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Handling Dialects

Owned by Aubergine
Last updated: Dec 02, 2012Version comment
2 min read
Some ideas on how to handle multiple dialects...

 

Overview

The quick start guide shows one way of dealing with multiple dialects – using switch statements. However, switch statements can be quite bloaty and it's not particularly easy to hive them off in to separate .js files without needing to add lots more cruft to those files.

An alternative approach is to use an object for each dialect, then use some basic JS API tricks to use the functions in those objects. For example, let's say your AI understands several dialects: "ai" (standad dialect), "nb", "cb" and "nx"...

A home for dialects

First, we need somewhere to store our dialect objects...

yourMainScript.js
include("path/to/APIs/Babel.js");
 
chat.dialects = {};

Ok, that was easy (smile)

Dialect objects

Now let's create our first dialect object, let's do the "nb" (NullBot) dialect – it will define the function for each of the NullBot commands we want to implement...

chat.dialects.nb.js
// create an object for the NullBot commands we are implementing...
chat.dialects["nb"] = {};
 
// now let's implement NullBot's "who" command:
chat.dilalects.nb["who"] = function(sender, message, data) {
	// code here
 
	// maybe this command should reply with something?
	return [
		"iAm", // message
		"nb", // dialect
		{personality: "mc"} // data
	];
}
 
// maybe we should handle the "iAm" command too?
// in case a nullbot decides to tell us it's personality...
chat.dialects.nb["iAm"] = function(sender, message, data) {
	chat(sender, "I'll research "+data.personality+" too in that case!");
}
 
// and another one...
chat.dialects.nb["res machineguns"] = function(sender, message, data) {
	// code here
}

It's pretty easy to see how the dialect file is structured, just keep adding commands to it until you're done.

A big benefit of putting the commands for a dialect in it's own file is that other AI devs can easily see what commands you support and how you implemented them.

Triggering dialect commands

Now we need to hook up our events...

yourMainScript.js
include("path/to/APIs/Babel.js");
 
chat.dialects = {};
include("path/to/chat.dialects.nb.js"); // NullBot dialect
 
function eventChat(sender, to, message) {
	if (chat.isBabel(message)) {
		eventBabel.apply(this, chat.fromBabel(message));
	} else {
		// normal chat msg handling goes here
	}
}
 
function eventBabel(sender, to, message, dialect, data) {
	var reply;
	if (dialect in chat.dialects && message in chat.dialects[dialect]) {
		// run the command
		reply = dialects[dialect][message].call(this, sender, message, data);
		// send a reply?
		if (reply) chat(sender, chat.toBabel.apply(this, reply));
	}
}

(smile)

Re-using commands for human interactions

What happens if we want to make it easy for humans to use the "who" command, and any of the other commands? Well, we could do stuff like this...

yourMainScript.js
const AI = true;
const HUMAN = false;
 
// update eventChat... 
function eventChat(sender, to, message) {
	if (chat.isBabel(message)) {
		message = chat.fromBabel(message);
		message.push(AI); // reply mode
		eventBabel.apply(this, message);
	} else {
		message = message.split("!").pop().toLowerCase();
		eventBabel.call(this, sender, message, "nb", null, HUMAN);
	}
}
 
function eventBabel(sender, to, message, dialect, data, replyMode) {
	var reply;
	if (dialect in chat.dialects && message in chat.dialects[dialect]) {
		// run the command
		reply = dialects[dialect][message].call(this, sender, message, data, replyMode);
		// send a reply?
		if (reply) {
			reutrn (replyMode == AI)
				? chat(sender, chat.toBabel.apply(this, reply)); // ai readable
				: chat(sender, reply) // human readable
		}
	}
}

And then update the replies sent by commands in the dialect file...

chat.dialects.nb.js
// create an object for the NullBot commands we are implementing...
chat.dialects["nb"] = {};
 
// now let's implement NullBot's "who" command:
chat.dilalects.nb["who"] = function(sender, message, data, replyMode) {
	// code here
 
	// send different reply if sender is human
	return (replyMode == AI)
		? ["iAm", "nb", {personality: "mc"}] // ai readable
		: "I'm researching Machineguns and Cannons"; // human readable
}
 
// etc...
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