Labels:text | screenshot | font OCR: NIALL...The Non-Intelligent AMOS Language Learner I have sectioned the instructions into three parts so you can skip the bits which do not interest you. The sections are: 1....What NIALL does. 2....How to Use NIALL. 3....Credits. VERY IMPORTANT... Read this now! Niall was written on an expanded A500. Because of this the program contains Hi-Res graphics screens in 4 colours with quick reference instructions and up to a 3000 word vocabulary with a 120K buffer. Not surprisingly this did not work on unexpanded A500's. Instead of removing all of the above I left them alone and wrote in clauses which makes the unexpanded A500 version look a lot less impressive. It is, however, still the same program with the same vocabulary size and string buffer. However on an unexpanded machine the Hi-Res screens in 4 colours become Lo-Res screens in 2 colours, and there are not quick reference instructions. ALSO: In order to keep the buffer size and vocab size the same, users with Unexpanded A500's have to TURN OFF ALL EXTERNAL DRIVES or the program will crash! One further note to users with expanded A500's or A2000's. If you have the AMOS package you can load the program and change the buffer size and vocab size if you feel the values I have set are too restricting. Buffer size can be set by altering the first line: Set Buffer 120 (Reserve 120K) to any size memory allows. Vocab size can be set by altering the second line: MNW=3000 (Set MNW to the max number of words you wish.) WHAT NIALL DOES Niall attempts to learn English, or whatever language you care to teach it, by breaking down the sentences you type in, remembering words, connections between words, the number of times a particular connection has occurred, and start/end sentence markers. The best was to explain is by example. Suppose the first sentence you typed was: The large green tree was next to the old red shed Niall would split the sentence into separate words and store any new words it found (Niall's vocabulary is initially blank!). It would then store the following information: 1.....The word THE can begin a sentence. 2..... The word LARGE can follow the word THE. 3.....The word GREEN can follow the word LARGE...etc 4..... The word SHED can end a sentence. Therefore after analysing this sentence, NIALL has learnt 10 new words and knows that the word THE can not only start a sentence by also join onto both LARGE and OLD. This can be expressed as follows: (Start)\-THE LARGE GREEN - TREE -- WAS -- NEXT -- TO -/ OLD RED SHED (End) Niall then replies to your sentence by picking a random word which can begin the sentence, followed by one of the words which can join onto it selected at random, then one which can join onto it, and so on until the end of sentence marker is reached. Therefore, NIALL may reply to your first sentence like so: The old red shed. The more sentences you type in the more words Niall will learn, the more connections it will make and the more original the replies will seem. Replies must be taken with a pinch of salt since the grammar will be anything but perfect. A semi intelligent version which attempts to learn grammar too, may appear at a later date. Niall also remember the number of times a particular connection is made in order to weight the replies and make them sound more realistic. For example, if the second sentence you type is: The old garden gate was blue Niall now knows that the word THE joins onto the word OLD more often than it joins to LARGE. The table above now looks like this: (Start)\-THE LARGE - GREEN - TREE WAS -- NEXT -- TO -/ === OLD RED SHED (End)/ -BLUE (End) GARDEN - GATE/ Niall could now reply: The old garden gate was next to the old red shed. The sentences can begin to get original. Well that's basically it for how it works. If you have any questions contact me by writing to the address at the end of this text. HOW TO USE NIALL This is simplicity itself. You are given the prompt USER: Here you can type up to 255 words in any number of sentences, each sentence must be separated from the next by a full stop. It is not necessary to finish your sentence with a full stop if you only type one sentence. Each sentence of your input will be dealt with one after the other. It is perfectly legal to type: The cat sat on the mat. The cat was called George. IMPORTANT: Do NOT put COMMAS in your sentence because they are treated just like full stops. Niall will then reply and you can enter another sentence. If you just press return without entering anything, Niall will say something else. If you just press return when Niall has no vocabulary, the message "I cannot speak yet!" will be displayed. At the USER: prompt you can also enter one fo the command words. All command words are prefixed by a "#". The command words perform the following functions: #LIST....: This function will display on the screen the current vocabulary list and list of connections. The format of the connection string is: Total no. of connections | Word no. (No. of times connected)..etc The word number is displayed to the left of the word during the listing. #LLIST...:Outputs the same list to the printer. MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE THE BOOT DISC IN THE DRIVE because printer drivers need to be accessed and if a requester appears you will find it hard to close because the mouse pointer is shut down. #LPRINT..: Toggles continuous output of the sentences you type and Niall's replies to a printer. Again make sure the boot disk is in the drive. #CORRECT.: If you spell a word incorrectly and have already pressed return you can correct by using this command. You will be asked to enter the incorrect spelling and the new word which replaces it. #SPEAK...: Toggles the internal speech. Only Niall's replies are spoken. Make sure boot disk is in the drive as the translator device is needed and the requester box is difficult to cancel when the mouse cursor is shut down. #FRESH...: This will wipe the current vocabulary. You will be given the "Are you sure?" option before the vocabulary is cleared. #SAVE....:Saves the current vocab list to disk under any name. A file requester will appear. All files are saved under <NAME>.NIALL. If you omit the .NIALL, the program will add it for you. #LOAD....:Loads a previously saved vocab list. The file requester can be used to select the file. An example file is provided on the disk and is called EXAMPLE.NIALL. #QUIT....A nice way to exit. You will be given the "Are you sure?" option. Note CTRL-C will also work but exit by this method is immediate. That's it. Have fun, and remember that the more rubbish you type in, the more you'll get back CREDITS All program code and graphics by Matthew Peck in 1990. Program written using AMOS 1.1, and run using RAMOS. Niall is based on an idea called DANI (Dynamic Artificial Non-Intelligence) which was written for the MSX machines and published some years ago in a magazine called MSX Computing. NIALL is completely re-written and contains none of the original source code found in DANI, but I would like to give credit to the author of DANI for the inspiration. However, I have lost the magazine and do not know the author's name. If you wrote DANI or know of who did, please contact me so that I can put his/her name in the credit list. Other credits to: Patrick Fox........Who helped playtest this, and whose major contribution was helping iron out the bugs, as well as teaching Niall to swear. Adam Wright... For not stealing the idea and writing his own version, which he very nearly did, and for playtesting too. LOU Kevin Tye. .For being a good demo contact and nice guy. youn Gary Keogh. .For being a most encouraging and good fun sort of room mate at college. MO vers Ben keine Francois Lionet....For taking the effort to code AMOS and not do a direct STOS conversion. Sarah Gould.. .For being a wonderful, warm and caring girlfriend whenever I need her. If you have any problems, suggestions, ideas, updates, extra functions, marvellous dictionaries, complaints, the odd red Ferrari Testarossa you don't want, or 5 million pounds to give away, then contact me (Mat Peck) at: 23 WELBECK AVENUE, BEDGROVE, AYLESBURY, BUCKS, ENGLAND, HP21 9BH. AMOS and RAMOS (c) 1990 Mandarin/Jawx NIALL is (c) Matthew Peck 1990
(.png)
.iso/utilities/u200.dms/u200.adf/readme.doc/readme.png)