Change history¶
Version 5.5 (30 Jul 2022)¶
- New output format: YAML.
- New output for text format: maps.
- New option:
-v
(verbose), which shows more information when running. - The
maps
option of the-show
command has been removed (it’s superseded by the new text map output). - The
-e
option (specify max errors before exiting) has been removed. - Fixed problem caused by recent compiler versions becoming a bit fussier.
Version 5.4 (13 Feb 2009)¶
- Some documentation updates and fixes.
- Fixed build problems on various systems.
Version 5.3 (14 Nov 2008)¶
- New
them
keyword, which refers to the list of items mentioned in the current statement. - New game-solver variables:
finish_room
,finish_item
andfinish_task
, which can be a comma-separated list of extra rooms, items and tasks which get assigned thefinish
attribute (i.e., cause the solver to exit). - New task graph variables:
task_graph_wrap
, which controls word-wrapping when printing graph nodes, andtask_graph_font
, which sets the text font. - The new keywords
true
andfalse
can be used in place of 1 and 0, respectively, when setting variables. - Both versions of the personal initialization file (
.ifmrc
andifm.ini
) are now read, if they exist. - There’s a new Perl script
ifm2web
, which converts IFM maps to image files suitable for the Interweb. - The GNU Emacs
ifm-mode.el
in thecontrib
directory has been improved: it can display task recording and debugging output, now hasimenu
andflymake
support, and a minor bug fix. - The documentation is now much prettier, thanks to Sphinx and Pygments.
The
contrib
directory contains the Python module used to syntax-highlight IFM code and IF transcripts. - Since
asciimapper
is now in the IF archive, it is no longer part of thecontrib
directory. - PostScript maps now conform properly to Adobe DSC. This stops Ghostscript 8.x barfing on them.
Version 5.2 (7 Sep 2006)¶
- There’s a new
-errors
option, which controls the maximum number of errors printed before giving up. - New program in the
contrib
directory:asciimapper
. This is a tool to create IFM maps from ASCII art maps, contributed by Elijah Griffin. - The GNU Emacs
ifm-mode.el
in thecontrib
directory has new commands to display maps, items and tasks and various other things. Based on an initial version contributed by Lee Bigelow. - Several unused features which added needless complexity have been
removed. These are: preprocessing by
gpp
, expressions for real/integer values, and variable interpolation in strings. - An obscure bug has been fixed which involved the
follow
andneed
attributes combined. This caused some valid task orderings to be flagged as cycles. - A bug with modification of room attributes has been fixed.
- Don’t crash when trying to solve game and there are no rooms.
- A crash when trying to print an error message about cyclic task dependencies has been fixed.
Version 5.1 (30 Nov 2004)¶
- The
tkifm
program now supports line numbering and syntax highlighting, thanks to a contributor who wishes to remain anonymous. - There is now a man page summarizing the command-line options.
- In PostScript output, up/down and in/out labels are now drawn separately, next to their respective rooms. Also, if a link leaves a room and returns to the same room, it’s drawn as a small circle. Thanks to Dan Eble.
- Hopefully, the Windows port should work properly now.
- Fixed weird bug with scaled arcs in PostScript output. More thanks to Dan Eble.
- Fixed bug in
ifm2tex
with converting strings to TeX format (specifically, ones with embedded zeros). - Fixed crash when using
it
in some circumstances.
Version 5.0 (23 Jan 2003)¶
- New map output: Fig format, suitable for viewing or editing with Xfig, or exporting to other formats.
- New utility program:
ifm2dev
, which pipes IFM output in Fig format throughfig2dev
repeatedly to write each map section to its own file. - New utility program:
ifm2tex
, which converts Fig files to EPS and includes them in a LaTeX document together with tables of items and tasks. - New task output: graphviz (
dot
) format, which dumps a task dependency graph. - New
keep with
andkeep until
syntax for items, allowing items to be kept until certain tasks are done or certain other items are dropped. - New room
nodrop
attribute, indicating that no items should be dropped there. - New task and item
ignore
attribute, indicating that these things should be ignored when finding a solution. - New task
do
attribute, indicating that when a task is done, it also does one or more other tasks automatically. - New option:
-style
, which sets global styles for all IFM objects. - New option:
-set
, which lets you set variables from the command line. To support this, the variable-setting syntax has been changed: instead of a space separating the driver name from the variable, there’s now a period. - New
-show
option:maps
, which lists all the map sections and their sizes. - The
-map
option now accepts an optional list of map sections to print. - There’s a bunch of new variables to control things, including the overall behaviour of the game solver.
- IFM input is now preprocessed, in a similar way to C programs. As a
result, the old
include
andalias
features have been replaced with the preprocessor equivalents. - There’s a new
require
keyword, which lets you say that a certain version of IFM (or later) is required for a map. - Changed implicit-link style behaviour: the
style
clause on a room now applies to both the room and the implicit link, so it’s now independent of its position relative to thedir
clause. - The command-line option
-debug
has been removed; its functionality has been replaced by a control variable. - The old
puzzle
andspecial
attributes have finally been removed; if you have any old maps which use these, you must replace them with the corresponding styles instead. - Documentation is now distributed in HTML and PDF formats, instead of GNU Info.
