Subsections
This section describes the possible error and warning messages which
might be produced by IFM, and what they mean. Note that individual
output formats may print their own errors and/or warnings. These lists
only cover the standard ones.
Here's the list of error messages. If any errors occur, no output
is produced.
- [error: invalid repeat count]
You've given a repeat count of zero or less for a string or direction,
which doesn't make much sense.
- [error: no last room]
You've given the very first room a dir clause.
- [error: no [type] referred to by 'last']
You've said last to refer to the last room, item or task
that was defined, but none of that type of object have been defined
yet.
- [error: no [type] referred to by 'it']
You've said it to refer to the last room, item or task tag
that was mentioned in the current command, but no tags of that type
of object have been mentioned.
- [error: [type] tag [name] already defined]
You've given two similar objects the same tag name.
- [error: [type] tag [name] not defined]
You've referred to a tag name that hasn't been defined anywhere in
the input.
- [error: [type] tag [name] not yet defined]
You're referring to a tag at a point where it hasn't yet been defined,
in a situation where it must be (e.g. the room from clause,
or a command that modifies attributes of a previously-defined object).
- [error: can't modify [name] attribute]
You're attempting to modify an attribute of an object which can't
be changed once it's set (e.g. a tag name). This is because it would
create inconsistencies between objects.
- [error: can't link [name1] and [name2] - different map sections]
The rooms you're trying to link are on different sections of the map,
and have no spatial relation to one another. You might have forgotten
to link a previous room in the list. Or you meant to use a join.
- [error: can't link [name] to itself without at least one direction]
To link a room to itself, you need to specify at least one direction.
Otherwise, the link goes nowhere.
- [error: links between [name1] and [name2] have differing lengths]
You've defined more than one link or join between the given rooms,
but given them different values for the length attribute.
This isn't allowed.
- [error: more than one task needs to follow [task] immediately]
You've given two or more tasks an identical follow tag. Only
one task can ``follow'' a given task.
- [error: [num] cyclic task dependencies]
The game isn't solvable because there's one or more chains of tasks
where each must be done before the next, but the last must be done
before the first.
- [error: variable [name] is not defined]
A customization variable needed by an output format is not defined.
You should only see these errors if you have modified or overridden
the system initialization file. The remedy is to define the variable
somewhere.
Here's the list of warning messages. If only warnings occur, then
output is still produced.
- [warning: attribute [attr] ignored - no implicit link]
You've given a room with no dir clause an attribute that
is associated with that link (e.g. oneway). Most likely
you're putting the attribute in the wrong place--if you want, say,
a join to have one of these attributes, you must define it using the
standalone join command instead.
- [warning: link from [name1] to [name2] outside grid]
The destination room for a link is not in a compass direction from
the last specified position.
- [warning: rooms [name1] and [name2] overlap]
The coordinates of the specified rooms are the same.
- [warning: room [name] crossed by link line between [name] and [name]]
A link line passes through the coordinates of a room.
- [warning: room [name] has multiple [dir] links]
More than one link connects to the specified room in a particular
direction.
- [warning: can't solve game ([num] tasks not done)]
The game is unsolvable according to the current set of tasks. This
can be due to part of the map being inaccessible, or IFM stupidly
choosing the wrong order of doing things. Hopefully the latter shouldn't
happen very often.
- [warning: can't solve game ([num] tasks ignored)]
The game is unsolvable because you're explicitly ignoring tasks and/or
items, using the ignore attribute.
- [warning: no matching style command]
You've used endstyle without a matching style. You
probably have too many endstyle commands.
- [warning: unexpected style: [name] (expected [name])]
You've used endstyle with an argument that doesn't match
the argument of the corresponding style. You might have missed
out another endstyle somewhere, or have too many.
- [warning: style [name] referenced but not defined]
An object in your input uses the specified style, but it isn't defined
anywhere and the style definition file name.ifm doesn't exist
in the search path (or if it does, it doesn't define the required
style).
- [warning: [syntax] is obsolete - use [phrase] instead]
You've used an obsolete syntax. Consult the documentation and then
try the suggested alternative instead. Note that multiple uses of
the same obsolete syntax only result in a single warning.