Input
input
is a built-in command that calls a prompt where the player can
enter text, as opposed to just waiting for the next prompt initiated by
the game loop. What the player enters is not
processed by grammar like a normal command, but
all understood words are still sent to the
word array (and a quoted string is saved as
parse$). This way, the author can check for
specific entries on a word-by-word basis.
If any unrecognized or quoted words are stored as parse$, it’s important to know that input
gives its place in the word array the numerical value of 0 (unlike normal game loop parsing, which gives it a value of -1).
When called by itself, the player’s input has no textual
prompt (“>”). Because of this, input
is often
called indirectly by something like GetInput
which makes printing a prompt more convenient.