Alan interpreter for Mac OS X

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Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

You may have noticed an Alan game in the competition.

I wasn't looking forward to getting another interpreter just to play
one game, but I did. I was correct to not look forward to it because
it took me an hour to get a working interpreter. I had to compile it.
Getting the interpreter and compiling it was not fun.

But it did mean I got to play and score the Alan game in the comp.

So if you run Mac OS X and would like to judge the Alan game in the
comp and cannot get an interpreter working then I can e-mail you the
interpreter I used.

I can only do this on a private basis because it was just something I
glued together and compiled to play the one game, I would take more
care if I was making it available for public download.

Caveats: it was compiled in a hurry and using cheapglk so the word
wrapping doesn't work. This is possible to live with.

e-mail me if you want it. I would hate for the Alan game to receive
fewer votes than it deserves.

David Jones

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Here, David Jones <drj@pobox.com> wrote:
> You may have noticed an Alan game in the competition.
>
> I wasn't looking forward to getting another interpreter just to play
> one game, but I did. I was correct to not look forward to it because
> it took me an hour to get a working interpreter. I had to compile it.
> Getting the interpreter and compiling it was not fun.
>
> But it did mean I got to play and score the Alan game in the comp.

The "MacInterpreters.sit" bundle in the comp04 directory contains a
prebuilt Alan interpreter for MacOS Classic. I believe it's the same
one as at
<http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/programming/alan/executables/MacGlk-Alan-020.sit.hqx>.

I played the Alan entry with it, so I can tell you that it works under
Classic mode on OSX.

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
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* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote in message news:<clockq$ero$1@reader1.panix.com>...
> Here, David Jones <drj@pobox.com> wrote:
> > You may have noticed an Alan game in the competition.
> >
> > I wasn't looking forward to getting another interpreter just to play
> > one game, but I did. I was correct to not look forward to it because
> > it took me an hour to get a working interpreter. I had to compile it.
> > Getting the interpreter and compiling it was not fun.
> >
> > But it did mean I got to play and score the Alan game in the comp.
>
> The "MacInterpreters.sit" bundle in the comp04 directory contains a
> prebuilt Alan interpreter for MacOS Classic. I believe it's the same
> one as at
> <http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/programming/alan/executables/MacGlk-Alan-020.sit.hqx>.
>
> I played the Alan entry with it, so I can tell you that it works under
> Classic mode on OSX.

I think I tried that version. It ran, but I couldn't convince the
open dialog to list the relevant file. I blame it on the mess Apple
made of file types and file creators (in OS X).

Anyway, I managed to avoid Classic _and_ a GUI. Bonus!

David Jones

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Here, David Jones <drj@pobox.com> wrote:
> Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote in message news:<clockq$ero$1@reader1.panix.com>...
> > Here, David Jones <drj@pobox.com> wrote:
> > > You may have noticed an Alan game in the competition.
> > >
> > > I wasn't looking forward to getting another interpreter just to play
> > > one game, but I did. I was correct to not look forward to it because
> > > it took me an hour to get a working interpreter. I had to compile it.
> > > Getting the interpreter and compiling it was not fun.
> > >
> > > But it did mean I got to play and score the Alan game in the comp.
> >
> > The "MacInterpreters.sit" bundle in the comp04 directory contains a
> > prebuilt Alan interpreter for MacOS Classic. I believe it's the same
> > one as at
> > <http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/programming/alan/executables/MacGlk-Alan-020.sit.hqx>.
> >
> > I played the Alan entry with it, so I can tell you that it works under
> > Classic mode on OSX.
>
> I think I tried that version. It ran, but I couldn't convince the
> open dialog to list the relevant file. I blame it on the mess Apple
> made of file types and file creators (in OS X).

The IFDropFile utility (also in the Mac package) will fix that.

And I think you can't blame it on OSX. You would have gotten the
same result on OS7-9 system, because the games are packaged in a .zip
file which does not store type/creator information. (Or perhaps you
downloaded the Alan data file directly, in which case you got a MIME
type of application/octet-stream, which leads to the same result.)

IFDropFile exists to fix this situation -- it was designed long before
OSX, of course.

The mess Apple made in OSX was an attempt to *resolve* the mismatch
(between HFS metadata and the Unix standards that the Internet grew up
around). It didn't work, but I can't blame them -- the problem is
unsolvable. Anything they could have done would have led to problems,
and that includes continuing the pre-OSX model. As this example
demonstrates.