- The GNU Emacs IFM mode in the
contrib
directory now has font lock support. Theifm.vim
file has also been updated with the latest keywords. - Fixed bug with room
link
andjoin
attributes: it didn’t work to uselast
as an argument. - Fixed glitch in room text on PostScript output: now tries reducing font size before squishing, so that text is filled better.
Version 4.1 (10 May 1999)¶
- Fixed minor task bug: in special cases, giving items caused solver to fail to find newly-opened paths.
- Fixed stupid blunder with DOS
\r
characters in one of the source files. - Fixed core dump problem when reading colour definitions (on FreeBSD, at least).
Version 4.0 (21 Apr 1999)¶
- PostScript driver can now print in colour.
- New 3D room shadowing effect on maps.
- Many new output variables to control new map features.
- Variables can now be set via expressions, not just values. Variables can now be used to customize many aspects of the input (e.g., notes, repeat counts).
- Individual parts of the map can now be customized using display styles.
- New
include
syntax, which allows files to include other files, either explicitly or via a path search. - New
-include
(-I
) option to prepend directories to the search path from the command line. - New
-show
option to show various things (defined variables, search path), also included intkifm
menus. - More information is now printed in item lists: which tasks require an item, which tasks an item requires, etc.
- Some example maps are now bundled with IFM, in the
demos
subdirectory. - Names and defaults of many output variables have been changed in order to make them more consistent.
- Extra complexity in variable syntax has been removed, as it wasn’t being used. Specifically, variables can’t be set according to type of output or per-map-section any more, only by output driver.
- Removed formatted man page documentation: now only Info, HTML and text documentation is distributed. If there are enough complaints, I’ll put it back.
- The
puzzle
andspecial
attributes are now obsolete; they’re replaced by display styles. tkifm
now redisplays old map windows when refreshing the map.- Win32 version is now compiled with Cygwin b20, and so requires
cygwin1.dll
(notcygwin.dll
), included in the distribution. SeeREADME.win32
for details.
Version 3.0 (1 Oct 1998)¶
- There’s a new program
scr2ifm
in the distribution, which attempts to convert a game transcript into IFM format. It’s a perl script, and gets installed on Unix-type systems if perl is detected. - New
nolink
attribute for rooms, which suppresses generation of an implicit link between this and the previous room. - New
nopath
attribute for rooms, links and joins, which stops those map connections from being used by the game solver. - New task
cmd none
syntax, for tasks that don’t need any special user commands (e.g., visiting a room for the first time). - New PostScript variable
link_arrowsize
, which allows you to change the size of arrowheads on one-way links. tkifm
is now installed automatically on Unix-type systems ifwish
(or one of its namesakes) is detected.tkifm
now shows busy-cursor when doing something CPU-intensive.- Improved solver failure messages, which give more information about what’s wrong.
- Removed PostScript documentation from distribution.
- The
times
keyword is now obsolete (but still works, for compatibility); just the repeat count is used instead. - Fixed bug with
drop all except
clause; it was treating it as just a simpledrop
clause. - Fixed bug in task path calculation; it didn’t always choose the best route between rooms.
- Linking a room to itself with no
dir
clause now results in an error, instead of failing mysteriously at the map-drawing stage. - Minor fixes to make installation smoother on FreeBSD.
Version 2.1 (26 Aug 1998)¶
- Fixed bug which caused some types of variable not to be set properly.
- Minor fixes to library functions to link properly under Solaris.
Version 2.0 (19 Aug 1998)¶
- Lots of new keywords for use by the game solver, which has been considerably enhanced.
- New commands to modify previous definitions, which allow you to keep all game hacks in one place.
- New
show_tags
variable, which toggles addition of room tag names to room descriptions. - New
-debug
command-line option, which gives the gory details of what the game solver is up to. - New recording output, which can generate commands to play back in interpreters.
- Package now has a test suite.
- Links and joins can now be
hidden
, which means they’re used only for task purposes. - Removed
groff
output; it’s not worth supporting any more, now that PostScript output works so well. - Text task output now prints details of the rooms you move through to get places, including directions moved in (or commands typed to move that way).
- PostScript driver now has some standard page sizes. Also there’s a
variable
page_rotate
which can override the default decisions on whether to print landscape or not. - Having no rooms defined is not an error any more, in order to placate
tkifm
. - Changed list attributes to be cumulative, instead of overriding previous value.
- Variables can now be set to
undef
, which allows their default setting to reappear. - Various
tkifm
enhancements to make it convenient to use your preferred editor. - Unix version now uses GNU autoconf/automake for installation.
- Got
tkifm
save-as option to set current filename properly. - Stopped outside grid warnings from causing
tkifm
to fail when drawing map. - Library function now doesn’t clobber read-only strings.
Version 1.0 (11 Jun 1998)¶
- First release.