Chapter 3: Place
3.6. Windows

Calvin Coolidge once described windows as "rectangles of glass." For us, they have two purposes: first, they offer a view of landscape beyond. In the simplest case the view is of an area which will not be interacted with in play, and therefore does not need to adapt to whatever may have changed there:

The window is scenery in the Turret. "Through the window you see miles and miles of unbroken forest, turning from green to flame in the hard early autumn."

More interesting is to adapt the view a little to provide a changing picture: a forest may not change much, but a street scene will. Port Royal 4 allows us to glimpse random passers-by.

The trickiest kind of window allows the player to see another room which can also be encountered in play, and to interact with what is there. Dinner is Served presents a shop window, allowing people to see inside from the street, and even to reach through.

Vitrine handles the complication of a window misting up to become opaque, and thus temporarily hiding its view.

Second, windows provide openings in walls and can act as conduits. Escape shows how a "door" in the Inform sense can become a window. A Haughty Spirit provides a general kind of window for jumping down out of: ideal for escapers from Colditz-like castles.

* See Doors, Staircases, and Bridges for a door which can be partially seen through


20
** Example  Escape
Window that can be climbed through or looked through.

WI
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* Example  Vitrine
An electrochromic window that becomes transparent or opaque depending on whether it is currently turned on.

WI

"Vitrine"

Plaza View is a room. "Your uncle's apartment, on loan to you for viewing the parade and celebrations today. This would be more of a sacrifice on his part if he weren't currently yachting around Corfu."

The smart window is a device in Plaza View. It is fixed in place. "A vast smart window [if transparent]overlooks the park[otherwise]has turned to a sheet of hazy blue[end if]." The smart window can be transparent. The smart window is transparent. The description is "An electrochromic device which changes shade and transparency in response to the application of current.

Curtains are so last year."

Note the "can be transparent" line. Devices ordinarily are not allowed to have transparency or opaqueness, but we can make an exception in this case. Without that line, attempts to change the transparency of the window will fail.

Carry out switching off the window: now the window is transparent.

Carry out switching on the window: now the window is opaque.

Instead of searching a transparent window: say "Isn't it lovely out there?"

Instead of searching an opaque window: say "The window is currently darkened."

Test me with "look through window / switch window / look through window / look".

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** Example  Port Royal 4
A cell window through which the player can see people who were in Port Royal in the current year of game-time.

WI
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** Example  Dinner is Served
A window between two locations. When the window is open, the player can reach through into the other location; when it isn't, access is barred.

WI
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*** Example  A Haughty Spirit
Windows overlooking lower spaces which will prevent the player from climbing through if the lower space is too far below.

WI


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