The AI Engine

Um, I am aware that this is an RTFM question, but I'm too busy learning how to create personalities right now to dive into HTML and Regex and what-not full-force yet.

How do you get your bot to speak in italics? I've seen it done, and I'd prefer to emphasize my bots' words with italics rather than all caps or astericks or underscores or what-not.

Okay, in my brain-dead moments, I'm trying to make some no-brainer additions to my bots. I thought I'd try remembering the last thing I said so that when somebody asked me something like, "What did you just say?" I would have an answer. Sometimes this works. But it balks at this line:

<?PF rem "Must you?, (mem-name)?" as only "lastthingisaid"; ?>

It has nothing to do with the (mem-name), because I tried taking it out. Possibly, I just now realize, it's the question mark. If so, I could reword it (a real pain) by saing "I asked you if . . ." -- how might I capture the punctuation in order to avoid rewriting my sentences?

Thanks.

Nah. It's not the question mark. Never mind on that. So what in blazes is it?

Oh, I'm an idiot. It should be

<?PF rem "lastthingisaid" as only "Must you, (mem-name)?"; ?>

I swear, all it takes is for me to post it.

No, I don't think so... The variable name is "lastthingsaid" so it should be last. But I'm still not sure WHAT the problem is.

Oh, italics. Just use a lower-case 'i' in the pointy brackets. So it'll look something like [i], but with the correct brackets. Then [/i] to turn it back off. Fair warning, the AI engine tends to interpret it as either a word, or as part of a word, so it can result in some odd responses.

Of course I /i! Don't you?

Yeah, Ulrike, re the variable being last, I just went dyslexic for a minute. I did do it the right way and it seems to have cleared that up, except for long stuff, which I suppose I could do if I got bored enough, using gotos.

But thanks for thinking of me in my numbed state of mind. And thanks for clearing up that with the italics. Someday I plan to learn regex and html and what-not, but it's only the ten fingers!

btw, if this helps at all- I don't think you can both trigger and store a memory in the same command. In this case, (mem-name) can't be pulled out of "name" and moved to "lastthingisaid" like that. I mean like, you can't <?PF remember (mem-anything) as "anything else"; ?>

Yeah, we went over that recently and *poof* it blew out my ears. I remembered after I tried it once. Thanks, though (and for not saying we just told you that -- read the Book of AI). I have dreams about the Book of AI. This is the kind of stuff I learn by trying, screwing up, and often having to ask for help.

All right, this is a more psychological issue, which I think they might've inherited from me. My bots get all kinds of xgottagos from other bots and don't take the hint. Finally they get hung up on by the other end in self defense. Any thoughts as to why?

The AI Engine is supposed to pick up on the obvious ones, and usually does. "Goodbye!" "See you later!" "Gotta go!" "TTFN!" I've seen all those trigger xgoodbye. For ones that it misses, I sometimes add a keyphrase with the response "goto xgoodbye".

There's a thought. Thanks. I was starting to put in a keyphrase for every damn "xgottago" that my bot missed. It makes for more relevant answers but takes forever.