[MUD-Dev] Languages (slightly offtopic, was Text Parsing)

[Greg Miller]

Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> 
> On 02:19 AM 6/2/99 -0700, I personally witnessed Mark Gritter jumping up to
> say:
> >
> >But a MUD doesn't need "precise communication"!
> 
> Yes it does. When I give the computer a command, I want it to understand
> *precisely* what I want and get busy doing it. I don't want to type for a
> long period of time, and I don't want to be encouraged to use confusing
> words because the computer can handle them half the time. I want to command
> the computer EXACTLY, every time.

"precise communication" would rule out "get bag" if there are two bags
in the current room. What you're asking for is "consistent
interpretation" which is a whole different kettle of fish.

> Mark, I hate to tell you this, but the population at large knows dick about
> the conventions of natural language. They can't spell, their grammar is
> atrocious, and their vocabulary is extremely limited. While NLP may be a
> really nifty project to work on, it just plain isn't something users are
> going to be able to work well with.

Yet, it's been my experience that they hate the fact that muds don't
understand their version of english... It's hard to tell, but I suspect
that a big part of the reason why muds aren't popular with internet
users (or even internet gamers) is that your typical user gives up long
before they learn the insane command sets we typically use.
--
http://www.classic-games.com/
President Clinton was acquitted; then again, so was O. J. Simpson.
*** NEWBIES: Limit signatures to four lines! No HTML mail or posts! ***



_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev maillist  -  MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev