventure" of its own, because it exposes us to many coding and design challenges which force us so constantly weight the pros and cons of each choice, compare different IF systems, and try out new approaches, which is an amazing way of exploring the very nature of text adventures, and how the various code mechanics can create and maintain that narrative illusion which seems so realistic on the players' side (where often there are simple tricks that fuel the illusion behind the scenes).

Working on IF libraries is always an interesting challenge (with any IF system) because you become aware of the wide implications of small choices and get a chance to consider which features should belong to a library and which should be better left to end authors to decide (e.g. should a verb attempt implicitly taking an object before the action? should the player be able to take an item worn by a NPC? etc.), which IMO is a very good way to learn any IF language inside out, but also gain a bird view of how IF systems in general work.

I hope you'll be joining the ALAN adventure too, because it's fun and a good learning experience, and because working as a team is so much better than working alone. The ALAN community is fairly small, but the dev team is always at work on multiple fronts, so ALAN has been an ongoing project for over 20 years, and it's always actively maintained (which is no little achievement).

And I can't stress it enough: if you have questions or need help, just ask!

I'll update you once I've managed to implement the new wearing mechanics, and I'll probably be asking you for some help with the tests (to ensure the Spanish text is correct and makes sense).

Errata

I wrote:

Set wearer of wearer of jacket to nobody.

Opps, the above was an editing error on my side should have been:

Set wearer of jacket to nobody.

although it's a valid ALAN construct to chain attributes, in this case it wouldn't make sense since actors can't wear actors. But this would be a valid and possibly useful example:

If age of wearer of jacket ...

[tajmone]

New Mechanics Implemented

Ok @Rich15, the new wearing mechanics should be now fixed and working in the Spanish library. You can check the updated code in the dev_alan-es_wearing branch.

I had to improvise a few terms translations, so I just wanted confirmation that these are OK:

• noboby → nadie (a dummy actor to indicate lack of wearer, etc.)

Some temporary attributes for internal library use were still not translated. They are not crucial but they could make the code easier to read and understand:

• carried_item
• worn_item

Beside that, the library seems to work fine with the new system. The Vampiro sample adventure did contain a wearable item, so I had to do some minor tweaks to the code to make it use the new wearing system, and it seems fine.

There's only one change left from this set of changes, i.e. editing the runtime message so when listing the items in a container it will specify "being worn" when the item is a worn item (of course, it should only happens when listing actors).

My problem here is that I noticed that these messages in the original pALANte code don't seem to carry out any checks regarding the gender and number of either the carrier nor the items being listed.

The English library only checks for number, since nouns gender doesn't affect the text output — from messages_runtime.i:

CARRIES:
  IF parameter1 IS NOT plural
    THEN "$+1 is carrying"
    ELSE "$+1 are carrying"
  END IF.

CONTAINS:
  IF parameter1 IS NOT plural
    THEN "$+1 contains"
    ELSE "$+1 contain"
  END IF.

The Spanish library doesn't seem to carry out any checks in this respect — from mensajes.i:

CARRIES: "$+1 tiene"
--  CONTAINS: "$+1 contiene"

and for some reason the CONTAINS translation was commented out.

Not knowing how gender and number should affect these sentences, I'm a bit stuck here (and elsewhere), so I couldn't implement here the changes which in the English library mention worn items — from messages_runtime.i:

-- The IF blocks in the following group of messages adds "(being worn)" after
-- every item worn by an actor, when using `LIST actor`.

CONTAINS_COMMA: "$01"
  IF parameter1 IsA object THEN
    IF parameter1 IS worn
      THEN "(being worn)"
    END IF.
  END IF.
  "$$,"
CONTAINS_AND: "$01"
  IF parameter1 IsA object THEN
    IF parameter1 IS worn
      THEN "(being worn)"
    END IF.
  END IF.  "and"
CONTAINS_END: "$01"
  IF parameter1 IsA object THEN
    IF parameter1 IS worn
      THEN "(being worn)"
    END IF.
  END IF. "."

I could just leave these messages in English for the time being (and I'll probably do so after lunch), but the question begs whether the Spanish code should take into account gender and number when generating "(being worn)".

In the Italian library I have to change the text based on whether the noun mentioned is plural or singular, masculine or feminine; but it usually boils down to just changing the final vowel of an adjective (since this is a common case, I've added on each object a vocale attribute which is initialized by the library, and can just output that attribute to ensure that an adjective is printed correctly, but I'm not sure if that's the same in Spanish).

In general, while looking at the Spanish library code, I noticed that in many places message responses don't carry out extra checks on gender and number of some nouns. This seems to apply specially to actors, where I think the author assumes that they are always singular, so there are only checks for gender (if any). Truth is, even though it's rare, you can encounter actors which are plural nouns (e.g. "the evil twins"). But this is not an issue specific to the wearing mechanics, so it can be safely postponed. It was more of a pending question that's been on my mind, but I thought of sharing it with you so you get a better understanding of the areas where I'm struggling.

Automated Transcript

Later I'll try setup the test suite for the Spanish library and create a simple adventure with some actors and wearable items, so we'll have some automated test to track changes in the wearing mechanics — all tests are automated, so that whenever a line of code is changes in the library we can immediately see how its impacting the existing sample adventures and tests, because Git will detect changes in the resulting transcripts (usually these are expected changes due to fixes, but sometime unexpected side effects are caught too).

For the Spanish lib, right now there's only the transcript generated for the walk-through of the Vampiro sample adventure:

• vampiro.a3t

But that transcript should give a good idea on whether the basic verbs are handling the grammar correctly in verb responses.

[tajmone]

Spanish Test Suite Now Available

@Rich15, I've now set-up the Spanish test suite in:

• alan_es/tests/

Any *.alan source adventure added in that folder will be automatically compiled and tested. If there's a single adventure, all solution files (*.a3s) will be tested against it, producing same named transcript files (*.a3t). If there are multiple adventures, then for each adventure the solution files starting with the same name will be tested against it.

Right now, there's only a single test, for wearables:

• ponibles.alan — adventure source code.
• ponibles.a3s — solution file.
• ponibles.a3t — auto-generated transcript.

The transcript gives you an indication of the current state of the wearing mechanics, its verbs and messages, etc. I've left all comments in English to simplify interventions by non-Spanish speakers (bug fixes, etc.).

[Rich15]

Hey @tajmone! Sorry for answering late, I was having some trouble with my internet connection.

Translations

• nobody -> nadie is perfectly correct.
• carried_item could be artículo_llevado.
• worn_item could be artículo_puesto.

Regarding carry translation

I see carry was translated as tener. Like here:

CARRIES: "$+1 tiene"
--  CONTAINS: "$+1 contiene"

However, tener is more like to have; a more proper translation to "carry" would be llevar (yes, the verb that was used to wearable things). The code above would look like:

CARRIES: "$+1 lleva"
CONTAINS: "$+1 contiene"

This would work well because it is gender neutral. Also the other piece of code would be:

CARRIES:
  IF parameter1 IS NOT plural
    THEN "$+1 está llevando" -- or "lleva" would sound more natural ('hero lleva object')
    ELSE "$+1 están llevando" -- or "llevan" would sound more natural ('the evil twins llevan object')
  END IF.

CONTAINS:
  IF parameter1 IS NOT plural
    THEN "$+1 contiene"
    ELSE "$+1 contienen"
  END IF.

Again, let me know any syntax mistakes :)

Translation from llevar.i

Check obj is ponible
      else "No puedes llevar" say the obj. "."
    And portador of obj <> hero
      else "You are already wearing" say the obj. "." -- @TRANSLATE!
 -- And obj not in llevado
 --   else "Ya llevas" say the obj. "."
    And obj is tomable
      else "No puedes tomar" say the obj.
    And obj in hero
      else "No llevas" say the obj. -- @CHECK TRANSLATION!

Translates:

Check obj is ponible
      else "No puedes ponerte" say the obj. "."
    And portador of obj <> hero
      else "Ya llevas puesto" say the obj. "."
 -- And obj not in llevado
 --   else "Ya llevas puesto" say the obj. "."
    And obj is tomable
      else "No puedes tomar" say the obj.
    And obj in hero
      else "No llevas puesto" say the obj.

being worn

This one is a little difficult to translate, but I think the next code would be pretty much understandable:

CONTAINS_COMMA: "$01"
  IF parameter1 IsA object THEN
    IF parameter1 IS puesto
      THEN "(está puesto)"
    END IF.
  END IF.
  "$$,"
CONTAINS_AND: "$01"
  IF parameter1 IsA object THEN
    IF parameter1 IS puesto
      THEN "(está puesto)"
    END IF.
  END IF.  "and"
CONTAINS_END: "$01"
  IF parameter1 IsA object THEN
    IF parameter1 IS puesto
      THEN "(está puesto)"
    END IF.
  END IF. "."

sombrero está puesto would equal hat is being worn (right?)

Spanish gender and number

Articles and nouns

In Spanish we have two types of articles:

Determined: el(singular), los(plural) for masculine and la, las for femenine. Equivalent to 'the'.
Undetermined: un, unos for masculine and una, unas for femenine. Equivalent to 'a'.

So it could work almost like italian. Taking your example of pizza would be almost equal, only changing the word 'articolo':

The pizza is a object
  Has artículo "la".
End the.

However, the next code would cause trouble:

Initialize
    [...]

    Depending on artículo of this
      = "el" then
        Make this not femenino.
        Make this not plural.
        Set this:vocal to: "o"

because some nouns, like azúcar(sugar) use article el but don't end with "o". (If this:vocal is not meant to do that, please correct me).

So I don't know if this could be solved by the author setting it manually or that would be too tedious. I think the author could specify if an object is femenino or masculino and change adjectives based on that (I don't know if that is already implemented, if so, ignore this).

Adjectives

Adjectives do work with "-a" and "-o" terminations for femenine and masculine, respectively. Besides, they end with "s" in plural cases. So it should be easier to connect them with the gender and number of the noun. azúcar llevado, zapatos puestos, chaqueta tomada are some examples I can come up right now.

Verbs

Verbs in present tense for 'he, she, it' end with "-e"; for 'you' with "-s" and for plural pronouns with "-n". Examples: llevas 5 artículos, Sir Lancelot lleva 1 espada, The evil twins llevan 2 escudos and so on.

---

I hope to have answered all of your questions. I will try to look at some of the verbs in the library and look for improvements or corrections. I have a question tho: If I were to change some things (like the gender of adjectives, for example), should I create a new branch? I'm kinda new to collabs in Github, so I don't know if this is a silly question haha.

And again, sorry for the late answer, there have been some connection failures in my state this past two days.

[tajmone]

Wearing Mechanics Merged: Foundation Spanish v0.2.0

@Rich15, @thoni56, the new wearing mechanics have now been added to the Spanish library (which bumps up to v0.2.0) and merged into main.

The dev_alan-es_wearing branch has been deleted (so many of the above links are now broken) and the dev_alan-es branch has been added for development work on Foundation Spanish.

Hey @tajmone! Sorry for answering late, I was having some trouble with my internet connection.

Don't worry, there's no rush, everyone contributes according to time tables.
BTW, last week I also experienced serious connectivity problems, especially with GitHub.com (but not other GitHub services), it seems it was due to two massive DDoS attacks, one in New Zealand and the other in Europe.

I hope to have answered all of your questions.

Indeed, the info was very useful and allowed me to complete the changes and publish them. Of course, being still a Beta version there's always room for improvements, and I already started annotating in the code comments things which are worth looking into it — all code annotations are comments beginning by @ (e.g. -- @TODO, -- @TRANSLATE, -- @CHECK), so you can easily find the by searching all *.i files inside alan-i18n\alan_es\ via the RegEx @\w+ (I do exactly this to keep track of pending task in the code).

Translation from llevar.i

I skipped your last suggestion else "No llevas puesto" say the obj. because the last CHECK is actually verifying if the object is carried (i.e. possessed) by the Hero (no implicit taking any more!):

Add to every object
  Verb llevar              -- Condition for the verb to execute:
    Check obj is ponible            --> it must be a wearable object!
      else "No puedes llevar" say the obj. "."
    And portador of obj <> hero     --> it must not be worn already by Hero!
      else "Ya llevas puesto" say the obj. "."
    And obj is tomable              --> object must be possible to take/pick up!
      else "No puedes tomar" say the obj.
    And obj in hero
      else "No llevas" say the obj. --> Hero must already have the obj!
    Does [...]

Spanish gender and number

From what you wrote about the concordance rules of gender and noun, I think that adding to the Spanish library an initialization code like I did for the Italian library would make the results more precise and take less efforts from the authors' side (only have to specify the article taken by the noun).

However, the next code would cause trouble [...] because some nouns, like azúcar(sugar) use article el but don't end with "o".

This is also the case in Italian, where there are some exceptions (especially foreign words), but the general rule applies often enough to justify its implementation (IMO), and to handle the exceptions there are various solutions:

• The author specifies the required grammar elements manually (attributes, Indefinite article, etc.).
• Special articles strings could handle the exceptions. E.g. "el_z" (instead of just "el") to indicate a noun taking "el" so that a special initialization code is applied to that case.

(If this:vocal is not meant to do that, please correct me).

The this:vocal attribute (just a shorthand for vocal of this, by the way) is used in the Italian lib for adjectives concordance and to build prepositions, according to gender and number.

E.g. the preposition from (like all other preposition which are fused with the determinate article) has a different ending according to gender and noun:

preposition di	g.n.
dello	m.s.
della	f.s.
degli	m.p.
delle	f.p.

Apart the "degli" form (which differs consistently) you can see that just by replacing the final vowel you obtain the gender+number concordance.

Since all the prepositions are defined at initialization time (by the library), as string attributes on each game object, in the game messages you only need to know the noun and gender to add the correct ending vowel. E.g.

Say prep_DI of this. Say vocale of this.

Depending on g.n. the prep_DI attribute will either be "dell$$" or degl$$, and because the $$ symbols means "don't add a space after (or before) this word", the vowel will printed as if it was part of the preposition.

So vocal doesn't have to a vowel, it could be any string chunk really. I think that the init code should cover the most common cases, then handle the exceptions to the rule, and if this doesn't cover all the possible uses cases, the author can simply code by hand all the required attributes and clauses — it would still provide an easier "author interface" IMO.

We only need to ensure that the initialization code doesn't override anything coded by hand by the author.

In any case I'm confident that there's always a way to go about smart tricks to handle these things, but before attempting them one needs to have practical "hands on" experience on how it is like writing adventures with the library, and how these improvements could make life better (but you need a lot of practical examples to be present in the test suite, so you can catch any unexpected results immediately).

Contributing via Git

I will try to look at some of the verbs in the library and look for improvements or corrections.

That would really help, and especially if you try and write an adventure (which you can add to the project), so we can check its transcripts as they change with each fix and improvement (it can be just a test adventure, it doesn't have to be a proper game).

I have a question tho: If I were to change some things (like the gender of adjectives, for example), should I create a new branch?
At the moment (Beta stage for all libraries) we usually make all commits affecting libraries code on dev branches, so that on main we have one commit per library version bump — the assumption is that every commit on master should provide a working version of every library.

For the Spanish Foundation, that would be the dev_alan-es branch:

https://github.com/alan-if/alan-i18n/tree/dev_alan-es

So you'll have to fork the repository first, keep it synched with this repo (the upstream) and when you want to contribute by editing the library code, you create a new branch from the dev_alan-es branch (not main, which will be probably behind), create your commits and then a pull request.

I'm kinda new to collabs in Github, so I don't know if this is a silly question haha.

There are no silly questions, especially with Git, which is a hard tool to learn for anyone (we've all struggled with its steep learning curve). If we can help you in any way, just ask. I'm sure that by actually doing things with Git you'll learn more than by studying its documentation (very cryptic) or reading books and tutorials — but if you're looking for a free book on Git, there's this book we're translating from German to English (still Beta, but all translation completed, just needs polishing, fixing some images, etc.):

• https://github.com/tajmone/Git-Buch_EN
• HTML Book Preview

(note that the HTML link might change in the upcoming week, because we're planning to publish the Beta book via GitHub Page website)

Hopefully, as you start to learn ALAN and the library inner workings, and get more confident with Git, you could become the official maintainer of the Spanish library (i.e. if you wish to do so). In this case, you'll be deciding your own development strategy and work; the idea of using dev branches is because each library maintainer has his/her own preferred way of working, whereas main is the common branch, where all strategies converge in a more disciplined way. Also, since each language is inherently different, some design choices are unique to each library, even though we try to follow common design patterns and goals (what really matter is that the final library is easy to use, so you can't bend it to the needs of another different language).

The beauty of collaborative editing is that you always learn new things, face new challenges. In the past years @thoni56 and I have experimented with various new tools, pushed them to the limit, and it has always been engaging, and often fun, and some tools we've learned to use via ALAN have now become part of our development work also elsewhere (e.g. AsciiDoc, EditorConfig, Rogue, and now Rake). E.g. there wasn't any syntax highlighter supporting ALAN, so I had to create the syntax definition myself, first with Highlight, then highlight.js, XSLHL, and finally Rouge (for different contexts and uses), which has ultimately allowed me to learn a lot more how syntax highlighters work, and eventually also created ALAN syntaxes for editors.

One of our main efforts has been to work out some work patterns that could be adopted across all ALAN repositories, to reduce the duplication of efforts by providing tools, settings, and resources that can be used by all projects, so developers can focus on the project content more than the tools.

---

PS: Tomorrow I'll be going to the dentist to remove a tooth which has been torturing for almost two weeks now. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get at the PC, with anesthesia, pain and all. At worst, I'll be back in couple of days.

[Rich15]

Checking Translations

Thanks so much for all the explanations @tajmone! I've already forked the repo and probably will start reviewing the library tomorrow (it's quite late here). Git is indeed hard sometimes, but as I keep learning it gets easier and I feel more confident to collaborate and start doing things. I'll keep helping you here as much as I can and I hope to learn more about how to use ALAN, so I can make my own Tests Adventures and get more involved in the code. Also, thanks for the recommended book!

Gender and number issue

From what you wrote about the concordance rules of gender and noun, I think that adding to the Spanish library an initialization code like I did for the Italian library would make the results more precise and take less efforts from the authors' side (only have to specify the article taken by the noun).

This seems like the better idea to implement. The autor would have to handle the specific cases where general rules don't apply, but it would be overall easier for them. I'm still not so good writing in ALAN, but I'm here for any help needed with translations.

---

Thanks again for patiently explaining everything to me. Good luck in the dentist and get well :)

[thoni56]

I'm still not so good writing in ALAN, but I'm here for any help needed with translations.

Just wanted to point out that we are really happy to have you on-board, and there is no need for excusing yourself about not being fluent in Alan, you've only been exposed to it for a few days! Like Tristano wrote, just ask away!

Also, I don't have as much time with Alan as I would like, so I'm focusing on the language and compiler/interpreter, but I know that Tristano is really good help. As he has already demonstrated.

[Rich15]

Thanks @thoni56 ! I'm glad to help

[tajmone]

New Wiki Pages for Translators and Porters

I've just added two new pages to the project wiki which are going to be useful for all library translation work:

• i18 Porting References — links to IF libraries in various languages, IF coding and theory articles, etc.
• i18 Translation References — links to translators, grammar, etc.

@Rich15, you should look at these pages, I've added various links for Spanish libraries, but I also believe that the Italian library articles might be of help, since the languages are very similar.

