[alicebot-archcomm] [news] Alice is ALICE is not Alice and AIML is NOT a programming language

[Ernest Lergon]

Kim Sullivan wrote:
> 
> Ernest Lergon wrote:
> >
> > Maybe my contribution is to preserve the purity of AIML as markup
> > language from the view of a Perl programmer.
> 
> Preserving the purity has sometimes led to bad results; 'purity' of the
> human race (Hitler), of christian belief (Inquisition).
>
Hi Kim,

why don't you send some storm troops to drag me to the court in Den Haag
and call it 'humanitarian intervention'?

I didn't realize yet, that programming in AIML causes severe collateral
damages.

But let's get serious:

The opposite of 'purity' - in the sense I used it - is 'arbitraryness'.

What is it worth to put every feature in AIML some script kiddies are
croaking for on the general mailinglist?

Maybe the main reason for my sharp reaction on the general list was,
that I just was angry about some people's (not yours, Kim) attitude of
"Why is X not possible in A, it is working in B, so A must have it too
right now" or shorter "I want all and I want it now".

We should not "load up AIML with all kinds of stuff we might later
regret" - as Noel remarked.

Therefore it might make more sense to discuss proposals to i.e. extend
the pattern matching syntax with smart features like <pattern>ARE YOU
SURE|CERTAIN</pattern> (See my other mail).

> ...philosophical...
>
It was meant to be so.

> As I said above, should the need arise there are already existing terms to
> differentiate ('bot' and 'aiml set').
>
I'm not dogmatic in terms - provided the distinction remains.

> I can rewrite any perl program to use markup style syntax, that doesn't
> stop it being a program. 
>
Arrgggghhh, please, never ;-))

> My point is, treating AIML as a programming language works.
>
I might be nearly convinced.

Fighting about whether AIML is a programming language or not might be
like - as Conan remarked - "arguing about indentations in source code".
But wouldn't naming AIML a PL imply, that it's just another PL or that
newbies without programming skills are quenched? See the specs "1.1
Origin and Goals" in this context.

If someone wants to look at AIML as PL - ok, but please avoid to
emphasize this in public.

Yours,

Ernest


-- 
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