searching and reading

search (searching) parses search X, look in/inside X, look through X, rummage in/through X, or bare search for the room (find/locate were removed from the vocabulary in ADR-230, since searching is the wrong semantics for them). A closed openable container refuses container_closed; otherwise searching reports contents, and it is the action that reveals hidden items: a thing whose identity is marked concealed (in Chord, the concealed adjective on the composition line) is invisible to the parser until a search finds it, permanently reveals it, and announces found_concealed. This hidden-item flag is not the concealment trait, which is about hiding actors.

read (reading) parses read X, peruse X, and study X, gated on the readable trait (not_readable: "There's nothing written on it"). Portable reading matter is implicitly taken first, while scenery such as signs and inscriptions reads in place. The text comes from the trait: text (in Chord, readable with text ...), or a page of pageContent for multi-page books, and the message key follows readableType: read_text, read_book / read_book_page (with page numbers), read_sign, read_inscription. A readable can be switched off, with isReadable: false plus a cannotReadMessage producing cannot_read_now, as with glowing runes that only read when lit. Reading marks hasBeenRead (story logic can gate on it).

The author writes:

create the Attic
  a room

  Dust, rafters, and one bar of grey light.

create the loose floorboard
  aka floorboard, board
  scenery, a supporter
  in the Attic

  One board sits a little proud of its neighbors.

create the faded letter
  aka letter
  concealed
  readable with text "My dear Edmund - the deed went to the county bank."
  on the loose floorboard

  A single page in browned ink.

create the beam inscription
  aka inscription
  scenery
  readable with text "T.W. + E.W. 1893"
  in the Attic

  Letters cut into the lowest rafter.

create the player
  starts in the Attic

The player sees:

> take the letter
You can't see any such thing.

> search the floorboard
Hidden an on, you discover: a faded letter.

> read the letter
(first taking the faded letter)

You take the faded letter from the loose floorboard.

The faded letter reads:
My dear Edmund - the deed went to the county bank.

> read the floorboard
There's nothing written on the loose floorboard.

> read the inscription
The beam inscription reads:
T.W. + E.W. 1893

Until the search, the concealed letter is invisible even to the parser; once revealed, reading takes the portable letter first, while the scenery inscription reads in place.

Interceptors: on searching it (a false bottom that only yields to a second, gated search is one while clause) and on reading it.

The readable trait's literacy fields (requiresAbility) are declared but not enforced today.