{"slug": "dialog", "name": "Dialog", "category": "databases", "category_name": "Databases", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.843, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-02-02", "latest": "2026-07-17", "why": "Dialog takes the evaluation model of Inform 7 and dresses it in sensible syntax but it is a bit niche so tools are lacking", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Dialog takes the evaluation model of Inform 7 and dresses it in sensible syntax but it is a bit niche so tools are lacking", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/dialog-if/dialog", "official_url": "https://github.com/Dialog-IF/dialog", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Dialog", "DIALOG"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 762936000, "item_id": 47683500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47683500", "by": "chris_ivester", "date": "2026-04-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This might be up your alley", "excerpt": "This might be up your alley - have Posthog and a ton of other SaaS tools connected so you can run analysis across quant/qualitative data sources: https://dialog.tools", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-SaaS data analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "GLM-5.1: Towards Long-Horizon Tasks"}, {"id": 749701218, "item_id": 46856326, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856326", "by": "perryprog", "date": "2026-02-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019d also secondly endorse Dialog.", "excerpt": "Funny, I just started playing The Wise-Woman\u2019s Dog yesterday\u2014it really is excellent! I\u2019d also secondly endorse Dialog. It\u2019s a really intuitive way to think about the game world as a whole without having to worry about Inform 7\u2019s AppleScript-esque syntax. It\u2019s also grown quite a bit since the community started their own fork: https://github.com/Dialog-IF/dialog", "context": "", "use_case": "Interactive fiction authoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games"}, {"id": 749660034, "item_id": 46853752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853752", "by": "kqr", "date": "2026-02-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Dialog takes the evaluation model of Inform 7 and dresses it in sensible syntax but it is a bit niche so tools are lacking", "excerpt": "If you want to create an adventure game but your visual skills are lacking, I recommend looking into text adventures! There are great tools for making them these days: - Inform 7 has annoying syntax but an amazing IDE; - Inform 6 is somewhat object oriented, has a good Emacs mode and decades of tools; - Dialog takes the evaluation model of Inform 7 and dresses it in sensible syntax but it is a bit niche so tools are ", "context": "", "use_case": "making text adventures", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["online information search", "cross-saas data analysis", "interactive fiction authoring", "making text adventures"], "compared": [{"slug": "inform-7", "name": "Inform 7", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "inform-6", "name": "Inform 6", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46846252", "title": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48949144", "title": "Roger Summit, Who Invented an Early Online Search Service, Dies at 95", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47677853", "title": "GLM-5.1: Towards Long-Horizon Tasks", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 783193952, "item_id": 48949622, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48949622", "by": "ChrisArchitect", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It's surprising how little there is about DIALOG around HN", "excerpt": "It's surprising how little there is about DIALOG around HN (or maybe it isn't, an old outlier sort of thing, also very hard to search the common word) Here's one of the few resources collecting some of the history - \"DIALOG History\" https://dialoghistory.org/home/ Their own obit: https://dialoghistory.org/2026/07/11/the-online-search-world-lost-one-of-its-pioneers-roger-summit-on-7-june-2026-information-today/", "context": "", "use_case": "Online information search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Roger Summit, Who Invented an Early Online Search Service, Dies at 95"}, {"id": 762936000, "item_id": 47683500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47683500", "by": "chris_ivester", "date": "2026-04-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This might be up your alley", "excerpt": "This might be up your alley - have Posthog and a ton of other SaaS tools connected so you can run analysis across quant/qualitative data sources: https://dialog.tools", "context": "", "use_case": "cross-SaaS data analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "GLM-5.1: Towards Long-Horizon Tasks"}, {"id": 749701218, "item_id": 46856326, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856326", "by": "perryprog", "date": "2026-02-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019d also secondly endorse Dialog.", "excerpt": "Funny, I just started playing The Wise-Woman\u2019s Dog yesterday\u2014it really is excellent! I\u2019d also secondly endorse Dialog. It\u2019s a really intuitive way to think about the game world as a whole without having to worry about Inform 7\u2019s AppleScript-esque syntax. It\u2019s also grown quite a bit since the community started their own fork: https://github.com/Dialog-IF/dialog", "context": "", "use_case": "Interactive fiction authoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games"}, {"id": 749660034, "item_id": 46853752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853752", "by": "kqr", "date": "2026-02-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Dialog takes the evaluation model of Inform 7 and dresses it in sensible syntax but it is a bit niche so tools are lacking", "excerpt": "If you want to create an adventure game but your visual skills are lacking, I recommend looking into text adventures! There are great tools for making them these days: - Inform 7 has annoying syntax but an amazing IDE; - Inform 6 is somewhat object oriented, has a good Emacs mode and decades of tools; - Dialog takes the evaluation model of Inform 7 and dresses it in sensible syntax but it is a bit niche so tools are ", "context": "", "use_case": "making text adventures", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games"}]}