Some of those articles (all in English) describe how Italian grammar and prepositions are handled in IF in general, while others provide ALAN specific examples, including mentioning known problems and limits.

@thoni56, I couldn't find any Swedish libraries, and didn't provide links to Swedish translators and dictionaries yet (having zero knowledge of the language it's hard for me to tell the quality of resources I find online).

OK, this should really be my swan song for today: one hour left to my dentist appointment! I though of some last heroic act before meeting my faith 😉...

[thoni56]

Actually, I know of no libraries for IF in Swedish (not that I'm all that into the eco-systems of the "other" tools). I think the number of works of IF in Swedish is also relatively low partly because we are (or consider ourselves to be) fairly good at English.

There is one very well known item which is called "Stugan" (The Cabin). The Swedish magazine "Teknikhistoria" (Tech History) made an article not so long ago. Unfortunately it's in Swedish (obviously) and only available on line if you have an account. The pictures from the article of the guys that wrote it back in 1977 are available here.

(Yes, I have the printed magazine...)

[tajmone]

Inform 6 Swedish

Actually, I know of no libraries for IF in Swedish (not that I'm all that into the eco-systems of the "other" tools). I think the number of works of IF in Swedish is also relatively low partly because we are (or consider ourselves to be) fairly good at English.

I've found two i6 Swedish libraries (see Discussion #26).

Stugan

There is one very well known item which is called "Stugan" (The Cabin).

I've found these links:

• https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/stugan
• https://www.myabandonware.com/game/stugan-2ow
• https://archive.org/details/stugan

it seems that Stugan is available as abandonware.

Click for screenshots

[thoni56]

Actually one of the comments on the abandoware site links back to Fredriks Ramsbergs site which has the "legal" versions (according to him). More importantly he has a list of works of IF in Swedish!!!!!

(Maybe these comments should be moved from "Spanish Wearning Mechanics" ;-) Is that possible without copy and paste? I should probably distill this into a wiki-page...)

[tajmone]

Wearables Examples

@Rich15, could you please provide me at least one example of wearable items for each gender an number combination (i.e. masculine/feminine & singular/plural)?

I need these nouns for test suite, in order to check that they are mentioned correctly. E.g. in Italian these could be:

	sing.	plur.
masc.	cappello (hat)	pantaloni (trousers)
fem.	camicia (shirt)	bretelle (trousers suspenders)

NOTE — In Italian a pair of trousers is "un paio di pantaloni", and if there's an adjective it will follow "pantaloni" (m.p.) not "paio" (m.s.), e.g. "un paio di pantaloni scuri." I'm not sure if it's the same in Spanish, or whether concordance would be with pair in this case. Of course these are odd items in the language, for they are considered plural only because of their symmetrical shape (like scissors), not because they are actually multiple objects.

Also, I would like to fix the current message which is shown when listing worn items (i.e. (being worn)) — these messages are only used when the author uses the List <actor> command in the adventure, not by the verbs inventario or examina (these verbs list carried and worn items separately).

The idea is that the runtime MESSAGEs defined in the mensajes.i module should print the text (being worn) in accordance with the noun it refers to, based on its gender and number.

The question is: is there a standard way to translate "being worn" for any noun by knowing its gender and noun? In Italian the "worn" adjective will have a fixed declination based on g/n, so you don't need to know anything else:

	sing.	plur.
masc.	(indossato)	(indossati)
fem.	(indossata)	(indossate)

is it the same in Spanish?

As you can see from the above, in this case only the final vowel of the adjective is affected, which why I've added to each noun the vocale string attribute, so in the MESSAGE listing items in containers I only have to:

CONTAINS_COMMA: "$01"
  IF parameter1 IsA indumento
    THEN
      IF parameter1 IS indossato
        THEN "(indossat$$" SAY vocale OF parameter1. "$$)"
      END IF.
  END IF. ","

Right now I'll just add a series of IF THEN ELSE blocks, printing the full text according to gender and number, since the Spanish library doesn't have a vocale attribute, but in the future we might add vocale if it simplify similar code blocks, and if these are frequent in the library or user code.

P.S. — I've added to the Wiki the Inform 6 sources of the Spanish library, which could be a very useful reference for our work:

https://github.com/alan-if/alan-i18n/wiki/i18-Porting-References#infsp-6-sources

[Rich15]

Wearables examples in spanish

	Sing.	Plu.
Masc.	Sombrero (hat)	Calcetines (socks)
	Vestido (dress)	Tirantes (suspenders)
	Pantalón (pants/trousers*)	Zapatos (shoes)
Fem.	Camiseta (t-shirt)	Sandalias (Sandals)
	Corbata (tie)	Medias (socks)
	Blusa (blouse)	Botas (boots)

*In most cases we refer to trousers and pants in singular (pantalón); we don't say I need a pair of trousers. Instead, we say Necesito un pantalón (just one). Pantalones would refer to more than one pair of trousers. However, in some places it is used the same way as in Italian and English.

NOTE — In Italian a pair of trousers is "un paio di pantaloni", and if there's an adjective it will follow "pantaloni" (m.p.) not "paio" (m.s.), e.g. "un paio di pantaloni scuri." I'm not sure if it's the same in Spanish, or whether concordance would be with pair in this case. Of course these are odd items in the language, for they are considered plural only because of their symmetrical shape (like scissors), not because they are actually multiple objects.

In Spanish concordance would also be with "pants". And scissors is considered plural as well (las tijeras) :)

Adjectives termination

There is a standard way to associate adjectives with nouns, pretty similar to italian. For masculine, they end with "-o", and for femenine, they end with "-a"; for plural you need to add a "-s" at the end. Using the worn example:

	Sing.	Plu.
Masc.	(puesto)	(puestos)
Fem.	(puesta)	(puestas)

For being worn we need to add the verb "estar" (e.g. the shoes are being worn === los zapatos están puestos [if being worn is not meant to do that, correct me]). Because the object would always be in third person, this could be standardized by adding an "-n" at the end of the verb in plural cases:

	Sing.	Plu.
Masc.	(está puesto)	(están puestos)
Fem.	(está puesta)	(están puestas)

---

P.S. — I've added to the Wiki the Inform 6 sources of the Spanish library, which could be a very useful reference for our work:

https://github.com/alan-if/alan-i18n/wiki/i18-Porting-References#infsp-6-sources

Thanks!

