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Night Owl 6
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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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008a
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asker1.zip
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README.DOC
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1992-01-13
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Asker.
A program which responds to user input by asking simple questions.
A natural-language non-cognitive pseudo-conversational interactor.
The type of question asked is determined by the nature of the input
Asker receives from the user.
If the user input is wordy, short, negative, questioning, exclamatory,
or ends in '...' the program may respond in different ways. It may ask
the user to express the idea more concisely, to expand on the idea, to
consider alternatives. Asker is kind of like a great-aunt who can't
hear you very well, but who strives to help you elucidate your side
of the conversation.
When the input from the user contains words that are emotionally loaded,
such as 'beauty', or 'sacrifice', the program may respond by encouraging
elaboration of the topic. If emotionally-loaded words continue to appear
in the user input, the program may ask the user to describe the feelings
that the user is feeling at the moment. If the user then actually names
feelings, the program asks how it feels to have those feelings.
If the input contains the word 'I' the computer may ask the user about
the user.
When nothing in the user input is selected as a basis for response,
the program may ask for a root concept within the topic, may ask the user
for cause or effect of the preceding idea, or may ask the user to sum up the
discussion thus far.
There are seven questions or statements for each category of response.
To put Asker through it's paces, try typing in 'Love is grand' over and
over again. Try just typing 'asdf'. Try typing 'I like my bike'. Try
typing 'joy'. Respond to a question.
To exit Asker, type 'Bye'. Or 'End'. Or 'Bedtime'.
As with any non-cognitive interactor, the ball is always in your court.
Asker doesn't understand a thing about what you're saying. You need to
provide the substance of the conversation. It may turn into a good listener.
(When the user input terminates in '...' it becomes an especially good
listener.) It copes with its ignorance by saying 'hmmm...' and asking
oblique but potentially useful questions.
If ASKER is of use to you and you wish to reward the author with a small
gift, this would be warmly received. I will try to answer all letters.
Dan Stevens
enigmatics
5401 South Hyde Park Blvd #1206
Chicago, IL 60615
This product may be shared with anyone so long as the .ZIP file goes with
it. Please pass it on to those who might enjoy it. DMS 1/13/92
Copyright 1992, Chicago, IL