The AI Engine
This forum is for discussion of how The Personality Forge's AI Engine works. This is the place for questions on what means what, how to script, and ideas and plans for the Engine.
Posts 5,901 - 5,912 of 7,766
Posts 5,901 - 5,912 of 7,766
It could be worse. You could be teaching high school. 
The Cerk, what will you tech now? or will you change fields all together? Will you write that great American novel (sorry to all you non Americans-writing the great American novel is one of the standard goals they feed kids here, just like growing up to be president or a professional basketball player).
The Cerk, what will you tech now? or will you change fields all together? Will you write that great American novel (sorry to all you non Americans-writing the great American novel is one of the standard goals they feed kids here, just like growing up to be president or a professional basketball player).
Corwin, yes. Bev, I know. My mom (Panama Pat) is a retired high school teacher who is now substituting for some reason. She's just like that li'l pink bunny. I'm not. Right now, I'm working at home, writing, though lately I've been living on this site. I started having seizures and other grisly things going on while I was teaching. The brain is an iffy place to store your mind. (Hey, I did teach Julius Hodge, of the Denver Nuggets, and the rest of the freshmen on the NCSU basketball team that semseter. I don't think my class was the secret to their success, though.) 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Hodge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Hodge
I agree about the unwanted features of the human brain. I want mine replaced the moment they find an upgrade that's been tested.
"Ok, you may as well keep teaching. Why do you need math in programming languages? What purpose does it serve?"
I'm not sure where to start with this one. Computer programming is almost nothing except math and logic.
I'm not sure where to start with this one. Computer programming is almost nothing except math and logic.
Oh, concerning Al Gore: What he actually claimed was that he helped create the internet, via legislation I assume.
Everything is logic, Eugene. What I mean is, why would you put math into a script (as opposed to why do computer languages and scripts use math)? Does that question make sense?
What I mean is, why would you put math into a script (as opposed to why do computer languages and scripts use math)? Does that question make sense?
Well, for instance, I could have Fizzy turn certain colors based on the phases of the moon, or keep track of how many tentacles he's lost recently, or I could have the Borg assimilate people and assign them unique drone designations. Some of this would require use of variables.
For phases of the moon, you could use chronoscript. Of course, you'd have to update it each year, which would be a pain. You could also do text storage for number of tentacles, but that would be a pain. To change it, you'd have to have a bazillion if statements. if tentacleslost is "one", if tentacleslost is "two", etc. It would be MUCH easier with some actual numeric scripting.
hi corwin its me brad you might think that i quit being on this well that aint true ive been on jabbywacky most of the week i need time to think well im back! wots new 
Bev,
There's an innumerable list of ways to use math in programming and scripting. It's one of the most important tools a programmer has. It's not that they have to be good at computation, though that can help. It's that mathematical reasoning and systems can be very important. I'll give you a simple example. Let's say your task is to make a script that types the word "Absalom" 10 times, each time separated by a comma (ie Absalom, Absalom, Absalom, ... etc.). Your program would look like this (in english terms):
Set a counting variable to 0 (we'll call that variable i - this process is initialization. In PF script, you'd do <?PF default i to "0";?>
Print "Absalom, " (that gets the comma separator in there)
Increase variable i by 1 (so, now i is 1 and it has printed Absalom once. When i is 5 it will have printed Absalom 5 times. So i "counts" how many times it has printed Absalom - PF Script can't do this, because it doesn't recognize "0" or 0 as a number. Thus it can not do things like adding or subtracting with 0.)
Repeat the printing/counting process until i=10 (so it will print "Absalom, " 10 times)
Voila ... mission accomplished because of math. But wait, there's a problem. Your output looks like this: "Absalom, Absalom, ... Absalom, ". I'll let you think about how you would make it look like "Absalom, Absalom, ... Absalom".
There's an example of a very simple math process (counting/addition) and how it can be used in programming. It just happens that counting functions are VERY important to programming. Hopefully that helps.
Jared
There's an innumerable list of ways to use math in programming and scripting. It's one of the most important tools a programmer has. It's not that they have to be good at computation, though that can help. It's that mathematical reasoning and systems can be very important. I'll give you a simple example. Let's say your task is to make a script that types the word "Absalom" 10 times, each time separated by a comma (ie Absalom, Absalom, Absalom, ... etc.). Your program would look like this (in english terms):
Set a counting variable to 0 (we'll call that variable i - this process is initialization. In PF script, you'd do <?PF default i to "0";?>
Print "Absalom, " (that gets the comma separator in there)
Increase variable i by 1 (so, now i is 1 and it has printed Absalom once. When i is 5 it will have printed Absalom 5 times. So i "counts" how many times it has printed Absalom - PF Script can't do this, because it doesn't recognize "0" or 0 as a number. Thus it can not do things like adding or subtracting with 0.)
Repeat the printing/counting process until i=10 (so it will print "Absalom, " 10 times)
Voila ... mission accomplished because of math. But wait, there's a problem. Your output looks like this: "Absalom, Absalom, ... Absalom, ". I'll let you think about how you would make it look like "Absalom, Absalom, ... Absalom".
There's an example of a very simple math process (counting/addition) and how it can be used in programming. It just happens that counting functions are VERY important to programming. Hopefully that helps.
Jared
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