[alicebot-archcomm] Looking for <fetch> in all the wrong places?

[Gary Robertson]

Ernest (earlier):

>Nice result of your last occupational therapy session - isn't it?

Gary:
I truly do not know what you mean by your statement above.

Ernest (earlier):
>*Each* of your examples need different protocols, interfaces and/or
>local/external/remote processing and can't be done by a simple fetch of
>a website.

Gary:
Agreed.  I never suggested this could be done by a simple fetch utility, but
I am suggested that something similar or better is needed before many
bot masters would attempt any of it at all.

Ernest (earlier):
>Moreover some of them need context knowledge about the user - location
>or personal data like bank account i.e..

Gary:
My very thoughts. Now we are talking!  It would not be so hard to link a
user to a database account that would manage this information.  I do it all 
of the time
in the web world.

Ernest: (earlier)
>The examples are just tasks a good private secretary should carry out.

Gary:
Yes... sort of like typing papers and letter mailing used to be, but now we 
do it
all much more efficiently with our personal computer systems and cool software.

Ernest: (earlier)

>I think, a budget of 250.000 US$ will help creating such a bot.
>Notabene: AIML 1.01 will not be extended, it's just a lot of work
>creating a whole bunch of categories to cover the named tasks. The
>processing/calculating/interfacing can be done using <system>, <perl>,
><php> or <javascript> depending on the AIML interpreter used.
>At present I have no other urgent projects and could just start over
>with yours.
>
>Looking forward to your cash remittance.

Gary:
Ernest, I am glad you are having good fun with this.  I am also.  Isn't 
this the
way it should be?  Although perhaps your $ figure may be reasonable,
I think that if we do a good job documenting and promoting a bot master
friendly fetch utility or fetch methodology, we can split the work load 
amongst dozens,
  if not hundreds of interested parties!

I believe that once we get AIML to demonstrate a good <fetch> functionality,
we will begin to see AIML applications grow out of the "novelty" arena and 
more into the
"want to have" or "got to have" arena.

Ernest, I favor whatever works.  Perhaps you can demonstrate for
me a solution that suites you.  If <system> and <perl> is the way to go, please
show me a good demo.  Keep in mind that I REALLY want to use <coldfusion> 
which is
very similar to <php>.  So maybe you can show me a good example in
<php> and I will translate it over to <coldfusion>.  I sense there is a
reasonable solution at hand that will make most folks happy.  Thanks for taking
the time and effort to consider it.