[alicebot-general] How interpreters handle multiple PATTERN <that> THAT <topic> TOPIC

[Noel Bush]

Program D allows the botmaster to decide which of several "merge 
policies" to use.  As defined in core/conf.xml, the available options are:

<!--What to do when a category is loaded whose pattern:that:topic path
     is identical to one already loaded (for the same bot).
     * skip: Leave the currently loaded template in place and ignore the 
new one.
     * overwrite: Overwrite the loaded template with the new one.
     * append: Append the content of the new template to the currently 
loaded one.
     * combine: Store the new template as well, so it will have an equal 
chance of being used as the currently loaded one.-->

Noel

mehri wrote:
> Interesting discussion I had with a fellow by the name
> of Ryan on how to handle duplicate "PATTERN <that>
> THAT <topic> TOPIC"'s.  The AIML specification leaves
> this open to interperters but I'd like to solicit
> feeback from the community on what they commonly do
> about the situation.
> 
> ------------------------
> 
> 
> Hi Ryan,
> 
> What I mean is that for example if you have a file
> with:
> 
> <category>
> <pattern>*</pattern>
> <template>What you talking about willis</template>
> </category>
> 
> <category>
> <pattern>*</pattern>
> <template>What you talking about nelly</template>
> </category>
> 
> Two identical categories.  In graphmaster speak that's
> two identical "PATTERN <that> THAT <topic> TOPIC"
> 
> 
> The second one will override the first.  It's a
> particularily nasty issue in which the specification
> leaves open to interpreters to handle.  Real world is
> that most AIML sets will end up having duplicate
> "PATTERN <that> THAT <topic> TOPIC"'s.
> 
> So a person asks themselves when writing interpreters,
> "What should I do?"  The options are:
> 
> * Overide the first with the second
> * Never override
> * Merge the two where it's a random toss on which one
> is used.
> 
>> Someone might add a answer to I LOVE YOU
>> when there already is one that says something like
>> "Thanks, name, I like you a lot too."
>> Then be confused by their answer only appearing half
>> the time.  BUt they would be confused if sometimes
>> theirs didnt happen at all, like when the first
>> duplicate is selected over theirs.
> 
> Totally agree.  As a matter of fact, what I should be
> doing and am adding to my dev-todo.txt list is going
> to be a callback method on my CallBacks class that
> alerts when two are clashing together.  That way users
> of my AIML api will know when they have identical
> "PATTERN <that> THAT <topic> TOPIC"'s.
> 
> 
> 
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