[tajmone]

@Rich15, thanks a lot for all the tips, I've now fixed the runtime MESSAGEs for listing containers contents in mensajes.i accordingly:

CONTAINS_COMMA: "$01,"
  If parameter1 isa object then
    If parameter1 is puesto
      then "(está"
        If parameter1 is not plural
          then "puest$$"
            If parameter1 is not femenina
              then "o"
              else "a"
            End if.
          else "$$n puest$$"
            If parameter1 is not femenina
              then "os"
              else "as"
            End if.
        End if.
    End if. "$$)"
  End if. "$$,"

... and so on with CONTAINS_AND and CONTAINS_END too.

NOTE — the $$ in strings is to ensure that no space is added between preceding/following text. ALAN automatically handles insertion of space between stings, with awareness of punctuation.

These fixes are only in the dev_alan-es branch for now, since I'd like to make more fixes and improvements before bumping the library version and merging it into main.

I've also added a new test transcript ponibles_GNA.a3t which is specifically targeting gender and number in wearing-related messages, so you could have a look at it to check that the new changes work correctly.

Here's an excerpt that contains all gender and number combinations:

> list hero

Tienes unos tirantes, (están puestos), unas sandalias, (están puestas), un
a camiseta (está puesta) y un pantalón. (está puesto).

I've also added plural NPCs, but I can see that the library is not honoring their number correctly.

I have the impression that the overall current system for handling GNA is rather weak, and that we should consider adding a library initialization like I did for the Italian; but first I need to have a better understanding of how the different grammatical elements fall together. Usually IF libraries manage to make apparently complex problems simpler in implementation, so I really only need to understand which are the key elements that would allow us to control all others (e.g. in Italian is sufficient to know the determinate article and all the rest can be programmatically initialized). But that will become the subject of an independent Discussion, so we don't go too much off topic here, but stick to the wearing mechanics and messages instead.

Executing And Editing Tests

Right now, are you able to execute the Spanish test suite locally?

That would be great, since it would allow you to edit and improve both the test adventures and their solutions/transcripts, as well as fixing and improving the library code itself.

You'll need to have the latest ALAN SDK developer's snapshot (Alpha) on your PATH, and Ruby 3 installed.

What OS do you work on?

If you need any help with the setup, just ask.

[Rich15]

Some notes on ponibles_GNA.a3t

• I've noticed a problem with the "is/are wearing" translation. In "Subject + is/are wearing + object" cases it would better to say lleva(n) puesto/a(s). For example:

El vendedor está wearing un traje muy elegante y una corbata. ; TRANSLATION = El vendedor lleva puesto un traje muy elegante
; y una corbata.

This could be handled similarly to está puesto, adding the "-n" at the end of the verb in plural cases and changing the "-o, -a" and the "-s" in puesto.

La mujer lleva puesto un vestido.
...
Los mellizos llevan puesto un sombrero.
...
Las mellizas llevan puestas unas botas.

• The library is honoring the number of plural NPC's correctly; the problem I most noticed was mishandling of gender. Except for wearables, femenine nouns appear with masculine articles. I think this problem could be handled in a pretty similar way as Italian, initializing definite and undefinite articles and termination of adjectives (I will further answer this in #35).

Executing Tests

I'm a little too much lost on this subject haha. I would really appreciate some help with the setup. Could I do it even with no knowledge of Ruby?

I use Windows 7 (32-bit) BTW.

[tajmone]

I would really appreciate some help with the setup.

see #36 for instructions.

Could I do it even with no knowledge of Ruby?

No Ruby knowledge required, we only need Ruby for Rake (Ruby's Make, to automate building) and for documentation via Asciidoctor.

I use Windows 7 (32-bit) BTW.

The 32-bit part is going to be a problem with Ruby, as mentioned in #36. If you won't be able to install Ruby we'll create some simple scripts for running the test suite (either add them to the repository, or ignore them via Git and give you the script to paste in the folder, so it won't end up in the repository).

[tajmone]

NOTE — The dev_alan-es branch has been force-pushed! So you'll need to fetch it and rebase it (or hard reset it, as you prefer) to ensure you have a synced copy locally, before creating a new dev branch!

GNA Fixes

@Rich15, I've fixed the missing GNA checks in examinar.i which you had pointed out:

          -- ------------------------
          -- List worn clothing items
          -- ------------------------
          -- Don't say anything if the actor is not wearing anything.
          Set temp:cnt to count directly in this, is puesto.
          If  temp:cnt <> 0
            then "$+1" "lleva"
              If this is not plural
                then "puest$$"
                  If this is femenina
                    then "a"
                    else "o"
                  End if.
                else "$$n puest$$"
                  If this is femenina
                    then "as"
                    else "os"
                  End if.
              End if.

Hopefully it's working correctly. Now ponibles_GNA.a3t produces:

> ; We need to ensure that plural NPCs are also mentioned correctly...
> x mellizos
They're twin brothers. Los mellizos llevan puestos un sombrero.

> x mellizas
They're twin sisters. Los mellizas llevan puestos un botas.

I also noted that you mentioned that the mensajes.i modules needs some GNA fixes:

CAN_NOT_CONTAIN: "$+1 no puede contener $+2."
CONTAINMENT_LOOP: "Poner a $+1 en sí mismo es imposible."  -- "mismo" should check for gender
CONTAINMENT_LOOP2: "Es imposible poner $+1 en $+2
                    porque $+2 ya está dentro de $+1."

I guess that also CONTAINMENT_LOOP2 needs GNA checking for the "ya está" part, since parameter 2 ($2/$+2, etc. where the + indicates the definitive form). Could you provide me examples of how these two messages should be for all GNA combinations (m.s., m.p., f.s., f.p.)? I'm not sure how the words si and mismo is to be handled (does "si" change?); the same for ya, does it change according to GNA? (Eventually I'll be getting a hang on how these work, but right now I have no clue).

Bare in mind that GNA applies to both parameters here. In some messages (not these two though), the parameter might also be referring to an actor, which means that if it's a named actor it will never be shown with the article — e.g. "Bob" instead of "the professor". I'm not sure if this could make a difference in how these sentences need be written or whether it's irrelevant (my guess would be that this shouldn't affect verbs and adjectives).

Probably most of the GNA fixes should be postponed to when we have the new initialization module, since this will allow less IF/THEN/ELSE code thanks to new attributes for GNA concordance, but it's worth always annotating the parts of code that need to be revised. In any case, the new module will most likely require revisiting every single messages that handles GNA.

NOTE — When annotating WIP always begin the comment with -- @ (e.g. -- @TODO:, -- @TRANSLATE:,, -- @FIXME:, etc.) so that all pending tasks can be quickly visualized by searching the whole lib folder for -- @ occurrences.

