[alicebot-archcomm] The saga continues (2): "Fetching Info from the Web"

Ernest Lergon alicebot-archcomm@list.alicebot.org
Sun, 03 Aug 2003 13:32:32 +0200


Gary Robertson wrote:
> 
> [server push]
> 
You could emulate server push on M$IE with client-side JavaScript.

Or use client pull as described on the already mentioned link
http://wp.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/pushpull.html

But than you must make sure, that the bot is retrieving the remote
information in the background - e.g.: forking a new child process for
the fetch while managing a semaphore indicating that the user
transaction is still pending until the remote information is available.
Moreover there must be a special <category> called everytime during
waiting, maybe the input field on those refreshed pages should be
disabled etc.

This functionality might be implemented by extending ProgramV on
Apache/mod_perl - so feel free to send me a private inquiry - I'm always
hunting for a job ;-)

> [SOAP,developer,remote]
> 
Gary, you're so tender-hearted with us developers - thank you very much
- but please do not rack *my* brain: If our discussions about the AIML
standard come to something not implementable, I'm shure, me and other
developers will cry out loud.

BTW: Implementing a data exchange protocol is as easy/complicated as
handling CGI connects or doing AIML matching.

I only named SOAP to illustrate the possibilities and to mention a
boundary condition, but more important is the interface for the AIML writer.

So let's focus on the botmaster: The idea of having a simple <remote>
tag is a consequent evolving of symbolic reduction. Just look at it like
the <srai> element with the difference, that the recursion is not done
locally.

That's the basic idea:

<!-- many of those categories - e.g. cat, dog, bird etc. -->
<category>
    <pattern>WHAT IS A DOG</pattern>
    <template><srai>DEFINE DOG</srai></template>
</category>

<!-- catchall What-is-category, asking friends -->
<category>
    <pattern>WHAT IS A *</pattern>
    <template><remote>DEFINE <star/></remote></template>
</category>

I'd call an AIML extension like this very elegant in contrast to a dozen
new tags.

None of us developers must say: "Look ma, my program can do SOAP". We
rather have to discuss the implications of <remote> aka the interface
between two different bots. This is much more than just fetching a HTML
page.

How a new element can be implemented is only of marginal interest in the
beginning of the discussion.

I think, AIML could be more than a handfull of tags to create a chatbot.

Ernest

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