QTads v1.3a - An interpreter for Tads games.
Written and maintained by Nikos Chantziaras.  Based on Mike Roberts'
portable reference implementation of Tads.

This file contains an overview of QTads.  Other documentation files in
the distribution include:

    AUTHORS
      People who wrote QTads' code.

    BUGS
      A list of known bugs.  You shouldn't report these.

    COPYING
      The GNU General Public License (GPL).  QTads is distributed under
      the terms and conditions of this license.

    CREDITS
      People who contributed to QTads in one way or another.  Help me
      make QTads better and your name will appear there too!

    INSTALL
      Installation and usage instructions.  The first thing you should
      read (after this README file).

    NEWS
      Contains the list of changes between QTads versions.

    SOURCE_README
      If you want to contribute code, read this.

    TIPS
      Contains some very useful information.  Make sure to check it
      out.

    TODO
      Features/enhancements that I plan to add.  Help is more than
      welcome.

The newest version of QTads can be downloaded from its homepage at:

    http://qtads.sourceforge.net

Previous versions can be found at the project page:

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtads


About Tads and QTads
====================

QTads is a so called "interpreter" for games created with the Text
Adventure Development System, or "Tads" for short, a C-like object
oriented programming language for authoring Interactive Fiction
(similar to the Infocom or Legend Entertainment games, like "Zork").
Both Tads 2 as well as Tads 3 games are supported.  Note that the
Tads 3 support is not complete at this point; QTads lacks banners
(which means there is currently no exit-list below the statusline) and
timed input.  Most games will play fine, but some may not.  Work is
being done to make QTads feature-complete.

Tads' compiler creates executables for the Tads Virtual Machine (the
"Tads VM").  QTads is an implementation of this Virtual Machine; it
runs Tads VM executables.  One can also say that QTads is a Tads VM
emulator.

QTads is not written from scratch; it uses Mike Roberts' portable
reference implementations of the two Tads VMs; the T2 VM (written in C)
and T3 VM (written in C++).  The portable implementations are intended
to be embedded in applications; they cannot be executed on their own.
They're function libraries that require an external I/O interface.
This external interface (along with other useful things) is implemented
by QTads with C++ using Trolltech's Qt library (this should explain the
"Q" in "QTads").

For more information about Tads, visit its home page:

    http://www.tads.org


What is Multimedia Tads?
========================

Multimedia Tads (also known as "HTML Tads") is an extension of Tads
that uses HTML to implement multimedia capabilities.  Multimedia Tads
is not an extension of the two Tads languages (Tads 2 and 3), but
rather of their output system.  Although QTads doesn't support most of
the HTML extensions (although it supports more HTML tags than any other
text-only interpreter), it *can* execute games that use HTML; on the
binary level, Multimedia Tads and "plain" Tads executables are actually
the same thing.  You just won't see any graphics nor hear sounds/music.
In Tads 2 games, you also won't see any banners that the game would
otherwise display (Tads 3 games don't use HTML for banners; future
versions of QTads will provide full banner support for Tads 3 games).
The majority of games don't use the multimedia extensions though.

There's another Tads interpreter maintained by me called "HTML QTads"
that fully supports the multimedia extensions, but it has not been
released yet.  (It's one of those "Real Soon Now" projects.)  The only
way right now to play Multimedia Tads games on X11-machines is to use a
Windows emulator to run Mike Roberts' "HTML TADS" interpreter (newer
versions of Wine are known to work).  I hope I can finish HTML QTads
soon.

Now, you may ask yourself why I released QTads when a full multimedia
interpreter will be available soon.  The answer is that multimedia
interpreters lack one single feature that many players (including me)
consider quite important: text-justification.  Being able to
block-justify the game's text is only possible in a text-only Tads
interpreter.  It could be that this feature will be added to Multimedia
Tads at some point; until then, QTads will continue to exist.  And
besides, most games don't use the multimedia features, or use only a
small subset that is already available in QTads.  For these games, a
small interpreter like QTads is everything you need.


