Sort of an alkward, flame-starting question here (and I heartily apologize and
offer that it is NOT the intent)...
I know a bit of C and Perl and would like to just dabble in some basic AI
programs w/out nessesarily learning lisp. Should I enjoy it, I will definetly
take a stab at lisp but are there any groups out there that program in C or
Perl for AI purposes?
I'm looking for VERY short programs for illustrative purposes. Stuff I can
muck with. Maybe something that learns Tic Tac Toe. Simple.
I've been able to find nothing on the subject in my searches on the internet -
And I'd like to run with what I know first.
Thanks much,
Jason
·@intap.net
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from what I know, you will surely find AI programs written in C, FORTRAN, and
Java. I don't know about Perl, but I _do_ know that many AI systems make good
use of Perl to process data (esp. in language processing applications). Perl
is unbeatable for almost anything involving string manipulations, and so it
finds its way in things like word morphology. I _personally_ like Lisp more
than Perl, but I believe that Perl can be written in a way that is almost as
serious as a computer language, even for complex AI algorithm
implementations. But if you're interested in AI, just read the algorithms,
and don't spend too much time on the code. And if you want to implement the
stuff, then
use strict;
otherwise, it's just gonna be unlegible.
Lisp is, for good reason, the language of AI. There's no law that says you
need to use Lisp, but I think it's better than the others:
no pointer garbage
no worrying about garbage
rich built-in data-structures
DEFMACRO
destructuring
fully dynamic
extremely powerful OO design (CLOS).
these come to mind about why I use it for programming AI. I think KP once
said that intelligence has a lot to do with being dynamic. Being able to get
something strage (like the argument to a function) and then doing something
that can be learned. C and its relatives require that you pre-program the
functionality in a very strict way (like type declarations). Lisp is more
flexible. Perl, of course, may appear more flexible than Lisp, but if you dig
deep, it really isn't, afaik. (I could be wrong, still, though I have
digged).
dave
·@intap.net wrote:
> I know a bit of C and Perl and would like to just dabble in some basic AI
> programs w/out nessesarily learning lisp. Should I enjoy it, I will definetly
> take a stab at lisp but are there any groups out there that program in C or
> Perl for AI purposes?
Lots of C, of course. You'll find C programs in every AI category. Perl? Hmm..
try
http://www.hcrc.ed.ac.uk/~robert/CAPE/
for a rule-based programming system (CLIPS) that allows you to use Perl in rules.
·@intap.net wrote:
>
> I know a bit of C and Perl and would like to just dabble in some basic AI
> programs w/out nessesarily learning lisp. Should I enjoy it, I will definetly
> take a stab at lisp but are there any groups out there that program in C or
> Perl for AI purposes?
You can program AI in any language you want. It is the algorithms,
techniques, concepts, and mind set that matter, not the programming
language they are expressed in. Lisp obviously works well for
expressing AI or it wouldn't have been around for almost 40 years, but
it is not mandatory. Like the rest of computer science, AI also boils
down to Wirth's equation:
Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs.
Go to a book store and buy an AI text book. I've always thought
Winston's book provides a very solid introduction. The concepts and
techniques are described, as well as some Lisp code to illustrate an
implementation. The ability to read the Lisp code in the book can be
picked up as you read the book, and I believe the 2nd addition has an
Appendix with a sufficent introduction to Common Lisp to cover the code
in the book.
There is nothing that prevents the AI code in the book from being
implemented in C or Perl. It may be a bit or a lot more work, but if
you are determined, I'm sure you can do it. Also, download CLISP or a
similar free lisp off of the net and play with that a bit. Then you can
load in small Lisp-based AI programs and play with them and see how they
work and then translate them to whatever language you want. This ties
into the AI mind set I mentioned at the beginning of this reply, which
includes tinkering, experimenting, and playing, which leads to
understanding and application of AI. AI has a long and proud history in
this.
There are also lots of AI repositories available. Some portion of the
code will be in C, Perl, Java, etc. Look in the CMU AI repository or at
http://computingcentral.msn.com/downloads/default.asp
in their Artificial Intelligence download area.
As another example, one AI tool that I find particularly cool right now
is JESS, the Java Expert System Shell.
--
Alan Gunderson
Cygnus, Inc.
Eagle River, Alaska
e-mail: ··········@acm.org
>I know a bit of C and Perl and would like to just dabble in some basic AI
>programs w/out nessesarily learning lisp. Should I enjoy it, I will
definetly
>take a stab at lisp but are there any groups out there that program in C or
>Perl for AI purposes?
>
>I'm looking for VERY short programs for illustrative purposes. Stuff I can
>muck with. Maybe something that learns Tic Tac Toe. Simple.
The Perl Journal published a rather nice Eliza program - I think they're on
www.tpj.com. They can tell you which issue to order.
Jonathan