Hi,

As a few of you know I have been working on my Android Assistant (JERVIS) for some time. Well recently I decided to kick it up a notch using Program AB, eventually switching over to the new Pandorabots API. While I really enjoy Program AB, the small hitch I have with it is the dreadfully slow AIML load times, sometimes taking upwards of 4 minutes on some devices to load all the categories.

Obviously the first thought would be to reduce the number of categories/AIML files all around. The problem with that is, with a reduced number of AIML files/categories, the less personality I am ultimatly able to give my bot which, in its current AIML 1.0.1 state, has quite a few categories.

So my question is (mostly for Steve and Dr. Wallace, as they worked on CallMom BASIC which also used Program AB) how would I go about lower the load times of my bots categories, without ultimately lowering the overall number of categories themselves?

“By not loading the categories” is the simple answer!

CallMom works by passing the user’s input to a server which then delivers the result to the phone. No load times at all.

CallMom BASIC however, does load all the categories and can take a long while toload. Sorry but there isn’t really any way round that. However, as many of the functions require the internet “What is the weather like?”, “What time is it in Australia?” and so on, you are probably better connecting to a server rather than trying to run locally.