>examine interactive fiction

Yesterday, I blogged about my first foray into the world of Interactive Fiction. While searching the web last night, two things in particular grabbed my attention.

The first is a blog post at Dorophone titled “On Inform 7, Natural Language Programming and the Principle of Least Surprise.” The article is clearly written from the viewpoint of a coder. The author does an excellent job of examining the “natural” qualities of Inform 7’s syntax, discusses many of the positives and negatives of programming in such an environment, and compares it to other languages such Inform 6 and python.

The other site is Emily Short’s Interactive Fiction. Emily Short writes both interactive fiction and about interactive fiction. After briefly browsing her articles, which I plan to revisit in the near future, I was left with the impression she has developed a mastery of the medium. The information found here is invaluable to anyone interested in interactive fiction, including novices, veterens, and everything in between. I discovered this site thanks to @christophernies, who recommended Galatea, an IF written by Emily Short.