Messages

Although I can see a lot of potential for Hal I haven't yet been overly impressed with how Hal is being used to store information, categorize it and learn from it (make it available for me to use).  For instance what would stop us from asking Hal to remember something, giving him a category to file it under and a name for the piece of information.  

e.g.

Hi Hal!  Tell what you know about ???.  
   (hopefully this would be a search of the database, not static
   code in an add-in).
Hal responds with the categories of information he has stored.
I interrupt Hal when he names some category of information I am interested in.
Hal responds with the names of the pieces of information he has stored under the specified category.
I interrupt Hal when he names something I would like him to read or paste onto the clip board.  This would probably be best coded with each question and answer leading the user down a tree of information.
This would enable us to search by more than just a category and article name.

I could then start to build a database of information by using as much DNS functionalty I can such as going to a web page and selecting some information and pasting it into the clipboard. I could then ask then hal to copy the information from the clip board. I started to look at Hal's database but I have another week or two of data migration work to complete so it will probably be a bit before I get to coding anything.  I think this could be done without to much effort.  Please let me know if anyone has already worked on anything like this as I do like to avoid reinventing the wheel as much as possible.  I'm at a stage in my life and a season where I would rather be out on my JetSki then coding although I do enjoy both!

<<If you go to your Ultra Hal Assistant 6 folder and open up the HalBrain.mbr file with note pad you will see all of the custom functions available for programming HAL. >>

Since I've seen scripts that use CreateObect to create the FileSystem object it would appear that the uhp scripts are just vbscript so why would there be a need to stick vbscript function declarations into the HalVB.mbr? Are the mbr files (HalBrain.mbr, HalVB.mbr and WordNet.mbr) just declarations for DLL libraries.

<<Yes, all plug-ins get cached to a single file called the HalScript.dbg for processing.>>

Interesting!  So any plugin could cause problems with the whole app?
Does the HalScript.dbg run the whole app or is it just the plug-in part of Hals main program?  Do you know what languate Hal was created in?  Just courious!

Thank you Jerry!  You have supplied at least %90 of the examples I have found if not more so I appreciate the work you have already done and shared.  As time permits I'm going to try to get up to speed on this stuff myself .  I;ve already lost money from contract work I should be doing instead of playing with this stuff but this AI stuff sure looks like fun and could be very usefull as well.

<<you are going to run into problems using the constants, code only allows each constant mentioned once or an error will occur, the same will hold true if you might be using other plug-ins that use the same constant names.>>

So all the plugins are treated as one code set?

<<What I usually do is create my own custom constants that will not conflict with other plug-ins.>>

Thanks!  I will start using my own naming convention to reduce the chance of conflicts.


<<InputString is just like String, it contains all the sentencing and punctuation, HalXBrain.AlphaNumericalOnly(InputString) simply removes the punctuation from the InputString for processing.>>

Thanks.  Is a help file or source code avalable for the HalXBrain?
It looked like HalXBrain.Brain already had a FileSystem object defined.  It this the case?

<<if you have any more questions I'll be glad to help.>>
Thanks a lot!  I've got an HP TC1100 I'm playing with this on.  Have a BlueParrot blue tooth headset and the latest version of Dragon Natuarally Speaking Preferred coming next Tuesday.  I'm looking forward to turning it into a mobile secretary and it looks like it may actually be possible now.  It seems that this should all be integrated with a database of some sort but I can see where the performance considerations might make it more practical to use the database to create the uhp files instead of actually hitting the DB while using Hal.  Hard coding is harder to maintain but probably a lot quicker the SQL calls.  Thanks again!

One more question!  Do you know if there a way to control when Hal reads the input data?  This may just be a DNS issue but I'm always needing to correct something and in a hurry to do it before Hal reads it.  I've tried your correction plugin which is nice but I should be able to just use DNS.  I'll check it's help as it's probably not Hal related.  Talk with you later!

<<Thank you Art!  I will play with it a bit.>>

Do each of the add-ins run each time a sentence is entered into Hals input screen? If so I can see where installing a lot of add-ins without knowing what they are doing could waste a lot of system resources.   I have a few questions about the AutoWikiKnowledge.uhp file.

Where does the variable/input 'InputString' come from?  
Is this an input variable and if so what would it contain?
Is InputString the same as the MyInput variable?


Does HalXBrain.AppendFile do something different then using Scripting.FileSystemObject object to read and write to files?
I'm working through the code and rewriting it a bit in order to
understand what it is doing and make sure it won't steal to many system resources from my machine.

This is not finished code and has not been tested at all yet!
'---------------------------------------------------------------------
Rem Type=Plugin
Rem Name=Auto Wikipedia Knowledge
Rem Author=Gerald L. Blakley A.K.A OnTheCuttingEdge2005  -- Modified by forum user
Rem Host=All

'This sub setups the plug-ins option panel in Hal's options dialog
Sub OptionsPanel()
   lblPlugin(0).Caption = "Just say: please study about the universe or please study about science, you can replace the word Universe or Science with any other word or noun, all information on the word is studied from the website Wikipedia"
   lblPlugin(0).Move 120, 10, 3300, 1000
   lblPlugin(0).WordWrap = True
   lblPlugin(0).Visible = True
End Sub



Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Definitions
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
' MyInput        : The user input?
' InputString   : The user input again?




'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Create a reference to the UltraHalAsst.Brain code library.
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Set HalXBrain = CreateObject("UltraHalAsst.Brain")


'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Determine if we want to process the user input by searching for a form
' of the desired command and parsing out the specific subject to study.
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WikiToLookup = HalBrain.SearchPattern(MyInput, "*PLEASE STUDY ABOUT THE *", 2)
If WikiToLookup = "" Then WikiToLookup = HalBrain.SearchPattern(MyInput, "*PLEASE STUDY ABOUT *", 2)
If WikiToLookup = "" Then WikiToLookup = HalBrain.SearchPattern(MyInput, "*DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE *", 2)
If WikiToLookup = "" Then WikiToLookup = HalBrain.SearchPattern(MyInput, "*DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT *", 2)


'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
' If the user input matches what we want to respond to process it.
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If WikiToLookup <> "" Then

'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Initialize variables
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   XDir = "C:Program FilesabawareUltra Hal Assistant 6\"
   MyFile = "C:Program FilesabawareUltra Hal Assistant 6AutoText.brn"
   SourcePage = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/" & WikiToLookup
   strNewContents = ""

'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Clean the user input.
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   MyInput = HalXBrain.AlphaNumericalOnly(InputString)

'--------------------------------------------
' Read a page off the internet
'--------------------------------------------
   objExplorer.Navigate(SourcePage)
   Set objExplorer = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
   Do Until objExplorer.ReadyState=4 : Loop
   myText = objExplorer.Document.Body.innerText
   Set objExplorer = Nothing

'--------------------------------------------
' Write internet page information to file
'--------------------------------------------
   If Len(myText) > 0 then
      If FileSys.FileExists(MyFile) = False Then
         HalXBrain.AppendFile MyFile, "Start of Knowledge strings"
      End If
      HalXBrain.AppendFile MyFile, Trim(myText)
   End If

'--------------------------------------------
' Respond to user
'--------------------------------------------
   UltraHal = " I have looked up the study of " & WikiToLookup & ", Thanks. "


'--------------------------------------------
' The rest of the code below looks like it is  attempting to
' cleanse the existing AutoText.brn file.
' It should be in a subroutine of it's own.
' I wouldn't want to clean the whole text file
' every time Hal get's a a new line of input.
'--------------------------------------------

'--------------------------------------------
' Read all of MyFile into variable strText
'--------------------------------------------
   strText = ReadFile(MyFile)

'--------------------------------------------
' Clean file
'--------------------------------------------
   If InStr(1, strText, "   ", vbTextCompare) > 0 Then   strText = CleanFile(MyFile)

'--------------------------------------------
' Write the cleansed text back to the file.
'--------------------------------------------
   If Len(strText) > 0 Then WriteFile(MyFile, strText)  


'--------------------------------------------
' Calculate the number of sentences based on the number of lines ending in periods.
' I would think this should also take into consideration question marks and exclamation points.
'--------------------------------------------
   TextCount = StrCount()


'--------------------------------------------
' I haven't worked on this yet.
' it looks like it is attempting to compare each line in the
' file with the user input and then have Hal read back one of them.
' I didn't notice any feedback from Hal after the indicated he had studied the subject
' so I'm not sure what is going on here.
'--------------------------------------------

'--------------------------------------------
' For each sentenct retrieved from MyFile
'--------------------------------------------
   For i = 1 To TextCount
      ClipResX = HalXBrain.ChooseSentenceFromFile(MyFile)
      ClipResX = HalXBrain.AlphaNumericalOnly(ClipResX)
      ClipResX = UCase(ClipResX)
      ClipResX = Trim(ClipResX)

      MyInputString = HalXBrain.AlphaNumericalOnly(InputString)
      MyInputString = UCase(MyInputString)
      MyInputString = Trim(MyInputString)

      If InStr(1, ClipResX, MyInputString, vbTextCompare) > 0 And Len(ClipResX) > 50 Then
         UltraHal = ClipResX
      ElseIf Len(ClipResX) < 50 Then
         UltraHal = UltraHal
      End If
   Next


End If

'********************************************************************
'*
'********************************************************************
Function StrCount()
 Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
 Set objTextFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("C:Program FilesabawareUltra Hal Assistant 6AutoText.brn", ReadVariable())
 strText = objTextFile.ReadAll
 objTextFile.Close
         
 Do While InStr(1, strText, "  ")
   strText = Replace(strText, "  ", " ")
   Exit Do
 Loop
 aWords = split(strText, ". ")
 StrCount = Ubound(aWords) + 1
End Function

'********************************************************************
'*
'********************************************************************
Sub WriteFile(sFilePathAndName,sFileContents)  

 Const ForWriting =2

 Set oFS = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
 Set oFSFile = oFS.OpenTextFile(sFilePathAndName,ForWriting,True)

 oFSFile.Write(sFileContents)
 oFSFile.Close

 Set oFSFile = Nothing
 Set oFS = Nothing

End Sub

'********************************************************************
'*
'********************************************************************
Function ReadFile(sFilePathAndName)

  dim sFileContents
  Set oFS = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

  If oFS.FileExists(sFilePathAndName) = True Then
     Set oTextStream = oFS.OpenTextFile(sFilePathAndName,1)
     sFileContents = oTextStream.ReadAll
     oTextStream.Close
     Set oTextStream = nothing
  End if
  Set oFS = nothing

  ReadFile = sFileContents

End Function

'********************************************************************
'*
'********************************************************************
Sub CleanFile(sFilePathAndName)
'--------------------------------------------
' 1. Read a line and removing preceding and trailing spaces.
' 2' Append vbCrLf to the line and then append it to the new text variable strNewContents.
'--------------------------------------------
  Const ForReading = 1
  Const ForWriting = 2
  Const ForAppending = 8
  Const TristateUseDefault = -2
  Const TristateTrue = -1
  Const TristateFalse = 0

  Dim oFS
  Dim oFile
  Dim oStream
  Dim sRecord
  Dim strNewContents

  Set oFS = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  Set oFile = oFS.GetFile(sFilePathAndName)
  Set oStream = oFile.OpenAsTextStream(ForReading, TristateUseDefault)

  Do While Not oStream.AtEndOfStream
     sRecord=oStream.ReadLine

'--------------------------------------------
' Clean the text
'--------------------------------------------
   sRecord = Trim(sRecord)

'--------------------------------------------
' Append to new contents string
'--------------------------------------------
   If Len(sRecord) > 0 Then strNewContents = strNewContents & sRecord & vbCrLf

  Loop

  oStream.Close

  CleanFile = strNewContents

 End Sub

Hi Jerry!  I downloaded your zip file and managed to get it to respond. Are there any more commands besides "Please study about xxxx." that make it work?  I belive you mentioned it can spider web sites for information.  Is this true and if so how would I get it to do so?

Yes, I'm replying to myself! What I was interested in here is if I tell Hal to store email addresses or dates where it it stored?  It's not very practical for me unless it is stored in a database I can access or something like MS Outlook. I could load MS Outlook from the database if it was available to query.   I guess I could use hal to remeber for the short term and then ask for the information again when I want to enter it into a usable source.  I guess I could just use hal to open outlook and enter the data although that sounds more like something that DNS would handle.  If the data doesn't get stored in a database that I can accees then it's almost a waste of time having Hal save it.

I read somewhere that you could have hall read the text if an encyclopedia to learn about some topics.  It this possible or practical?

Can anyone tell me what type of database Ultra Hal uses?
Can I attach to it or access it with SQL?