Appendix 3 - Glossary

Actor		An Actor in ADL	is similar to an Actor in  a
		play, in that the Actor	has a script to	fol-
		low (the lines typed  by  the  player),	 and
		there may be more than one Actor acting	at a
		time.

Adjective	An adjective  is  a  part  of  speech  which
		describes  a  noun.   "Red", "green", "big",
		and "rusty" are	all adjectives.

Argument	An argument to an ADL routine is one of	 the
		list  of "things" which	the routine was	told
		to operate on.	For example, in	the  routine
		call  ($plus 20	30 40) the first argument is
		20, the	second argument	is 30, and the third
		argument is 40.

Article		An article is a	part of	speech	which  often
		conveys	some sense of "definiteness".  "The"
		is an article, as are  "a"  and	 "an".	 ADL
		ignores	 articles  in  player  sentences, so
		their proper use is of little importance.

ASCII		ASCII (which stands  for  American  Standard
		Code  for Information Interchange, as if you
		really	wanted	to  know)  is  a  method  of
		representing  characters  (such	as "a",	"b",
		"9", etc.) as numbers  for  the	 purpose  of
		computer   manipulation.   Thus,  the  ASCII
		representation of the letter "A" is 65.	 The
		expression  "the ASCII representation of the
		number 45308" is often	heard.	 This  means
		that  the number 45308 is represented as the
		ASCII string "45308".  This is slightly	dif-
		ferent than the	ASCII code of a	character.

BNF		BNF is a method	of representing	 the  syntax
		of a language in a concise way.	 In English,
		one may	say that "A list is  a	sequence  of
		things."  In  BNF,  one	may say	that "list =
		thing *" which means that a list consists of
		zero  or  more things.	(This is actually an
		extended form of BNF which is  more  concise
		than  the  original).	Other things one may
		say include "foo = bar +" which	 means	that
		foo consists of	one or more bars;  "bletch =
		[ ack ]	gag" which means that a	bletch is an
		optional ack followed by a gag.	 Parentheses
		may be used for	grouping; for example "abcbc
		= a ( b	c ) *" means that an abcbc is an "a"
		followed by zero or more occurrences of	 the
		two-element list "b c".

Buffer		See Line Buffer.

Conjunction	A conjunction is a part	of speech  which  is
		used   to  join	 two  parts  of	 a  sentence
		together.   Conjunctions  include  the	word
		"and", the word	"but", and the comma ",".

Container	A container  is	 an  object  which  contains
		another	object,	just as	in real	life.

Daemon		A daemon is  a	routine	 which	is  executed
		periodically.  For example, in real life Joe
		Blow  goes  on	a  coffee  break  every	  15
		minutes.   A coffee break could	then be	con-
		sidered	a daemon  which	 executes  every  15
		minutes	 (and  Joe  Blow could be considered
		lazy).	ADL daemons execute once every turn.

Direct Object	A direct object	is a part of speech on which
		the verb is "acting" directly.	For example,
		in the sentence	"Take  the  food"  the	word
		"food" is the direct object.  Direct objects
		may consist of more than one word.

Fuse		A fuse is similar to a	daemon	except	that
		instead	 of  being executed periodically, it
		waits a	for some time to pass then  executes
		exactly	 once.	 For  example,	in real	life
		setting	your alarm to go off at	six  o'clock
		in  the	morning	could be considered activat-
		ing a fuse.

Global		See Variable.

Global Variable	See Variable.

Implementor	The implementor	is the person who wrote	 the
		ADL  compiler  and ADL interpreter which run
		on your	computer.  Send	the implementor	lots
		of praise and/or money.

Indirect Object	An indirect object is a	part of	speech which
		is  indirectly	acted upon by the verb.	 For
		example, in the	sentence "Take the rock	from
		the stream", "stream" is the indirect object
		as it is not directly affected by  the	verb
		"take".	  Usually an indirect object is	pre-
		ceded by a preposition.	 There is  one	case
		where  it  is not.  For	example, in the	sen-
		tence "Give the	frog the  bait"	 it  is	 the
		bait  which  is	 being given.  This may	seem
		confusing but if you rewrite the sentence as
		"Give  the  bait  to the frog" it makes	more
		sense.

