Is it possible to execute functions outside of a rule in a topic? For example, if some keyword or response triggered the Relationships randomized topic file I would like to know if the user’s gender has been determined, if not do so, before responding or gambiting anything in the topic. Currently, I dont see a way to do this without testing this in each rule of the topic.

Maybe something like:

u:(!$gender) Are you a guy or girl?
              a: (guy) $gender=male
              a: (girl) $gender=female

at the beginning of the topic file?

Would that automatically always run once upon entry and then fail based on the pattern?

as first gambit in topic do

t: (!$gender) keep() end(TOPIC)

But would that wouldn’t be sure to run first for a randomized topic file right?

Actually I guess you could use 1 t: and all the rest r: gambits

But what if the topic was triggered by a ? s or u rule?

I dont see a way to do it without entering a custom macro for each rule

you are correct that for a random topic it doesnt work. And you cant do 1 r: and then a bunch of t:..
but you could NEST this topic within a different topic that was gated with the exclusion rule

t: (!$gender) keep() END(TOPIC)
t: ^keep() gambit(~nestedtopic)

Bruce Wilcox - Oct 22, 2014:

And you cant do 1 r: and then a bunch of t:..

Actually I said 1 t: and then a bunch of r:

Wouldn’t that work?

probably not. system has to clear out the t to move on

Right! So have the gender setting gambit as t: and all other gambits as r: Like

followed by r: s: and ?: rules

Yes. If the first rule in a topic is a gambit (in a topic not marked random), then it will try that and any other initial gambits. Once it finds an r:, it will then shift to randomly selecting the r:‘s.