[alicebot-archcomm] Whitespace clarification

[Kim Sullivan]

> I'm not trying to make these up as I go along .. I was trying to
> write them
> from what previous AIML was supposed to do, and taking into consideration
> how some people write AIML (lots of indenting etc).

I know, sorry, I didn't want to suggest that you're making them up as you
go, the comment was about me. I use a lot if indentation too, so know what
you're talking about.

> > I'd prefer stripped (see example in previous post where whitespace
> separates
> > two sibling <random> elements).
>
> I'd rather not, as it makes it hard to get a space in without having to
> resort to things like &nbsp; etc. I personally think the space makes much
> more sense, but that the space can be eliminated by not including any
> whitespace whatsoever.

Hm... this was why I originally put in the special clause in my rule three,
about whitespace from different elements that separates character data -
like I said, I ident a lot, and the linefeeds put in unexpected spaces in
the result (and I deem one-liners to be ugly), but that's probably very much
a matter of coding style.

> Well, I still think the <br /> tag would be useful, since for systems such
> as IM, WAP, TTS, etc, it's possible for either the 'responder', or some
> other output system would be able to recognise that it can (and should) be
> ignored.

I'm more for the opposite approach - not first recognize and then ignore,
but ignore all un-recognized. It's IMHO easier to only implement what you
want to be recognized and discard all other elements.

Kim