programming/alan/alan.readme

                       ALAN ADVENTURE LANGUAGE 



                      Release 2.8 now available 
                        Date: 1999-11-14 



THE NEWS IN SHORT: 

o The previously available mail delivery service has been 
discontinued. 
  Registration is now personally with 

        thomas.nilsson@progindus.se 

o Version 2.8 is out. 

o Alan Home Pages has moved to 

        http://welcome.to/alan-if 



THE LONG STORY: 

The Alan System is one of the most easy-to-use tools to create 
interactive fiction, aka. adventure games. The Alan System is based on 
a special purpose computer language designed to be used by people more 
interested in authoring and designing games than for computer 
programmers.  The system consists of a compiler which compiles Alan 
source to a compact and portable form and an interpreter that 
interprets such a form to allow playing of the game. 

Version 2.8 is an upgrade with some new features and bug fixes (see 
the file Changes and the documentation for details) 

The format of game files have changed slightly between 2.7 and 
2.8. The 2.8 interpreter should run 2.7 compiled games. Older 
interpreters are available for various platforms. 

The Alan System is register-ware. To use Alan all you need to do is to 
register. Registration can be done with a simple email to Thomas 
Nilsson (thomas.nilsson@progindus.se) with a message *body* containing 
the single word REGISTER. 

Complete distribution and documentation packages, as well as other 
related information, are available from the Alan Home Pages at 

        http://welcome.to/alan-if 

or 

        ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/alan 

and its mirrors. 

The distributions package contains some small examples as well as the 
compiler and interpreter. The documentation is separately available as 
text, html or PostScript. 

For complete copying conditions refer to the file COPYING in the 
distribution or appendix J in the manual. 

If you have any problems don't hesitate to contact the authors at the 
following email addresses: 

        thomas.nilsson@progindus.se 
        gorfo@ida.liu.se 

All communication is welcome! You may also wish to visit the 
Alan Home Pages at 

        http://welcome.to/alan-if 




If you haven't already, join the 1133 people registered. Happy 
Authoring! 



        The ThoNi & GorFo Adventure Factories