TYING IT TOGETHER: DEVELOPING A LARGER RUBY APPLICATION in Font

Encoder Data Matrix in Font TYING IT TOGETHER: DEVELOPING A LARGER RUBY APPLICATION

Therefore, if the chosen response contains an asterisk (the character you re using as a placeholder in response phrases), you ll need to substitute in the relevant part of the original sentence into the phrase and perform pronoun switching on that part. Here s the new version of possible_responses with the changes in bold:

def possible_responses(sentence) responses = [] # Find all patterns to try to match against @data[:responses].keys.each do |pattern| next unless pattern.is_a (String) # For each pattern, see if the supplied sentence contains # a match. Remove substitution symbols (*) before checking. # Push all responses to the responses array. if sentence.match('\b' + pattern.gsub(/\*/, '') + '\b') # If the pattern contains substitution placeholders, # perform the substitutions if pattern.include ('*') responses << @data[:responses][pattern].collect do |phrase| # First, erase everything before the placeholder # leaving everything after it matching_section = sentence.sub(/^.*#{pattern}\s+/, '') # Then substitute the text after the placeholder, with # the pronouns switched phrase.sub('*', WordPlay.switch_pronouns(matching_section)) end else # No placeholders Just add the phrases to the array responses << @data[:responses][pattern] end end end # If there were no matches, add the default ones responses << @data[:responses][:default] if responses.empty # Flatten the blocks of responses to a flat array responses.flatten end

This new version of possible_responses checks to see if the pattern contains an asterisk, and if so, extracts the correct part of the source sentence to use into matching_section, switches the pronouns on that section, and then substitutes that into each relevant phrase.

You have the basic methods implemented in the Bot class, so let s play with it as-is before looking at extending it any further. The first step is to prepare a better set of data for the bot to use so that your conversations can be more engaging than those with the dummy test data shown earlier in this chapter.

In this section you re going to tweak the bot_data_to_yaml.rb script you created earlier to generate a YAML file for your first bot to use. Its name will be Fred and you ll generate a bot data file called fred.bot. Here s bot_data_to_yaml.rb extended with a better set of phrases and substitutions:

require 'yaml' bot_data = { :presubs => [ ["dont", "do not"], ["don't", "do not"], ["youre", "you're"], ["love", "like"], ["apologize", "are sorry"], ["dislike", "hate"], ["despise", "hate"], ["yeah", "yes"], ["mom", "family"] ], :responses => { :default => [ "I don't understand.", "What ", "Huh ", "Tell me about something else.", "I'm tired of this. Change the subject." ],

=> [ "Hi. I'm [name]. Want to chat ", "What's on your mind today ", "Hi. What would you like to talk about " ], :farewell => ["Good bye!", "Au revoir!"], 'hello' => [ "How's it going ", "How do you do ", "Enough of the pleasantries!" ], 'sorry' => ["There's no need to apologize."], 'different' => [ "How is it different ", "What has changed " ], 'everyone *' => ["You think everyone * "], 'do not know'=> ["Are you always so indecisive "], 'yes' => [ "At least you're positive about something!", "Great." ], 'family' => ["Tell me about your family"], 'you are *' => [ "What makes you think I am * ", "Are you so sure I am * " ], 'i am *' => [ "Is it normal for you to be * ", "Do you like being * " ], 'i do not *' => ["Why don't you * "], 'what' => ["Why do you ask ", "Why ", "I don't know. Do you "], 'no' => [ "Really ", "Fair enough." ], 'why does *' => [ "I don't know why *", "Do you already know the answer " ], 'why can\'t i *' => ["Do you want to * "],