An inverse parser, as its name suggests, is a parser that works in reverse. Rather than the user typing into the computer, the computer presents a list of words fitting the context, and excludes words that would be unreasonable. This ensures the user knows all of his or her options. The concept and an implementation were originally developed and patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

ed by Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...

. A few years later, it was independently developed by Chris Crawford

Chris Crawford (game designer)

Christopher Crawford is a computer game designer and writer noted for creating a number of important games in the 1980s, founding The Journal of Computer Game Design, and organizing the Computer Game Developers' Conference.- Biography :...

, a game designer, for his game, Trust & Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot

Trust & Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot

Trust & Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot, often abbreviated simply to Siboot, was a game designed and programmed by Chris Crawford and published by Mindscape in 1987.- Gameplay :...

, but the implementation was different enough not to infringe on the patent.

External links

• How to Build an Inverse Parser, an essay by Chris Crawford originally published in the Journal of Computer Game Design