Hi all!

I’m a Python developer with a strong interest (obsession) with automation. I learned about Weizenbaums ELIZA program in a documentary (Adam Curtis’ ‘Hypernormalization’ - highly recommended) and since investigating it further and discovering Alice and AIML I’ve been totally inspired by this entire field.

I’ve spent the last week immersed in chat bot tech. I’ve tried a lot of the ‘Program-X’ programs and studied AIML. I love it.

If you post regularly on the forum then you’ve probably already helped me out.

A huge thank you to everyone in the community sharing their knowledge and for helping out newcomers to this fascinating field. Particularly Dave Morton (who’s name you will see everywhere when googling for AIML related search terms) who constantly takes the time to reply to people facing problems and always has something constructive to say. And to everyone who’s contributed to this field, you’re all heroes.

Thanks everyone!

Welcome aboard Michael. Always good to see another AIML developer.

Thanks Steve, happy to be here with the pros!

Thanks for the kind words, Michael. They are much appreciated. I didn’t realize that I had that much of a presence when it comes to AIML. After all, much of what I learned about AIML was learned from Steve.

Anyway, welcome to chatbots.org. I hope that your visits here are both informative and enjoyable, and if there’s anything you need, or if you just want to provide feedback, you’re both welcome and encouraged to join in.

Thanks Dave, I hope so too! I’ll try to share as much as I can. I’ll also be trowing up some links to tools I’ve hacked together that have come in handy for me, maybe someone else will find them useful too.

I’ll be starting discussions on Program-O too, you may or may not be happy to know :p

I really think its one of the best options out there for AIML, I love it.

Thanks, Michael. I appreciate that. As the lead developer of Program O, it’s gratifying to hear. Sadly, between work, school, and life’s little “detours”, I’ve not had as much time to work on it as I would like, so it’s not as far along as I would hope it to be, but such is life.

To a newcomer looking at the available AIML tools listed on the alicebot site and other places, it’s really very encouraging to see that Program-O still has a lead developer.

I’ve heard you say interesting things about the next version. If there’s anything you think I might be able to help with, even just something tedious to take the weight off your shoulders then just shoot me an email about it. I’d be proud to have contributed something. I have some basic skills in PHP, JS, HTML and CSS.

I do have some features and changes I will be implementing in my installation so I guess I’ll be poking around at Program-O soon anyway

I’m always happy to accept help with the project!

One suggestion that I have in that regard is to ask that you look through the issues on GitHub, both the open ones and the ones that have been closed, and just see what sort of issues there are and have been. You can also have a look at the state of version 3 at https://github.com/Dave-Morton/Program-O, which is where I’ve been keeping my vision for the future of Program O. My current semester in college is drawing to a close, so I’ll have a few weeks to get things more organized, and can perhaps move forward with the project a little more. If you’re interested in helping, then I will certainly send an email your way so that we can discuss how best to proceed.

Sounds good! Good idea to go through the issues. Thanks for linking to your current version, looks really interesting. Definitely interested in helping