[alicebot-archcomm] Concerning adjacent wildcards

[Dr. Rich Wallace]

The simple answer is, you can always figure it out from the definition of
the matching algorithm.  My preference is to go with the SETL
specification for matching defined in M.txt, which is the most
mathematically precise.

The more complex answer is that we still don't have a really good,
well-written specification for pattern matching that spells out a lot of
examples like the ones you're asking about.

Last year John Foderaro showed me some examples where my understanding of
the matching behavior broke down.  I'd like to see those examples again,
because I forgot them.

The * matches "1 or more words" so * * * * would never match a three-word
input like "hey surfer dude".

I often use the combination of patterns:
KEYWORD
_ KEYWORD
_ KEYWORD *
and
KEYWORD _

to make sure that I catch every occurance of KEYWORD in inputs, but that
is about as fancy as I get with mixing _ and *.


> Assuming patterns like "* * * * * *" are defined in the AIML standard...
>
> Given the input "hey surfer dude", pattern "HEY * DUDE" will match, but
> pattern "HEY DUDE" will not?  Then does "* * * * * *" match "hey surfer
> dude"?  What does "* _ * * *" do?  Is "_ * * *" anything useful?
>
>
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-- 
Dr. Rich
W A L L A C E
ALICE A.I. Foundation
drwallace@www.alicebot.org