anthay

As I get older what to do with books collected over a lifetime is something I more often wonder about.

Thank you for the links. Lovely online ELIZA. I appreciate you responding.

I agree with you. I think the presence of START is accidental and is not supposed to be part of the script. The ELIZA code uses a Slip function called LISTRD to read the script rules one by one. If it reads an empty list it stops reading the script and begins the conversation. So I think the empty list at the end of the script had a reason to be there. Another accidental thing about the script in the CACM paper is that there are 6 duplicated lines, each one 34 lines from the previous one. I had not heard of Moiré logic. I'm contributing to a book about ELIZA and its legacy. No publisher yet. The editors may be looking for other contributors. I realize this is not much to go on, but say if it might be of interest to you.

Weizenbaum says the list must be there, but may be empty: "Finally, the script writer must begin his script with a list, i.e., a message enclosed in parentheses, which contains the statement he wishes ELIZA to type when the system is first loaded. This list may be empty." page 42 of the 1966 CACM ELIZA paper.

And the MEMORY keyword "must be an ordinary keyword as well." So you'd need a (XYZZY ...) rule.

Also, the START symbol appears in the DOCTOR script, but is never mentioned in the body of the paper.

Another thing Weizenbaum doesn't mention in his description is the final empty list in the DOCTOR script. This does seem to be expected by the code.

That's really cool. (The paper uses the palidrome example to try to demonstrate how a Turing machine might be encoded in an ELIZA script.) ELIZA scripts must begin with some opening remarks, e.g. (HELLO. PLEASE TELL ME YOUR PROBLEM), and they must have a MEMORY rule, e.g. (MEMORY PALIN (0 = 1) (0 = 1) (0 = 1) (0 = 1)).

Hasn't this comment been made 100 times before?

Well, I believe you get more privileges in HN when you have more points. And it makes you look more attractive.

Ha! Well, I have 52 karma now. So I'm enjoying the view before the next downvote comes along. :-)

Thank you. I'll do my best.

All I did was submit this Ask HN here. I've not posted a link to it anywhere. As I write the post has 13 points and I have 51 points. Again. I'm sure my life would be much better if only I could escape from the clutches of 51. (I've been down to 49 and up to 52 since I posted.)

Thank you. So for example, and I realise this isn't a great news story, this Ask HN post of mine is showing me it has 6 points (upvotes?), but my karma is still 51.

Awesome, back to 51 points. Is it because I'm talking about karma and get automatically downvoted? I don't usually mention karma and yet still my little 1 point doesn't get added to my "score."

I see after your comment I've jumped to 52 points.

Usually, I write a short reply on some thread and although my post shows me "1 point by anthay" my karma doesn't change. I'm sure it used to.