TADS stands for Text Adventure Development System, a
programming language created by Michael Roberts specifically for
writing Interactive Fiction. TADS is one of the most flexible
development systems available, and was used to create many of the
classic AIF games like Moist and Ideal High School. One huge
advantage of using TADS is the availability of pre-written libraries
that implement many features common in AIF games, like sexual verbs and
layered clothing.
The version of TADS that historically been used to
write AIF is version 2, usually referred to as "TADS 2" or just
"TADS." There is now a newer version called TADS 3 that has some
amazing new features helpful to AIF authors, but is still undergoing
some development and isn't as fully documented as TADS 2. See the
official TADS page for details. Libraries implementing AIF
functions exist for both versions of TADS.
If you have specific questions about programming in
TADS, you can often get help from the friendly people at rec.arts.int-fiction.
TADS.org - The official TADS home page
The TADS Manual - A good place to start. This manual is for TADS 2.
TADS
tutorial - A tutorial for TADS newbies
AIF Tutorial, part 1 - A guide to writing AIF in TADS, written by the well-known AIF author A. Bomire
TADS
3 - Information about the new version of TADS
Getting Started in TADS 3 - A guide by Eric Eve
sex.t - A set of AIF
libraries for TADS 2, by Gareth
chick.t - A set of AIF
libraries for TADS 2, by Newkid
sex3.t - A set of AIF
libraries for TADS 3, by Gareth
xactor.t - A set of AIF
libraries for TADS 3, by Choices
XT Library - A set of AIF
libraries for TADS 3, by Girion