Line Buffer	A line buffer is an area in  the  memory  of
		the  computer  where the last line which was
		typed by a player is  stored.	Words  which
		are  read  by  the Parser are read from	this
		buffer,	not directly from the keyboard.

Local Variable	See Variable.

Location	The location of	some specified object is the
		object which contains the specified object.

Modifier	A modifier is a	 part  of  speech  which  is
		essentially  the  same	as  an	adjective in
		function.  ADL allows some verbs to  act  as
		modifiers  in  order  to  better  mimic	 the
		English	language.

Noun		A noun is a person, place, or thing.  A	desk
		is  a noun.  America is	a noun.	 Fred Rogers
		is a noun.  "Noun" and "object"	are normally
		interchangeable	  terms.   Usually  however,
		when a reference is made to something  being
		a  "noun"  it implies that something is	just
		one word (as in	"desk"), and not  two  words
		(as in "blue streak").

Object		See Noun.

Parse		Parsing	is the process of breaking  down  an
		input  string  into  structured	 data.	 For
		example, parsing the string "Take the  green
		brick  and  the	 nail  from  the wall" would
		parse  into  the  verb	"Take",	 the  direct
		objects	"green brick" and "nail", the prepo-
		sition	"from",	 and  the  indirect   object
		"wall".

Player		A player is a person who plays a game.	Gen-
		erally,	a player is associated with an Actor
		in an ADL scenario.

Preposition	A preposition is  a  part  of  speech  which
		often  specifies some location (like "under"
		or "beside") or	some destination (like	"in"
		or  "on").  Prepositions are generally found
		before Indirect	Objects	 in  sentences,	 but
		occasionally modify Verbs.

Prompt		A prompt is some sort of  message  from	 the
		computer  to  a	 human	indicating that	some
		input is expected.

Programmer	The programmer (in  this  documentation,  at
		least)	is  the	 person	who created the	game
		scenario which is compiled  and	 interpreted
		by  ADL.  Send the programmer lots of praise
		and/or money too.

Room		A room is any object that a player may even-
		tually enter.

Routine		A routine is a series of instructions to the
		computer  telling  it  what  to	say, what to
		move, what to read, and/or where to go.

Scenario	A "scenario" is	like a scene in	a play -  it
		specifies  where  Objects  are located,	what
		events might occur, who	is present, and	what
		they  may  do.	 A scenario is somewhat	more
		general	than a scene since scenarios contain
		rules  for  generating	many possible scenes
		whereas	scenes are static.

Separator	A  separator  is  a  part  of  speech  which
		separates two sentences.  A separator can be
		a period ".", the word "then", or the end of
		a line.

String		A string is a series of	characters (letters,
		etc.)  surrounded  by quote marks.  "foo bar
		bletch"	is a string (legal in both the	com-
		pilation  and  execution  phases of ADL) and
		'Hi, there!' is	a string (legal	only in	 the
		execution phase	of ADL).

Stack		A stack	is like	a stack	of dishes:  you	 may
		put  a new dish	on top of the stack (this is
		known as "pushing") or you may take  a	dish
		from  the top of the stack (this is known as
		"popping").  You may not  take	dishes	from
		the bottom or middle of	the stack; likewise,
		a computer stack doesn't allow the  deletion
		of elements in the middle of the stack.

Syntax		The syntax of a	language is the	set of rules
		which  say how things may be put together in
		order  to  make	 a  valid  program  in	that
		language.

User		See Player.

Variable	A variable is a	location in the	memory of  a
		computer  in  which  values  may  be stored,
		changed, and erased.  Global  variables	 (or
		globals	 for  short) are variables which are
		directly accessible by name to all  routines
		of  an	ADL  program.	Local  variables (or
		locals)	 are  variables	  which	  are	only
		directly  accessible by	the routine in which
		they are named.	 They  are  only  indirectly
		accessible by other routines.

Verb		A verb is a part  of  speech  which  implies
		some action.  "Take", "run", "eat", "sleep",
		and "hide" are all verbs.