Wearables Test Adventure

I'd like to drop my original ponibles.alan in favour of your ponibles_test.alan, but before deleting mine and renaming yours I wanted to cover a few missing things:

• Plural NPCs — There are two male sing. actors in your adventure (guardia and mendingo) but not plural actors, I think we should drop one of the two and add the male and female twins from my adventure, so we can check GNA for plural wearers too.

Can you handle adapting your adventure and tests accordingly? I won't be able to ensure that the Spanish text is correct (in fact the twins text is all in English in my adventure).

Once that's in place, I'll take care of deleting my old adventure and only keep yours, and update the various solutions files to cover all the required tests for GNA, verbs checks, error messages, exceptions, etc.

Before merging the Spanish dev branch I'm waiting to see how the current work on updating scenery objects in the English library is going (Thomas and I are discussing some problems that need to be solved before merging this update), because I'd like to integrate in the next Spanish version those scenery updates too. But if the scenery changes end up requiring too many changes, or taking too long, I'll just postpone it for the Spanish library and make a smaller update (if the English update is out before we've fixed the test adventure I'll include it, otherwise I'll just create the new Spanish version with these updates).

In any case, once these changes and fixes are merged into main I'll create the dedicated branch to start working on the grammar module. That is going to be a major change that will greatly simplify writing Spanish adventures in ALAN, and also somehow reduce the library code for messages (less conditional blocks), but most of all is going to ensure that GNA is always handled correctly. So it's definitely a feature worth investing energy on.

By working together on the grammar module, I'll get a chance to learn better how GNA works in Spanish, and you'll get to understand how the core of the library works, which is going to enable both of us to work with more confidence on the library sources (after all, neither of us wrote it in the first place).

I'm sure that by now you're starting to realize that the ALAN language is fairly simple to learn (by design), and that it can be mastered in a matter of weeks. Obviously, there is no better way of learning it than using it, and in this respect the library test suite offers ample chances of creating many small adventures, each targetting a specific set of features. So, in a way, when developing or maintaining a library you end up writing lots of ALAN code, covering all features and angles, which is a good way to learn the language inside out (and to find any hidden bugs), much more than writing a "real" game, since test suites are intended to push every feature to its limits, covering every possible case (even the most unlikely ones).

[Rich15]

Wearables GNA

@tajmone, puesto works the same in Spanish as it does in Italian:

1. If it's a single item, just follow its gender and number (→ "llevan puesto" or "llevan puesta").

2. If the list contains multiple items:
   i. If they are all feminine, use feminine plural (→ "llevan puestas")
   ii. If the list contain one masculine item, use masculine plural (→ "llevan puestos")

So this conditional block/loop should work perfectly:

• If it's 1 item, just use its gender and number for the GNA concordance.
• If there are 2 or more items:
  • Assume default to be feminine plural (using a temp var).
  • Iterate through every worn item:
    • at first masculine item encountered switch temp var to masculine.
  • At the end of the iteration use plural + whatever gender is in the temp var.

mensajes.i Test

We'll need to setup a dedicated adventure to cover testing all runtime messages, including file operations and other meta-verbs.

Good idea. Today I'm a little out of time but soon I could create a mensajes_test adventure locally to see the behavior of the library. For now I will add the plural NPC's in ponibles_test so you can update the branches. Hopefully you'll see my PR later today.

[tajmone]

Wearables GNA

@tajmone, puesto works the same in Spanish as it does in Italian ...
So this conditional block/loop should work perfectly

Great. I'll try and implement that tonight if I manage to (got some piled up work to deal with).

mensajes.i Test

but soon I could create a mensajes_test adventure locally to see the behavior of the library.

You can peek at the way the StdLib covers these tests, as found here:

https://github.com/AnssiR66/AlanStdLib/tree/dev-2.2.0/tests/misc/

See these files for the source adventure and its transcript:

• meta-verbs.alan
• meta-verbs-tests.a3s
• meta-verbs-tests.a3t

beware that these tests can be quite tricky to cover all! You'll need to implement a ticker to check that META VERBS are skipping turn correctly, and file restore messages also require creating a saved game with an older ARun version in order to show the wrong version message; and other similar hacks to force the session to print the various MESSAGEs (score, parsing errors, ambiguities, etc.).

But you'll find detailed comments in both the source adventure and its solution/transcript files, so it could be a good chance to learn more about the ALAN runtime system.

Remember to not name the .a3s file as the adventure, but add a suffix to its name, because when you test saving a transcript ARun will automatically create it with the same name as the adventure (I'm not sure the library has a ranscript verb yet, but in case it does keep that in mind).

Again, thanks for your huge and precious support, and all the time your donating to the ALAN project!

[Rich15]

You can peek at the way the StdLib covers these tests, as found here:

https://github.com/AnssiR66/AlanStdLib/tree/dev-2.2.0/tests/misc/

Thanks! I'll start making the test when I have more time. For any questions and/or updates I'll be opening a new discussion for everything regarding meta-messages.

[tajmone]

Thanks! I'll start making the test when I have more time. For any questions and/or updates I'll be opening a new discussion for everything regarding meta-messages.

Right now the priority would be fixing the wearables test adventure, so we can be ready to merge a new minor version and I can start preparing the grammar module. Test files, in general, are not bound to library releases, so whenever they are updated they can be merged either in the dev branch or directly into main branch too (since they're standalone files, undocumented, there are no risks of conflicts, but the transcript needs to be generated by running with library version present on the branch).

Some of the messages tests are quite tricky, so feel free to skip anything that you don't feel comfortable with. The test adventure doesn't have to created at once either (it's even unlikely so).

Also, if you're time is tight, you might want to prioritize learning the ALAN language by reading the Manual and experimenting on your own, even if this means less time dedicated to the library project — after all, it's important that you have a chance to experience ALAN as too to create games too, not just working on libraries.

As you'll soon learn, there are always tons of pending tasks on every ALAN project (and many are marked as "urgent" and "important"), and no matter how much time we dedicate to fixing these, the list never shrinks, since as soon as one problem is solved another replaces it. What really matters is that we're able to enjoy what we do, and that no one feels pressure to do anything.

So don't ever feel that just because an Issue is open you "have to" find time to fix it — it doesn't work that way. Each one contributes whenever he/she can, according to availability, etc. What really matters is that we all have a good time doing what we do. After all, IF is supposed to be about having fun in free time (whether we're playing or writing games, or developing IF tools).

ALAN has been around for about 20 years, more or less, so what really counts is the long terms dedication that has allowed it to be kept alive for all those years, thanks to the long term dedication of those who love the project. And surely, there are periods where work slows down too.

All this to say that whenever you see a request on an Issue, it doesn't imply doing it straight away; think of it more as a reminder (like a post-it on the fridge) so that we won't lose sight of the long-term goals.

