.INF File Extension
Inform Source Code File
| Developer | Graham Nelson |
| Popularity |
4.0 | 5 Votes |
An INF file contains Inform source code that can be compiled into an Interactive Fiction (IF) program by Inform, an IDE used to create IF programs. It stores plain text Inform source code (most often in the Inform 6 (I6) syntax), which includes rules and behaviors for how the program can be played as well as playable game objects. INF files were replaced by .NI files with the release of Inform 7.
More Information
IF is like a literary video game. You can play through a narrative created by the author and can control characters with text commands and interact with the environment in the story. Inform is a free application that allows you to create and share custom IF stories that other users can experience.
INF files have been utilized through all of the versions of Inform to store source code that is compiled into a playable IF program. It is most notably used to contain I6 source code.
When compiling an INF file with Inform 6, the code will compile to a Z-machine .Z5 or .Z8 output file. If the program is less than 256 kilobytes, it compiles to the Z5 file and if the program is larger than 256 kilobytes, it compiles to the Z8 file.
How to create an INF file
You can create an INF file with any text editor. When you save the file, save it with the .inf file extension. You may need to instead save the file as a .TXT file, then manually change the .txt file extension to .inf.
How to open an INF file
You can open INF files with Inform 6 and Inform 7, then compile them to the appropriate output file to play the IF program.
Since INF files are saved in plain text, you can also open them with a plain text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad (Windows) or Apple TextEdit (macOS), and edit them. Also, Microsoft Visual Studio Code (multiplatform) is a useful source code editor that includes helpful syntax editing capabilities for viewing and editing INF files.