I have been going back and forth on how to deliver Iliad-07 and Gilgamesh. Until now I had limited myself to manuscript form and possibly a Tcl/Tk program, or a manuscript generated in Tcl/Tk.

But last week I encountered a system called Twine (https://twinery.org). It allows me to generate complex stories that can be shipped as a single HTML file. But to master it, I have to shift to developing in the lingua francas of the browser world, JavaScript.

I have dabbled in JavaScript in the past. Mostly making janky HTML interfaces work across bickering browsers. I wasn't looking forward to the experience. But, I have to say, either I was learning it wrong, JavaScript has evolved somewhat, or my brain has really warped in 20 years. After a few days, I have actually been able to grok JavaScript enough to be able to read it, and compose new programs in it.

I've even managed to implement a search algorithm for database records.

I'm not sold on Twine as my final delivery mechanism. I am also evaluating a system called Dedalus (https://github.com/pistacchio/Dedalus). Dedalus is technically simpler, but it's lack of complexity makes it easier for me to do evil things in script. (Like procedurally generate content). But both are essentially JavaScript programs that use cues embedded in the document to generate interactive fiction.