Object highlighting seems to work a bit inconsistently

[eriktorbjorn]

With the caveat that I'm still very early in the game...

Since the kind of wordplay in this game is hard for a non-native speaker like me, I'm running the game with "highlight on". This really helps, but I've noticed at least two places where I thought to myself "shouldn't that word be highlighted?"

One was at the Park Center:

> EXAMINE FOUNTAIN
It depicts some horses rising out of the waves, with trident-bearing gods on their backs, and some nymphs overseeing the whole operation. Probably 17th-century, to judge by the excessive number of writhing sculpted figures.

The fountain celebrates — if that’s the right word — the conquest of this island by the Dutch in 1607, it having been a Spanish possession for about 140 years before that.

In spite of this the fountain bears not a word of any foreign language, the original Latin or vernacular inscriptions having been long since renovated away.

Shouldn't "horses" be highlighted as well, since they're separate from the sculpted figures, and can be transformed?

The second was at High Street:

> EXAMINE PROTESTORS
Hundreds of people pack the sidewalk, wearing slogans and carrying angry signs.

Should "signs" be highlighted? Even if I don't think I can do much with them except reading them.

[dfabulich]

Highlighting is implemented 100% by hand, so there are probably still a bunch of bugs like these lurking. There's no way to fix this bug in a general way, so I think the thing to do is just to file individual bugs as you find them.

FWIW, I've filed a few bugs for object highlighting over the years, and I'm 99% sure that all of the objects you'd reasonably need to interact with to win the game are correctly highlighted.

Even better, you could file PRs to fix them!

[eriktorbjorn]

Even better, you could file PRs to fix them!

That would require me to learn Inform 7 first, and I don't even have the compiler installed. :-)

[angstsmurf]

The two things you mentioned should be highlighted now.

[eriktorbjorn]

Since this bug report is still open... When I entered the Fish Market, I saw:

A tall, stern woman is standing in the middle of the market. She wears the black caped uniform of an Authenticator, and a monocle just like mine. And I don’t think I want her to see us.

Should "woman" have been highlighted?

And when I entered the Docks:

To the east, up a moderate rise from the sea-level docks, is the imposing exterior of the Customs House. The classical look is only a little undermined by the public-service posters along the front. There passports are inspected and
cargo passed under authentication, foreign items renamed or confiscated, and suspected smugglers interrogated.

Should "public-service posters" be highlighted? I've seen other posters that were.

[angstsmurf]

Done. Keep 'em coming!

[eriktorbjorn]

Another possible one: "The discarded stuffed octopus lies on the ground, looking sadly at us."

[angstsmurf]

Fixed. Thanks!

[eriktorbjorn]

Some more:

“This one has been tied to Atlantida’s hand alongside the olive branch she traditionally carries.” should perhaps highlight "olive branch". (I also noticed it seems to refer to the "olive branch" even if it has been transformed into a "live branch".)

"It takes a little more care with aim than usual, but we do manage to strike the olive branch, turning it into a live branch. It goes green and healthy at once.” highlights neither the "olive branch" nor the "live branch".

[angstsmurf]

Fixed!

[eriktorbjorn]

In most places, the "exits" command will list the directions in bold text. (Not something I would have expected, but that's the way it is.)

> EXITS
We can go north to the apartment bathroom and northeast through the apartment door (closed) to Palm Square from here.

But I found one exception in my apartment bathroom:

> EXITS
We could climb back out the window, or we could go south into the rest of my apartment.

Where neither the window nor south is highlighted. This text is also used in the room description.

Actually, the window seems to not be highlighted more often than it is. Maybe it's only highlighted when it's described as a "bathroom window", like in this exchange?

> CLOSE WINDOW
We slide the window shut.

> OPEN WINDOW
We open the bathroom window.

So maybe that particular thing is a feature...?

[angstsmurf]

As you have seen, when highlighting is on, the "printed name" property of things and directions is always displayed in bold. That is why "bathroom window" is bold in

say "[We] [open] [the noun]." (A);

(from the standard rules)

but not in

say "[We] slide the window shut[one of]. I feel obscurely better now[or][stopping]." 

So there is no real guiding principle at work here.

Anyway, I tried fixing the things you mention in 9c5cbe9.