JRL programming QuickStart Revision 11/23/2001
Copyright (C) 2001 Robby Glen Garner

See the file jfred.dat for examples of JFRED programming.

ALL OUTPUT IS MADE BY "ACTION" RULES. ACTION RULES ARE TRIGGERED BY REGEX AND FUZZY RULES.
(with the exception of the special case INTRO rule, which contains a list of things to say
when no action is selected.)

RULE TYPES:

*******************************
action:	<action_rule_name>
   <action_rule_elements>

The action rule contains the reply text and may be in the form of
an optional list of URL's that are rendered as links in some fashion,
AND *one* of a series of text responses that may contain embedded html
code.

The action rule, when selected, shows all of the URL's listed, and picks
the text replies in numerical order, with the beginning text for each
action being selected randomly at conversation startup.

A typical action rule would look like:

action:	HELLO
	priority: 7
	Hi there.
	Hello, who are you?
	Greetings.

In the above rule, the priority is set to 7. The choice for this
value is relative to the values in all the other rules. Feel free
to experiment. The higher the priority, the greater the likelyhood
that the rule will be chosen. Rules are also discriminated against
if they have been used recently. With the repeat: false option
mentioned, the rule will only be used once per conversation.

************Important***********
Note that the token "action:" is separated by a Tab Character (ASCII
#9). The tab character is also used to begin the line of every line following
the "action:" token.  Be sure to edit JRL files with a text editor that wont
trash your tab characters or replace them with spaces. In Unix or Linux, you
should have no problem with vi, or emacs, etc.  GNU emacs is available for
windows, or you can use wordpad, but the dos Edit program does not handle the
tab charcters properly so don't use that.


********************************
intro:

The intro rule is a list of alternate response text prefaces, that
are chosen at random. The system expects at least one intro rule.


********************************
fuzzy: <fuzzy_rule_name>
	<integer between 1 and 100>	<action_rule_name>

A fuzzy rule is used to select an action based on the usage of a
key word, and fuzzy logic.

action:	BATMAN
	priority: 8
	Batman is one of my favorite dudes!

fuzzy: BAT
	10	BATMAN

Here the fuzzy rule implements a 10% probability of selection
of the action rule "BATMAN" if someone says something
similar to "BAT."


********************************
Regex:	<regex_rule_name>
	<regex_rule_elements>

The regex rule provides a
means for selection of actions based on "regular expressions" (as in Perl)

It has the form:

regex:	SAYBATMAN
	invokes: BATMAN
	batman
	bat cave
	the riddler
	robin
	bat girl

Here the action rule "BATMAN" will be selected based on the presence
one of the strings listed after the "invokes" option.
The strings must be typed in lower case with no punctuation.

Notice the tab character
preceding everything but the "regex:" rule. The "regex:" rule is separated
from the regex rule's name by a tab character.


*******************************
RULE ELEMENTS:

ACTION_RULE_ELEMENTS:

priority: <integer>
rule sorting priority

should be selected as a plan for the general priority of the rules
in your ruleset file.


requires: <variable_name>
a prerequisite property for using the rule

properties are things like $nickname, or $email and
are variables which may be used in a regex: rule to mine data
from the conversation.


equals: <value>
a prerequisite name/value pair for uses the value of a property
to select an action: rule


bind: <word>
anchor word to bind the rephrased stimulus

Used in a sentence like "I was wondering if [], now I know for sure"
where the input-phrase-snippet used will be begin with the word
following the one mentioned in bind:.


url: <URL>
related URL to display

you may list as many url: rules after an action: rule as you need.
Depending on platform and delivery method, these will either be rendered
as links in html, or represented by buttons on a GUI, or you will be
prompted if you want to spawn your web browser to view each of them.


next: <action_rule_name>
forces the next action

The next: rule can contain one or more rules that will have added
priority as the next reply.


repeat: <true / false>
Indicates that the action rule can repeat immediately after being
invoked.


REGEX_RULE_ELEMENTS:

invokes: <action_rule_name>
action rule indicated by regular expression match