DESCRIPTION
A program that is designed to respond to user statements based on previous statements made by the user. In other words, it learns what to say by listening to you.
HISTORY
Leo is based on CoLIN. CoLIN was my first attempt at a chatterbot. Unfortunatly it wasn't very good. I came up with a few ideas on how to improve CoLIN and tried them out. The result was such a radical improvement that I felt it really wasn't CoLIN anymore. Thus the change of name to Leo. That and I discovered and older bot named colin on the net and i wanted to avoid confusion.
INSTRUCTIONS
Leo does not have a complicated set of rules dictating what to say when certain predefined key words are triggered. That is the way most chatterbots are written. Instead Leo learns from the user as the user converses with Leo. Thus Leo gets better over time, and will learn about subjects that you are interested in.
When you first start Leo, it already has some information in the database. This enables you to jump right in and start talking. It is possible to clear the database using the option on the file menu. USE THIS OPTION WITH CAUTION. You may want to do this if you want Leo to talk in a different language.
Starting from a clear database can be frustrating. Because Leo doesn't know much it will only repeat back what you say to it. After a while it will start to use sentences from further back in the database. Eventually the database will be large enough for Leo to form its own sentences. This takes time which is why Leo is supplied with demo data.
Try to stick to one sentence at a time. Avoid one word replies.
If you want to teach Leo something then just type lots of facts at it and ignore the replies, eg;
Tony Blair is a politician.
He is the prime minister.
The Labour party is in government.
The prime minister heads the government.
The leader of the Labour party is Tony Blair.
If what the program says really does not make sense, just make a guess at what it means.
If you get bored, start insulting it.
LEO ENGINE
Leo is now built using LeoEngine, the new DLL based method for accessing Leos functionality.
Installing Leo automatically gives you the ability to use LeoEngine in your own programs.
In VB start a new project and in the project menu click References. Scroll down to LeoDLL and check it. The following code is an example of how to use LeoEngine
option explicit
public le as leoengine
private sub form_load()
set le = new leoengine
le.leodatabase = "c:\myprogram\lvd.mdb"
text2 = le.leotalk(text1)
end sub
Other methods include leoreplace and wipeleo. The Readonly property stops new sentences going into the database. The Writeonly property stops Leo from generating a reply to a sentence.
If you need any more help then post on the leo posting board at:
http://members5.boardhost.com/barc0de/
