[alicebot-archcomm] RE: [alicebot-archcomm]Attribute var

[Christopher Fahey [askrom]]

> Those "variables" don't belong to the application, but to the 
> user/session.  A
> "variable" is something that belongs to the app itself and 
> even then it's
> usually tied to a server property, so you either have:


It sounds like you're saying that you call them variables when they are
used within ProgramX (the AIML engine) but that you don't want to call
them variables when they are in the AIML itself.

This is very developer-centric thinking, IMHO. Imagine if Sun told us we
couldn't call Java variables "variables" because the developers at Sun
already use the term "variables" to describe the variables in the source
code for Java.exe. 

As far as the typical AIML writer is concerned, ProgramX is as much of
an invisible black box as JRE is - what goes on in there is of no
concern to them whatsoever. AIML is the only "program" they're using,
and the "symbols that represent changeable values" in their AIML are
clearly variables by any normal definition.

If the general sentiment on this committee against using the word
"variable" in AIML is really based on wanting to make a clear difference
between values in users' AIML and values in the ProgramX application,
then kinda I think we've got a serious problem. 

-Cf

[christopher eli fahey]
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