Welcome! |
Thanks for installing the TADS 3 Early Adopter's Kit! TADS 3 is a new generation of the Text Adventure Development System. This new version provides the benefits of past versions with many new features and improvements. TADS 3 is a new system, and it's not "finished" yet. I put the "finished" in quotes because software is rarely, if ever, really finished; there's almost always something new that can be added or something old that can be improved. However, there's usually some point at which a program could be considered complete, if not necessarily finished, and TADS 3 certainly isn't at that point yet. What TADS 3 lacks most right now is a standard interactive fiction library. Without the library, TADS is just a general-purpose programming tool, not a specialized IF development system. The library is my next project. Despite the absence of a library, I think TADS 3 might be
interesting to enough people at this point that I'm making it
available. If you want to develop a library, this release will
give you a chance to start writing code immediately. Otherwise,
this release will give you some idea of how the language and
the tools are put together.
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Getting Started |
This release is probably a little bare-bones if you don't consider yourself a "power user." If you're looking for a tool that you can start using to write a game immediately, you will be much happier with the previous version, TADS 2. You can find a great collection of information on TADS 2, and interactive fiction in general, on Neil K. Guy's TADS Page.
The Usenet newsgroup
rec.arts.int-fiction is dedicated to discussion of the art and
science of creating interactive fiction. The newsgroup is frequented
by several TADS experts, including the system's author; technical
questions about TADS usually receive detailed and helpful responses.
This newsgroup is an excellent resource and community for everyone
interested in creating interactive fiction, from beginners to
experienced game authors.
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Documentation |
The documentation for this release is pretty skimpy, but I've tried to document the differences from previous releases. If you're not already familiar with TADS, you should consult the version 2 TADS Author's Manual, because most of the basics of the language are the same as in TADS 2. The TADS 3 language and system documentation for this release is part of this kit. It's in HTML format for viewing in any web browser, and is available in a frames version and a non-frames version. For your convenience, this kit also contains the HTML TADS documentation. This
documentation is the same thing that is included with the Author's
Kit for TADS 2. This version of TADS uses the same HTML rendering
engine that TADS 2 used, so the HTML display and formatting features
work the same way they did in the original HTML TADS.
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License |
TADS 3 is freeware: you can use it without any cost. The TADS 3 software and documentation are copyrighted ©2000 by Michael J. Roberts. The author places a few simple restrictions on the use of this software; please refer to the LICENSE.TXT file for details. |