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote in message news:<clr5jc$ehc$2@reader1.panix.com>...
> Here, David Jones <drj@pobox.com> wrote:
> > Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote in message news:<clockq$ero$1@reader1.panix.com>...
> > >
> > > The "MacInterpreters.sit" bundle in the comp04 directory contains a
> > > prebuilt Alan interpreter for MacOS Classic. I believe it's the same
> > > one as at
> > > <http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/programming/alan/executables/MacGlk-Alan-020.sit.hqx>.
> > >
> > > I played the Alan entry with it, so I can tell you that it works under
> > > Classic mode on OSX.
> >
> > I think I tried that version. It ran, but I couldn't convince the
> > open dialog to list the relevant file. I blame it on the mess Apple
> > made of file types and file creators (in OS X).
>
> The IFDropFile utility (also in the Mac package) will fix that.

Ah, so it was just my stubborn refusal to do things The Mac way.
That's what I get for being a Unix refugee I guess.

Tell you what though, just tell me the creator and type values and
I'll use SetFile.

> And I think you can't blame it on OSX. You would have gotten the
> same result on OS7-9 system, because the games are packaged in a .zip
> file which does not store type/creator information. (Or perhaps you
> downloaded the Alan data file directly, in which case you got a MIME
> type of application/octet-stream, which leads to the same result.)

The zip file I think.

A quick experiment reveals that zip can store type/creator information
but it does this by creating (in the zip file) a directory called
__MACOSX; how unpleasant. I would've thought zip could do better than
that. It would be nice if there was one archive file that would work
on all platforms nicely, but not even I would wish directories called
__MACOSX on Windows users.

> IFDropFile exists to fix this situation -- it was designed long before
> OSX, of course.
>
> The mess Apple made in OSX was an attempt to *resolve* the mismatch
> (between HFS metadata and the Unix standards that the Internet grew up
> around). It didn't work, but I can't blame them -- the problem is
> unsolvable. Anything they could have done would have led to problems,
> and that includes continuing the pre-OSX model. As this example
> demonstrates.

I only used pre OS X Macs a little bit, but didn't Stuffit Expander
call on Internet File Helper (or something like that) to try and guess
the type and owner of files in archives that didn't store it? Why
doesn't BOMArchiveHelper do that?

Given that OS X has lots of files with unset creator ids, which Carbon
and Cocoa apps generally cope with but Classic apps do not, and given
that the OS knows what creator ids the Classic application needs when
it uses an open dialog why doesn't it conservatively list the files
without creator ids?

Anyway, this is all silly and very off-topic.

David Jones

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Here, David Jones <drj@pobox.com> wrote:
> Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote in message news:<clr5jc$ehc$2@reader1.panix.com>...
> > Here, David Jones <drj@pobox.com> wrote:
> > > Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote in message news:<clockq$ero$1@reader1.panix.com>...
> > > >
> > > > The "MacInterpreters.sit" bundle in the comp04 directory contains a
> > > > prebuilt Alan interpreter for MacOS Classic. I believe it's the same
> > > > one as at
> > > > <http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/programming/alan/executables/MacGlk-Alan-020.sit.hqx>.
> > > >
> > > > I played the Alan entry with it, so I can tell you that it works under
> > > > Classic mode on OSX.
> > >
> > > I think I tried that version. It ran, but I couldn't convince the
> > > open dialog to list the relevant file. I blame it on the mess Apple
> > > made of file types and file creators (in OS X).
> >
> > The IFDropFile utility (also in the Mac package) will fix that.
>
> Ah, so it was just my stubborn refusal to do things The Mac way.
> That's what I get for being a Unix refugee I guess.
>
> Tell you what though, just tell me the creator and type values and
> I'll use SetFile.

My Mac type/creator guide (written at the same time as IFDropFile) is at
<http://www.eblong.com/zarf/ifdropfile.html>.

> I only used pre OS X Macs a little bit, but didn't Stuffit Expander
> call on Internet File Helper (or something like that) to try and guess
> the type and owner of files in archives that didn't store it? Why
> doesn't BOMArchiveHelper do that?

OSX does this to some extent, but it's guessing based on file suffix.
You don't have IF-related file suffixes in your Internet prefs.
(Unless you've added them by hand with a third-party tool, of which
there are a few, but I can't remember the names offhand.)

> Given that OS X has lots of files with unset creator ids, which Carbon
> and Cocoa apps generally cope with but Classic apps do not, and given
> that the OS knows what creator ids the Classic application needs when
> it uses an open dialog why doesn't it conservatively list the files
> without creator ids?

That's conservative from the OS's point of view, but liberal from the
user's point of view. It allows the user to select nearly any file
from a Classic-app open dialog. In general, that means the user
selects an inappropriate file and crashes his app.

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.