Re: Inform: Disappointment in new manual
24 Nov 95 14:24:56 GMT
In article <48tld7$q52@krel.iea.com>, jessem@comtch.iea.com (Jesse McGrew) writes:
> Sam Hulick (shulick@papaya.ucs.indiana.edu) wrote:
> : Looking through the new manual, I figure I'd find something about #Stub,
> : but I didn't. How does it work? Why is it that when I do this:
>
> : #Stub CreditRoutine 0;
>
> : then I define CreditRoutine() later, it complains about it being
> : multiply defined?? What does the number mean after the routine name?
>
> I think you have to put the #stub directive at the end of the file. It
> sees that CreditRoutine is not defined, and defines it. When you define
> it again, it complains about multiple definition. The number is how many
> arguments the function takes.
Indeed. Gareth Rees has already posted a fuller answer.
I'm sorry you were disappointed. But I would argue that Stub is a
directive really only provided for internal library use; it's one of
the very low-level features of Inform useful in the primitive depths
of the library, but not worth confusing designers with.
I'm sure it's documented in the Technical Manual, which is where this
kind of primitive feature is usually written down.
In any case, what do you want it for that couldn't be done more
clearly and easily with IFDEF or IFNDEF? I really don't think I'm
hiding away a significant feature here!
Graham Nelson
Oxford