[alicebot-archcomm] [motion] <shuffle>

[Andrew Teal]

First reaction -- great, just what I want. Now! I wish I'd developed that
instead of my long-winded work-round!

Second -- how do we cope with all those other variants of random which were
desired by a range of people? A range of new tags?

Hmm ... not so good. So what about using attributes to random? More
extensible as the variants are developed?

What are the development implications of element vis-a-vis attribute
changes?

Andrew.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Noel Bush [mailto:noel@alicebot.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 2:59 PM
> To: Alicebot and AIML Architecture Committee
> Subject: [alicebot-archcomm] [motion] <shuffle>
> 
> 
> I'd like to see a <shuffle> tag added to AIML, along the 
> lines described
> by Yuri (quoted below).  Here's my proposal:
> 
> a) Text for insertion into the AIML spec;
> 
> 7.3.3. Shuffle
> The shuffle element instructs the AIML interpreter to behave 
> as follows:
> if not all of the li children of the shuffle have yet been returned to
> the current user by the AIML interpreter for the current bot, 
> then from
> the set containing all li children that have not yet been returned to
> the current user by the AIML interpreter for the current bot, one li
> child is selected randomly and returned.  If all of the li children of
> the shuffle have been returned to the current user by the AIML
> interpreter for the current bot, then the status of the 
> shuffle is reset
> as though none of its li children have been returned to the 
> current user
> by the AIML interpreter for the current bot, and a selection is made
> according to the first rule.
> 
> <!-- Category: aiml-template-elements -->
> <aiml:shuffle>
>     <!-- Contents: default-list-item+ -->
> </aiml:shuffle>
> 
> b) Becomes effective immediately upon approval (not the default 30
> days).  Justification: this isn't a change to an existing function, so
> no existing AIML will be broken.
> 
> According to our rules, I need a second and then we may vote.
> 
> Noel
> 
> -------------------------------------------
> 
> On Mon, 2002-04-29 at 03:55, Yuri A. Tijerino wrote:
> > I believe I started the most recent Random threat in the list.  I
> agree with
> > Noel, I think there is a need for a function (whether it is <random>
> or not
> > I don't care) that allows the bot to choose <li>s that have not
> previously
> > been chosen before.  I think taht a new <shuffle> function 
> or changing
> the
> > current <random> function so that it implements "random selection
> without
> > replacement" should do.  I think the math or statistics can 
> be solved
> once
> > we have defined what it should do.
> > 
> > >From a bot developer point of view I would like to see a function
> <Function>
> > that randomly selects an item from a list of elements, but 
> on the next
> time
> > around selects a different element randomly until all elements have
> been
> > selected during a session.  It would be desireable that once all
> elements
> > have been selected once, then the function would start 
> selecting again
> from
> > the same set.
> > 
> > The closest analogy I can think of is a deck of cards.  Lets say the
> deck
> > has 10 cards for convenience.
> > First shuffle the deck and select one card.  Put the card on a
> separate
> > deck.
> > Now shuffle the original deck and select another card.  Put the card
> on the
> > separate deck.
> > Repeat until all cards on the original deck have been exhausted.
> > Now begin the process again with the second deck creating another
> deck.
> > 
> > This is the kind of function that I think would make conversations
> with bots
> > more interesting, specially with the number of items in the function
> is not
> > so large.
> 
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