> Notepad for Windows 98 lets you change the font? Huh. The one on Windows 95 doesn't let you.

You're right; I just tried it on the machine here at work, which is running Windows 95, and there are no font options. The font sizing options under Win98 are pretty minimal--either 12-point or 9-point--but at least I could reduce the letter size a little bit. Times New Roman at 9-point is fairly small.

> At any rate, Notepad is an editor for raw text files only. I suspect that whatever font you choose will only be used for the display, and that this font information will not be stored in the file itself.

That's what I'd assume, too, but I didn't want to proceed too far under an assumption like that. I'll try the experiment you've recommended. One thing still puzzles me, though: switching to a different font, or changing the horizontal window size, obviously changes where all the Tab-indentations are in the text, and these must then be manually fixed to appear properly. Is the line length (in characters) which the AGL engine can handle completely variable? Does the engine get to the end of a line of text, however long, and automatically proceed to check the following line for indentations and so forth? I'd assume that it would have to, but I want to be sure that there aren't any restrictions on line length or anything like that. I'll use as long a line as I can fit on my screen, to keep from being pushed up against the left side of the text-window too quickly.

> > What, if any, are the standards for AGL text files?
>
> They're all listed in the Tutorial.

Good. I've read through the Tutorial several times, and most everything seems perfectly comprehensible.

> The biggest snag is that tabs must actually be tab characters, not bunches of spaces, and the spacing has to be exactly as prescribed.

Check.

> The biggest spacing snag is that you put spaces around variable setting commands, like (using periods for spaces): s.=.1 and v.5.+.2 but you do NOT use spaces around comparison operations in conditionals, like: c.s=1 and c.v5!2

Check.

> Also make sure you don't have any trailing spaces or tabs on the end of lines, and no supposedly blank lines that actually contain spaces or tabs.

Check.

> The spacing rules for AGL stink for the programmer, but it makes the operation of the engine so much faster for those playing the game if it can assume exactly where it's going to find the information it needs without having to skip over arbitrary amounts of spaces.

No problem; it'll come with practice. Thanks for the quick response!

Tune in next week for problem #2: how to send files to you? (little Davey's free Juno email service doesn't permit file attachments--gulp!) Perhaps I could print out a file, tie the page to an arrow and shoot it over to you? ;-)

Iss "Mm-message for you, sir! --clunk--" achar