Actions: Detail view  Back to full view A single action in detail. About the action rulebooks

Standard actions concerning the actor's vision
Looking , Examining , Looking under , Searching , Consulting it about 

Examining something (requires light) (past tense examined)

The act of looking closely at something. Note that the noun could be either a direction or a thing, which is why the Standard Rules include the 'examine directions rule' to deal with directions: it simply says 'You see nothing unexpected in that direction.' and stops the action. (If you would like to handle directions differently, list another rule instead of this one in the carry out examining rules.)

For arcane reasons to do with the Inform 6 library underlying what Inform does, these rules test to see 'if the noun goes undescribed by source text' (rather than more simply testing whether the description property of the noun is blank). If so, we search (i.e., look inside) a container, and show the status (switched on or off) of a device, but otherwise give up with a bland response. For traditional reasons, we also show the status of a device as a second paragraph even after any description property has been printed: this is done by the examine described devices rule.

Typed commands leading to this action

"look at [something]"

"examine [something]"

"read [something]"

Rules controlling this action

before    asking someone to try doing something when the person asked is not the current interlocutor  giving orders needs an interlocutor rule   name  unlist 

NB: the change greeting command to greeting rule is listed before the giving orders needs an interlocutor rule in the before rules 

NB: the check going during convnode rule is listed before the say goodbye when moving rule in the before rules 

instead of    examining the boy for the first time   

instead of    examining the boy   

instead of    examining my teeth   

instead of    examining the table   

instead of    examining the black sword   

instead of    examining the various sundries and oddments   

instead of    examining the dirty plates   

instead of    examining the pieces of string   

instead of    examining the Beethoven compact disc   

instead of    examining the bottles   

instead of    examining the stuffed toy   

instead of    examining the cassettes   

instead of    examining love   

instead of    examining the teapot   

instead of    examining the medicine   

instead of    examining the novels   

instead of    examining the rotting cucumber   

instead of    examining the trunk   

instead of    examining the holy water   

instead of    examining the window   

instead of    examining the bed   

instead of    examining the can of beer   

instead of    examining the raven   

instead of    examining or opening the manila folders   

instead of    examining or taking or searching the Inferno   

instead of    doing anything except taking or examining to love   

instead of    examining the player   

instead of    examining a natural weapon   

instead of    examining the door   

carry out    examining something visible  mark items as seen on examining rule   name  unlist 

carry out    examine undescribed containers rule   name  unlist

carry out    examine undescribed devices rule   name  unlist

carry out    examine undescribed things rule   name  unlist

carry out    examine directions rule   name  unlist

carry out    standard examining rule   name  unlist

carry out    examine described devices rule   name  unlist

report    an actor examining  report other people examining rule   name  unlist