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lists.z5
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
lists.tar.Z
(Compressed with the Unix-style .tar.Z "tarball" format. Free unpacking tools are available for most platforms.)
lists.z5
as entered in 1996 competition
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.

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Lists and Lists

by Andrew Plotkin profile

Programming Language, Educational
1996

(based on 24 ratings)
3 reviews

About the Story

A tutorial in which a genie teaches you the basics of a simplified version of LISP.
[--blurb from The Z-Files Catalogue]


Game Details


Awards

11th Place - 2nd Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (1996)

Editorial Reviews

Baf's Guide


An introductory course in the Scheme programming language (a dialect of Lisp) presented as a text adventure - or, to put it another way, a Scheme interpreter with a wee scrap of text adventure wrapped around it. Since it's Z-code, and the first Z-code games were written in another Lisp variant, there's an odd circularity to it all. Not all of Scheme's syntax is represented, but it's still a good show-off piece. Hardly interactive fiction, though.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

SPAG
Although "Lists" barely scratches the surface of Scheme's capabilities, I was surprised by how much functionality was crammed into such a small program, particularly with the ease-of-use features. Even if you complete all of the sample exercises within the two-hour time limit, there's plenty more to come back and investigate afterwards.
-- C.E. Forman
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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

I definitely look forward to sitting down with it for a longer period of time and working at learning what it has to teach. (I never thought a text adventure could help me build my resume!) However, after a certain point the problems stopped being fun and started being work — I’m already working at learning two languages; learning a third is definitely worthwhile, but not my idea of leisure time. And thus I discover a criteria I didn’t even know I had for the competition entries — I want them to be an escape from work, rather than (pun intended) “Return to Work”.
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Member Reviews

5 star:
(13)
4 star:
(7)
3 star:
(3)
2 star:
(1)
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Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 3
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Good stuff!, April 10, 2022

Fun and challenging! Took me several hours, but I made it all the way through to the end. At which point I was rewarded with a tongue twister of truly epic proportions! I've downloaded Racket and will continue to fool around with LISP/Scheme. Thanks for this game/tutorial!

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An interactive LisP programming tutorial made into an IF piece, September 18, 2015
by mjhayes (Somewhere east of Garinham)

Programming tutorials tend to be boring, but not this time. First, play a few rounds of classic IF to wake a genie, and then he will decide to play the role of a teacher.

Internally, there isn't much to this piece, which is why the file size is relatively small. But trying your hand at introductory LisP programming and then having an NPC check the results each step of the way makes it surprisingly fun.

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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Learn LISP by playing a game, February 4, 2016

In this game, you have a manual, a computer, and a genie. The genie gives you a programming task in LISP, which you must then try to complete. The genie then tests your code, and gives you feedback.

I enjoyed the game, getting up to the SUM command before quitting.

A good game for those interested in learning a computer programming language.

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Polls

The following polls include votes for Lists and Lists:

Educational IF by Spike
Several of us are interested in using IF for education, both in the classroom as well as more broadly. The purpose of this poll is to collect examples of IF with an educational focus.

Solved without Hints by joncgoodwin
I'm very interested in hearing truthful accounts of at least somewhat difficult games (or games that don't solve themselves at least) solved completely without recourse to hints, walkthroughs, etc.

Games with Toys by IFforL2
I want to distinguish toys from three other IF game elements: Puzzles require the player to find a solution to a problem in the narrative. If she can't find a solution, she's stuck. Branching allows the player to steer the plot of the...

See all polls with votes for this game




This is version 6 of this page, edited by Paul O'Brian on 5 May 2022 at 12:36am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page