Features
========

Here's a list of common (and uncommon) features in QTads:

  * Larger HTML subset than any other text-only interpreter.

  * Text justification.

  * Margins.

  * Font anti-aliasing.

  * Full Unicode support for Tads 3; you can play games written in any
    language.

  * Multimedia Tads character entities, which means that typographical
    quotes, dashes and other special characters are available in both
    Tads 3 as well as Tads 2.

  * Typographical apostrophes and dashes in every game (can be
    disabled).  This enhances the display of games that don't use
    character entities.

  * Internationalization; as of this writting, QTads speaks English and
    German.

  * Fullscreen mode with removable menu-, tool- and scrollbar.

  * Timer on the statusbar (can be disabled).

  * Themes; you can save your settings in "Themes" and switch them at
    runtime.

  * Soft scrolling.


Is it "TADS", or "Tads"?
========================

Who cares?

Okay, if you *do* care, the author of Tads (Mike Roberts) spells it
"TADS", but since I don't pronounce it as "t, a, d, s," I refer to it
as "Tads", which rhymes with "bads" (not that "bad" has a plural).


Bugs, bugs, bugs
================

(Bugs?  What bugs?)

QTads is pretty stable, thanks to the BugFree(TM) reference
implementation that has been improved and maintained by Mike Roberts
for about 10 years now (and still is).  Most bugs in QTads are expected
to be in its GUI-code.  Please report any bugs to the author's
email-address (see below).


On what systems does it run?
============================

Theoretically, it should run on *any* system for which a Qt-port exists
(many Unices, Windows and Mac, even embedded devices like cell phones
and PDAs using a Linux framebuffer with Qt/Embedded or X11).  But since
the world isn't perfect, I guess it runs only on Unix-systems.  No big
deal actually, since the whole point is to have a GUI Tads-interpreter
for Unix; Windoze and Mac already have good interpreters (as for the
cell phones, well, that's another story).  But if you manage to make
QTads run on a non-Unix system, I would be *very* interested to hear
about it.

Note that it's not possible for me to compile QTads for Windows, nor to
release Windows executables of QTads.  Sorry, but the Windows port of
the Qt library are not freely available.  No freedom, no QTads.  Folks
with a commercial Qt license willing to provide this service to the IF
community are more than welcome though.  (In case you wonder, at the
time of this writting, a commercial Qt license costs about $4000; as a
friend of mine said, "I might buy two, in case I leave one in the bus."
If you want to donate a license, be my guest.)

As of June 2003, the MacOS X port of Qt has been released under the
GPL, which means you can download it for free.  Please try it and
compile QTads on such a system and let me know how it went.

QTads is currently being developed on a relatively slow machine with
the following configuration:

    Pentium II 400MHz with 192MB RAM
    Linux kernel 2.4.17
    GCC 3.2.1 and 2.95.3
    Qt 3.1.1
    XFree86 4.0.3
    Linux Distribution: SuSE Linux 7.2

Before August 2003, the following system was used:

    Pentium 133 (non-MMX) with 32MB RAM
    Linux kernel 2.4.17
    GCC 3.2.1 and 2.95.3
    Qt 3.1.1
    XFree86 4.0.3
    Linux Distribution: SuSE Linux 7.2

It ran surprisingly well on the old machine, especially with Tads 2
games, and is extremely fast on the new one, but I don't recommend to
use it on something like a 386.  Using a text-mode or the XGlk Tads
interpreter is a much better option in this case.  (Of course you're
free to try QTads even on a 386, but don't blame me if it won't be able
to move its legs; it won't be much faster than any other Qt application
on such a system, if they run at all).  It could be that it runs at an
acceptable speed on a fast 486, but I didn't try it myself.  Reports
are welcome.  In order to increase speed, you should use small
font-sizes (below 14pt), a low resolution or a small window, disable
font anti-aliasing and use only left-justified text.  Using
bitmap-fonts may also help.