[thoni56]

As you'll soon learn, there are always tons of pending tasks on every ALAN project (and many are marked as "urgent" and "important"), and no matter how much time we dedicate to fixing these, the list never shrinks, since as soon as one problem is solved another replaces it. What really matters is that we're able to enjoy what we do, and that no one feels pressure to do anything.

I tend to think of "urgent" and "important" as a reminder of what was (at some point) considered something to handle before other things if possible. So if you have a choice and want to pick something important, pick one of those.

So don't ever feel that just because an Issue is open you "have to" find time to fix it — it doesn't work that way. Each one contributes whenever he/she can, according to availability, etc. What really matters is that we all have a good time doing what we do. After all, IF is supposed to be about having fun in free time (whether we're playing or writing games, or developing IF tools).

This is really important to remember. It is always a balance between life, hobbies, but also keeping some level of effort so as not to forget everything ;-)

ALAN has been around for about 20 years, more or less, so what really counts is the long terms dedication that has allowed it to be kept alive for all those years, thanks to the long term dedication of those who love the project. And surely, there are periods where work slows down too.

Actually for 30+, and it definitely has been periods where I have forgotten about how things work.

Thank you @tajmone for pointing out the importance of fun in this, and helping keeping up the pace!

[tajmone]

Wrapping up Next Release

@Rich15, I want to wrap the dev branch and create a new minor release for the Spanish library, so we can start working on the grammar module — it doesn't make sense to keep working on the current system, especially now that you pointed out that the hembra class didn't have have the feminine attribute set. The GNA system is simply not in place right now, and we need to fix that as soon as possible.

Also, I don't like to keep dev branches open for too long because the risk is that I end forgetting all the changes that are there (since I'm spread thin across different projects at once).

I'd like to proceed as follow:

• Fuse ponibles.alan and ponibles_test.alan into a single adventure, by picking and choosing from both, so we get a single adventure covering all tests.

NOTE — Because the test suite works by executing all .a3s solution on every adventure sharing the same base name with the pattern:

• <adventure>.alan → <adventure>*.a3s

this means that no two adventures can share a common base name. I.e. the ponibles_test.alan can't be kept because it also matches the pattern ponibles*.alan, which means that the tests for the former will also be run on the latter, which would lead to errors in the results.

So I must keep only one of them or I can't merge.

Also, I'm thinking of renaming all tests into English:

• ponibles.alan → wearables.alan
• etc.

because it makes it easier for all developers to find which test is doing what — we can safely assume English as the shared language for all developers on the team.

I'm also in favour of keeping English comments within the adventure and solution files, as well as having the opening descriptive text in English, so if any ALAN bugs come up during the test it's going to be easier to contextualize them. After all, these are only tests, not full adventures, so as long as the actual individual tests are in Spanish we should be fine.

Be aware that I shall be renaming and deleting test files in the alan_es-dev branch, so you might want to create a copy of the branch to preserve any files you're currently working on, so you can restore them after I squash the changes into main.

About Test Files

Having a test suite that covers extensively the library features is on of our main goals right now, since it's our window on the library integrity status.

Because test files don't really belong to library releases, they can be integrated at any time, and not necessarily with a specific library release. We usually include them with the new library versions just because it allows us to keep the number of commits shorter.

I think that the best strategy for developing the test suite together would be if I start creating the test adventures drafts and the you help me translating them and filling them out — i.e. I provide a "skeleton" or sketch, and you flesh it out.

Missing Examples Nouns

Just like we did with actors and wearable items, we'll be needing a list of objects covering each gender and number to test all the possible objects types — at least two for each gender and number, so we can test that they are listed correctly in the various combinations:

• One item (m.s./f.s./m.p./f.p)
• Multiple items:
  • all masculine
  • all feminine
  • mixed gender

As we saw with the examinar verb, some messages might require adapting the message based on the gender of the list items. Hence the need to have at least two items (4 would be better) of each gender and number for every required object type.

The different types of game objects we'll need to be testing are the following:

• containers — e.g. box, can, basket.
• surfaces — e.g. table, desk, kitchen counter.
• edibles and their containers:
  • food — bread, cake, eggs, AND, fruit basket, bag, can, etc.
  • drinks — water, wine, beer, AND bottle, jar, etc.
• weapons — fire arms, bows, knifes, etc.
• readables — books, notes, letters, etc.

The idea is that for all the above categories of objects types (for which there's either a special library class or dedicated attributes), we need to cover tests for all genders and nouns. I have no ideas of how to find common objects names covering all GNA for these, so it would be really helpful if you help me flesh out a list, so I can start sketching some initial tests.

As the list comes into being, I'll be adding it to a reference document somewhere, so it can be consulted when creating new tests.

Library Examples

It would also be useful to have a list of common furniture and props that can be used to quickly flesh out rooms in test adventures, to allow testing "real case scenarios" and advances library tricks (e.g. implementing things not covered by the library, like pouring wine from a bottle, creating disposable containers like soda cans, etc.) — after all, we also need to test the usability of the library, not just its internal integrity (this part is much more fun, since it's closer to writing real adventures, since they are small scale examples of a real adventure).

These tests will probably ultimately become small library examples that will be included in the release package, to show end users how to implement various things. But initially they'll be created as test adventures, then at a later stage, when the library is mature, we'll simply create a polished version as examples.

So, things like common furniture and house appliances for the various rooms of the household would be useful — just remember to provide their article too, and mention their gender and number, so I can handle them correctly.

[tajmone]

Lib ES v2.0.1 Released

@Rich15, I've finally managed to release v2.0.1 of the Spanish library, containing all the fixes and improvements from the dev_alan-es branch.

To keep Git's history cleaner and shorter, I've squashed all commits into one. Unfortunately this means that the single commit results created by me, but I've made it very clear all over the place (including the commit message) that this new version was the result of your contributions and work.

I've also hard reset the dev_alan-es branch to main, so you'll need to force pull it.

I've kept your new test adventure for wearables items and dropped mine, although I ultimately sort of merged the two together (keeping some of my old code in comment blocks, in case we need it later). I've also renamed it to actors.alan, since we can use it to test actors too, since wearables and actors are closely tied together.

Now I'll start looking into the grammar module. I'll begin by studying the Inform 6 Spanish library, to see what grammar elements are handled and how, so I can getter a better picture of what the initialization code should do.

Once I have a clearer perspective, I'll update Discussion #35 with my findings and some initial proposal. I really think that the grammar module is going to make the library easier to use, but also easier to maintain for us developers.

I really want to thank you for all your precious support and contributions — without which these important updates would have never come into being, since I was basically stuck and running into circles.

[Rich15]

Fused tests and Library release

@Rich15, I've finally managed to release v2.0.1 of the Spanish library, containing all the fixes and improvements from the dev_alan-es branch.

Hi @tajmone. That's great! Fusing both tests was a really good idea.

examinar verb

I saw you got some questions about the listing of singular and mixed wearable objects, so I'll briefly clarify it:

• If there is a single item in the list, puest$$ should match gender and number of it, whether it is plural or not. Some examples:

  -- m.s: "La mujer lleva puesto un vestido".
  -- f.s: "La mujer lleva puesta una falda".
  -- m.p: "La mujer lleva puestos unos aretes".
  -- f.p: "La mujer lleva puestas unas botas".
  

• If there are more than one item, puesto$$ should do the following:
  • If all items are femenine, then "puestas". (La mujer lleva puestas unas botas y una falda)
  • If there are one or more masculine items, then "puestos". (La mujer lleva puestos una falda y un vestido)
  • If all items are masculine, then "puestos". (La mujer lleva puestos unos aretes y un vestido)

I hope this helps to clarify everything.

Grammar module

Once I have a clearer perspective, I'll update Discussion #35 with my findings and some initial proposal. I really think that the grammar module is going to make the library easier to use, but also easier to maintain for us developers.

I also think that. When you finish your research, I'll be here to help.

Example nouns for test files

Just like we did with actors and wearable items, we'll be needing a list of objects covering each gender and number to test all the possible objects types

Note that in most cases I just put singular items to plural, because there are not so many objects that are "inherently plural" or come in pairs I could come up with. I hope this is fine. So here you go:

Containers

(Here I include food and drinks containers as well)

Femenine

Singular

• La mochila (backpack)
• La caja (box)
• La cartera (either purse or wallet)
• La billetera (wallet)

For food and drinks:

• La lata (can)
• La taza (cup)
• La canasta (basket)
• La botella (bottle)
• La jarra (jug)

Plural

• Las cajas
• Las carteras
• Las tazas
• Las latas
• Las jarras

Masculine

Singular

• El bolso (bag)
• El bidón (drum)
• El frasco (jar)
• El cajón (drawer)
• El tazón (bowl)

Plural

• Los bolsos
• Los bidones
• Los frascos
• Los cajones

Surfaces

Femenine

Singular

• La mesa (table)
• La mesita de noche (bedside table, night table)
• La encimera de cocina (kitchen counter)

Plural

• Las mesas
• Las mesitas de noche
• Las encimeras de cocina

Masculine

Singular

• El escritorio (desk)
• El piso/suelo (floor)
• El mostrador (counter)
• El estante (shelf)

Plural

• Los escritorios
• Los mostradores
• Los estantes

Food

Femenine

Singular

• La carne (meat)
• La torta/tarta (cake)
• La mantequilla (butter)
• La piña (pineapple)
• La jalea (jelly)

Plural

• Las tortas/tartas
• Las piñas
• Las pasas (raisings)
• Las manzanas (apples)

Masculine

Singular

• El pan (bread)
• El arroz (rice)
• El durazno (peach)
• El azúcar (sugar. Particular case: It can be used with a masculine or femenine article, but its adjectives are always femenine)

Plural

• Los panes
• Los duraznos
• Los huevos (eggs)
• Los mangos (mangoes)

Drinks

Femenine

Singular

• La cerveza (beer)
• La sidra (cider)
• La gaseosa (soda)
• La malteada (milk shake)
• La limonada (lemonade)

Plural

• Las cervezas
• Las malteadas
• Las gaseosas

Masculine

Singular

• *El agua (water. Another particular case: It uses a masculine article but its gender is femenine, so I put it here because of the article but technically it's femenine)
• El jugo (juice)
• El vino (wine)
• El ron (rum)
• El café (coffee)
• El té (tea)

Plural

• Los jugos

Weapons

Femenine

Singular

• La pistola (handgun)
• La daga (dagger)
• La escopeta (shotgun)
• La lanza (spear)
• La espada (sword)

Plural

• Las cuchillas (blades)
• Las espadas
• Las flechas (arrows)
• Las granadas (grenades)
• Las minas (mines)

Masculine

Singular

• El cuchillo (knife)
• El rifle (rifle)
• El arco (bow)
• El escudo (shield)

Plural

• Los misiles (missiles)
• Los cuchillos
• Los escudos

Readables

Femenine

Singular

• La carta (letter)
• La libreta (notebook)
• La nota (note)
• La cartelera (billboard)
• La hoja (paper sheet)

Plural

• Las notas
• Las cartas
• Las hojas

Masculine

Singular

• El libro (book)
• El cuaderno (notebook)
• El diario (diary)
• El periódico (newspaper)

Plural

• Los libros
• Los artículos (articles)
• Los informes (reports)

---

Let me know any other examples or explanation you need.

I'm less active this week because I'm feeling a little sick. When I feel better I'll help you with the grammar module and will provide the furnitures examples.

I really want to thank you for all your precious support and contributions — without which these important updates would have never come into being, since I was basically stuck and running into circles.

My pleasure, thanks to you for letting me help. This is my first Git contribution, and I've learnt a lot in just two weeks. Thanks for that! :)

[tajmone]

I saw you got some questions about the listing of singular and mixed wearable objects, so I'll briefly clarify it:

Thanks. Indeed, I realized that the initial code was wrong, I forgot to check the number in single items lists (i.e. I only took into account gender), so I wasn't sure if it was my omission or that was the rule. Anyhow, the code was fixed and now for single items lists the number of the items is taken into account for declining puest*.

Grammar module

I also think that. When you finish your research, I'll be here to help.

Probably the best approach is to begin enforcing those rules which we are sure of, and then face the exceptions as we encounter them. It looks like there are some feminine words that take the masculine article but for which adjectives need to be declined as feminine; so we'll have to accommodate similar exceptions with some easy workaround (I have a couple of solutions in mind, but which one is better depends on other details of the general context).

Example nouns for test files

Thanks a lot for all these sample nouns. I've added them to the README file in the tests/ folder, so they're always at hand:

• dev_alan-es/alan_es/tests/README.md

I've also added the previous nouns that you advised or included in the test adventure.

---

I'm less active this week because I'm feeling a little sick. When I feel better I'll help you with the grammar module and will provide the furnitures examples.

Don't worry, feel free to reply whenever you can. I'm struggling too in these days, after taking the COVID vaccination I'm not in great shape either.

Anyhow, one bit at time the library is progressing. The good thing about Issues and Pull Requests is that they can be attended whenever we want, they are there and don't expire.