April 27, 2005
RC2 (already)
I anticipated going through a few release candidates with 4.5, but not quite so quickly. Release candidate 2 is coming out as I write this. A series of exchanges with Daniel Ireland on the mailing list led me to a discovery that I'd left a pretty clumsy error in the AIML schema. This error would cause the so-called "blockCondition" form of condition to fail to validate.
Since the AIML schema is the arbiter of what gets loaded and what doesn't, I count this as a really severe issue that warrants updating the available build ASAP. I don't want tons of people to download rc1 and run into this problem.
People who have already downloaded rc1 don't need to go get rc2—you can just download the corrected schema and drop it into the resources/schema subdirectory of your Program D installation.
Like I said, this is why they're called "release candidates". :-)
Posted by Noel at 01:16 AM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2005
New Release of Program D
(From the Release Notes...)
This is the first release of Program D in three years. During this time, Program D has remained the most widely used open source / free AIML interpreter in the world. It has been employed in numerous projects, from personal-sized art projects to large, enterprise level deployments. The stability and consistent performance achieved in version 4.1.5 have proven enduring and reliable, despite the hiatus in available support.
This new release focuses on updating the Program D technology to take advantage of progress in technologies available as part of the core Java platform. Core functionalities such as XML parsing, logging, and various architectural matters are now handled in a fashion that heightens stability, performance and maintainability.
We have finally addressed the issue of component orientation: Program D can now be easily included into any application framework as a simple "core" object, without ever involving any undesired interfaces (servlet container, IM interface, etc.). On the other hand, these optional interfaces now use a more flexible and better defined API to connect to the Core, and we are confident that additional interfaces may now be provided with far more ease than before.
Every line of code of Program D has been reviewed, and "refactored" as appropriate. The program still passes all of the AIML 1.0.1 test cases published with the previous version, as well as a few more.
Read the complete release notes.
Posted by Noel at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2005
A new focus
A couple of years ago, we put together the aitools.org site with a rather narrow, technology-oriented focus: we wanted to provide links to AIML interpreters and documentation, and to companies providing bot-related services. The point was to maintain an information repository not associated with any particular company, organization, etc.
As it has turned out, the alicebot.org site has done a far better job of maintaining that sort of information, especially for the general hobbyist community.
From the point of view of professional bot development based on open source / free software, however, we still see a need to be addressed. Following is a brief description of that need, and how we're refocusing aitools.org to meet it.
It has been most interesting to discover that Program D matters a whole lot. We always knew it was important, but it took these years of letting it wander by itself to really see how important. There are plenty of people, and companies, for whom none of the hosted bot "solutions" are anywhere near adequate. And although new AIML interpreters pop up all the time, none have seen the consistent demand and usage as has Program D. It would appear that the work invested in getting to version 4.1.5 proved really valuable for a lot of decisionmakers, because they've felt confident in relying upon Program D as the basis for some pretty substantial projects, even though the primary developer (me) was largely unavailable to assist for the last two and a half years or so.
Over these years, I've received inquiries about Program D—where to submit a patch, questions about this or that integration issue, questions about future development, and so on. In general, I've had to defer substantive replies to some unspecified future date.
But present circumstances have brought me back into active development of Program D, and there are now some resources (albeit limited) for providing a certain amount of support for some of those questions and needs.
So it seems like a good time to make a change to aitools.org. I'm preparing the first new release of Program D in nearly three years, due out in mere days (if not hours). I've put together a product roadmap that I think will be very interesting to serious application developers and creative implementers. I'm maintaining stability and performance as a high priority, but I'm also starting to factor in the ideas that go under the mysterious name "xAIML", which have been floating around for several years, but which haven't been addressed head on until now.
All of this accounts for an obvious change in the web site. We're not mirroring other AIML interpreters anymore. We're not providing copies of documentation, links to bots or bot companies, etc. The focus is pared down: Program D and xAIML. The latter is still a question mark in the minds of all but a few people who've been in on the planning. Program D, of course, is world famous. We expect the next release cycle to be very energizing, and the one after that to be truly mind-blowing. Open source (free) bot software is about to enter an entirely new phase. AItools.org is where it's happening. Get ready.
Posted by Noel at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)