Who wrote this thing?
=====================

QTads is the work of an Interactive Fiction maniac with the funny and
impossible to spell and pronounce name "Nikos Chantziaras".  He's from
Greece (whatasurprise) and wrote QTads because (unlike Windows and Mac)
Unix lacks a good GUI interpreter for Tads games.  He is sometimes
known for talking about himself in the third person (how silly that
is!)  He maintains a small Interactive Fiction related homepage at:

    http://members.lycos.co.uk/realnc/

His e-mail address is:

    realnc@users.sourceforge.net

Bug reports and questions should be sent there.  He always answers them
all (but not immediately, since he's using a shared/public computer for
net-access).  If you're Greek, please don't use "Greeklish", if
possible, since he finds it hard to read (ti to exoume to Unicode
alwste?)  You can also talk to him in German, weil Deutsch rein
zufllig seine zweite Muttersprache ist :)


What's Interactive Fiction?
===========================

Well, this is just a poor README file and therefore not the
appropriate place for an introduction to Interactive Fiction.  To find
out everything about Interactive Fiction (or "IF" for short), just go
to the Tads page (see above) and follow some links.  Or go to Google
(http://www.google.com) and search for "interactive fiction"; you'll be
amazed how many results you get.  And you'll be even more amazed about
how active the IF community is.

There are two Usenet newsgroups for IF related things.  The first is
RGIF, which is short for:

    rec.games.int-fiction

where people are talking about IF games in general; things they like in
games, things they don't like, things they hope to see in future games,
requests for hints and solutions, reviews of games, announcements of
new games/software or happenings, flames (mostly funny ones; keep
this in mind when you "flame" ;-).  Stuff like that.

The other newsgroup is RAIF, which stands for:

    rec.arts.int-fiction

This newsgroup is for everyone who is interested in creating games.
Most IF authors use to hang around there, so this newsgroup is an
excellent place to post questions about IF theory, authorship and
programming.  RAIF has a FAQ; you can find it at:

    http://plover.net/~textfire/raiffaq/

Please read it before you post your first message; it contains
everything there is to know about the newsgroup.


Where do I find games for QTads?
================================

As I said above, the IF community is a very active one.  New games are
released all the time.  There's a large repository for IF-related stuff
(with *lots* of games!) called "The Interactive Fiction Archive".  You
can access it by HTTP:

    http://www.ifarchive.org

or by FTP:

    ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org

The archive has mirrors that are usually much, much faster, like:

    http://mirror.ifarchive.org

Which is the fastest of all.  Please use them instead of the main
archive!  You'll save yourself (and others) quite a few headaches.
(The full list of mirrors is displayed in the archive's title-page.)

Since the archive is actually just a bunch of data thrown together
(more or less), a nice fellow has created a site that will guide you
through the archive.  The site is called "Baf's Guide to the IF
Archive" and is located at:

    http://wurb.com/if

It contains many cool things, like a "Genre Map" for the games
located in the archive along with descriptions, reviews and ratings, as
well as many useful links.


I don't like QTads.  It sucks.
==============================

Then help me improve it.  Send me suggestions and bug reports, or even
code if you know C++ and Qt.  Now!  Thank you.


OK, I'll send some code.  How do I do this?
===========================================

If you decide to send me code, please read the SOURCE_README file
first.  Also, drop me a mail to inform me on what you're working on
(this is to ensure that we won't be trying to solve the same problem or
add the same feature).

Files should be compressed with bzip2 or gzip using the highest
compression level and sent to my email address at SourceForge:

    realnc@users.sourceforge.net

You can send whole files or simply diffs created with (guess) the
`diff' utility.  I also accept diffs created with `xdelta'.  With
`diff', use either the -c or -u option, *not* the default (-e) to
generate the patches.  If your code is good (which means: if it doesn't
suck the way my own does ;), I'll include it in the next version.  Note
that your code will be placed under the GPL.  Since QTads is a simple
interpreter for Tads games and not a nuclear war simulator, I'm not
requesting signed forms from your boss/school/etc.  Just send the damn
code, will ya? ;-)


Copyright
=========

QTads is Copyright (C) 2003 by Nikos Chantziaras.

QTads is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.

QTads is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA