Dear Forum

I’m looking for a program to test the Loebner Prize Protocol and the only one I can find is http://loebner.net/Prizef/JComm.txt last updated 2006.06.22. Does anyone know a more recent version?

Also, is there a version available for Windows? I understand the bots have to run on Windows, so I need a Windows version of the program to test the protocol.

ChatScript ships with a loebner protocol judge file: LoebnerPlayer.pl at top level.
And Chatscript ships with a loebner ready version of chatscript.

Just remember that the LPP program is a Perl script, so whatever machine you want to test it on has to have that scripting language installed, as well.

The most current one that I have been testing with was the one from last year:

http://www.paulmckevitt.com/loebner2013/loebner2013judge_program.txt

Rename it to a .pl and it should run under Perl ok.

And here is a perl interpreter to go with it. Just hosting this temporarily, got it from some or other previous Loebner contest page that seems to have gone missing now.
http://artistdetective.com/ActivePerl-5.16.3.1603-MSWin32-x86-296746.msi

Thanks very much all - I will download them and test them out later on. I am a total newbie when it comes to perl. Does anyone know if this is the ‘official’ program for the 2014 contest?

The AISB website says “the published Loebner Prize Protocol” but nothing helpful. I pointed this out to the good Dr. Keedwell a month ago, but while he did respond, he did not respond to that particular remark.
Do feel free to mail him at E.C.Keedwell(youknowwhat)ex.ac.uk with any questions.

For what it’s worth: I don’t know anything about perl, have a windows exe program, and this all worked well enough for me last year. As long as your own program holds up its end of the bargain, i.e. write/read letters as numbered subdirectories to/from a folder of choice, it doesn’t really matter what version of the judge program might be used. Although I have no idea how many digits the judge program uses to send letters, for instance. Using a repeating findfirst() function means I don’t have to care about that.

To test the LPP protocol, I have made a Windows Program. If you want, you can use it:

Exe file is here

Source files are here

All is on wtfpl license {WARNING! Link is NSFW!} (you must agree the license before downloading files )

The program is not very beautiful (global variables, very few comments), but I think it works.

{Inserted a suitable warning for the license link - Dave}

Denis Robert - Jul 10, 2014:

To test the LPP protocol, I have made a Windows Program. If you want, you can use it:

Exe file is here

Source files are here

All is on wtfpl license {WARNING! Link is NSFW!} (you must agree the license before downloading files )

The program is not very beautiful (global variables, very few comments), but I think it works.

I tested it against my entry and it seems to work well.

{Again, added a suitable warning for the license link. This IS a "family friendly" site, after all - Dave}

In light of the fact that I’ve modified a couple of posts here, I thought I’d hijack the thread just long enough to explain why, in the hopes of preventing any hard/hurt feelings.

Given that this website is intended to be family friendly, I think it’s important to avoid (or at least limit) certain behaviors, such as racial remarks, sexual comments, “flaming”, “trolling”, and (mostly) profanity. Children (and adults, for that matter) get enough of that stuff elsewhere, so we needn’t add to it here, really. So as both a moderator and admin here, I try to keep these things to the barest possible minimum. I don’t want to micro-manage everyone’s behavior here, and I don’t want to be the “Bad Guy”, but sometimes I have to step in, as was the case in the 2 previous posts.

Yes, I know that adding those warnings will make it more likely that those folks that I’m trying to “protect” will now click on the links I’ve put warnings on, but that’s on them, not me. I’m not responsible for anyone’s bad decisions other than my own.

Ok, back to the discussion at hand. Sorry for the interruption.

Will Rayer - Jul 10, 2014:

Does anyone know if this is the ‘official’ program for the 2014 contest?

This is the latest version I am aware of. The AISB site seems very bare when offering resources for would be entrants. The Paul McKevitt site is a lot better.

Dave Morton - Jul 10, 2014:

... certain behaviors, such as racial remarks, sexual comments, “flaming”, “trolling”, and (mostly) profanity.

Sorry, that was not my intention. This license can be summarized as “Do what you want”

Not to worry, Denis. I left the link in place because of it’s comedic value. Humor is, after all, very important in life. Also, it’s my considered opinion that parents should take an active rol… But that’s a post for another thread, isn’t it?

Dave Morton - Jul 10, 2014:

I don’t want to be the “Bad Guy”

Off-topic, if you write it in capitals like that, it’s the title of a comic I co-produced, where The Bad Guy(TM) (Warning: 80’s style violence) is a reluctant good guy. Consider me amused that you don’t want to be him

OK guys back on topic please

I have downloaded the txt/pl file and the Perl msi and installed it - many thanks for the links Steve and Don. The Perl file ran without error which is good as I don’t know Perl. Eventually I figured out how to run the program: click the green “New Round” button, choose 4 folders, then anything you type in the tiny entry fields at the bottom (next to the prompts saying “My Left Entry” and “My Right Entry”) creates the LPP’s named sub-folders. Later today I will connect my laptop to a LAN and test the Uberbot. Some thoughts and questions:

(1) I now understand why entries typed using the LPP don’t include the Enter key. When using the judge program you type into the little character box, so it’s not a normal multi line edit control where you type a line then press Enter. Although the Judges would eventually have to press Enter or all their text would be on one line.

(2) 2 of the 4 LPP folders contain folders such as “01234567.left.judge.d.webcast”. As these names don’t follow the official Loebner spec (they don’t have the format <numbers>.<letter>.<judge>) I assume they are a record of the conversation, and are not intended for a bot.

(3) As a general comment, the Judge program does not look elegant. I’m sure it does its job very well, but if you want more publicity with media, reporters etc then could it not be smartened up? I know it’s easy for me to criticize and the obvious reply is “if I don’t like it then smarten it up”. So feel free to ignore this point!

Finally thanks everyone for their help and guidance.

With all the fuss of preparation, I can use some occasional off-topicness though

1. In the finals, the human judges tend to press enter, sometimes add blank newlines, out of habit and for their own readability. In the selection round however, whoever is behind the keys does not seem to press enter (as apparent from past experiences).

2. the webcast folders receive a duplicate of the conversation for live online broadcasting only during the finals. You can ignore them for testing.

3. Quite, the judge program looks amateurish. I’d hazard a guess that Hugh wouldn’t mind someone improving it, but it won’t be me

P.S. Your final submission won’t require a LAN connection, will it? (Just pointing out the small print)