----- Original Message -----

From: Wolfgang Spraul

Sent: 02/03/11 10:49 PM

To: discussion@lists.en.qi-hardware.com

Subject: interaction fiction - Curveship running on NanoNote


 
Just got exciting news from our NanoNote customer and supporter 
Nick Montfort. Yesterday he released his interactive fiction system 
Curveship, and today it's already running on his Ben NanoNote! :-) 

http://nickm.com/post/2011/02/pocket-curveship/ 

Curveship is (quoting) "an interactive fiction system that provides 
a world model (of characters, objects, locations, and things that 
happen) while also modeling the narrative discourse, so that the 
narration and description of the simulated world can change. 
Curveship can tell events out of order, using flashback and other 
techniques, and can tell the story from the standpoint of particular 
characters and their perceptions and understandings." 

This from the man who made me think the most the last years saying 
something as simple as 
 "the purpose of the phone is to interrupt you". 
Yes, very much so, it always was designed for that purpose, and 
everything that is being added lately adds to the interruption 
engine. 
Nothing wrong with being interrupted for a good reason, but I 
think there is room for a better phone... :-) Anyway, that's a 
separate project. 

Upon Nick's request we ported frotz to the NanoNote which is 
included in the 2010-12-14 OpenWrt image. We will package 
Curveship next. 

If you want to learn more about interactive fiction, the release 
of Curveship makes it good timing to do so now. Here are a few 
links: 

Curveship README: https://github.com/nickmontfort/curveship/blob/master/README 
Curveship release post: http://nickm.com/post/2011/02/curveship_released/ 
Curveship homepage: http://curveship.com/ 
Curveship sources: https://github.com/nickmontfort/curveship 
Nick Montfort: http://nickm.com/ 

Nick is also working on something he calls 'toy box for language', 
tailored for the NanoNote. Very much looking forward to that 
one day... 
Thanks a lot for Nick's continued support, and I hope we see more 
interaction fiction thanks to Curveship, and on the NanoNote. 

>>> This is extremely interesting to me because back in '07 i was on the hunt for a perfect PDA and one of my criteria (oddly enough) was that some interactive fiction system had to run on it. My choice back then was a Jornada 720. Basically, as I learned in 07, there are a few major engines for I.F. TADS being the one I was most interested in. Now however, since I value and strive for digital freedom whenever I can, I do not like TADS as much because it is non-free (author was nice enough to release interpreter, author's kit for Unix, Linux but NO source code so NO adaptability to port to new platforms. This was a big deal for me because even after getting the J720, the version of Window$ on the unit was NOT supported by the only port to handheld OS'es. All this while the J720 is CLEARLY capable hardware-wise of running ANY text game system out there! I did not know that much about linux then, but had I known about it, I would have felt better about moving to a Free system rather than letting them co-exist in my boxes that I ran. Oddly, for the price of propietary software, you get less in terms of flexibility... anyways...

The main big boys in IF are ADRIFT (non-free M$ only) TADS (uses own license probably NOT GPL compatible) Hugo, (source code available here
http://www.generalcoffee.com/hugo/gethugo.html#developer but no visible license) and Inform (currently at version 7 , binaries available for Linux, BSD but NO source readily available)

Whereas I would have wanted to run ALL systems on my PDA before, I realize for legal and technical reasons it is not possible. Especially because of non-free licences.

Now I am interested in the subject in general and would like to give writing for them a go. I myght even be able to link in my comic art skills too!

Hope I did not hijack the post or talk you guys' ears off.

take care, hack well