Inform

Official development environment for Inform, a programming language for

creating interactive fiction, using natural language syntax.

Using natural language and drawing on ideas from linguistics and from

literate programming, Inform is widely used as a medium for literary

writing, as a prototyping tool in the games industry, and in education, both

at school and university level (where Inform is often assigned material for

courses on digital narrative).

The Inform project was created by Graham Nelson in 1993 and first came to

the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop in 1995, and is now available as an app.

It combines the core Inform software with full documentation, including two

books and nearly 500 fully working examples. Connecting to the Inform website,

it can automatically download and update extensions from a fully curated Public

Library used by the world-wide Inform community. The app offers richly detailed

indexing of projects and scales from tiny fictions like "Kate is a woman in the

Research Lab" right up to enormous imaginary worlds whose source text runs to

over 3 million words. Features for automated testing, packaging and releasing

round out a fully-featured development environment for IF.

Inform is free, with no strings attached. What you make with it is yours, to

publish on your website, sell, or give to your friends. There's a vibrant community

of users who welcome newcomers (and the app will help you find a high-traffic forum