Inform

Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction, created by Graham Nelson and first released in 1993. Authors use it to write text adventures, and the compiler can produce programs for the Z-code or Glulx virtual machines, so a finished story runs on any interpreter built for those machines. Versions 1 through 5 were released between 1993 and 1996. The language is unusual in having two quite different styles of source. One is a compact bracketed syntax with routines and print statements, while the other reads like plain English sentences, such as a declaration that the world is a room. The language database that lists Inform also records syntax highlighting support for it in Pygments and GitHub, and its place in the TIOBE Index.