[Sigma X]

I've been looking the net over and I have a question if Hal is an ai
then wouldn't the programming language lisp be a good solution for it
it's just a random thought I came up with during some research
to anyone out there knowing of programming languages please explain why this would/
wouldn't be a good idea

[Carl2]

  I'd say there are quite a few languages that claim to be useful for programing chat bots.  Hal has been using visual Basic Script for some time,  it's now using a variation of the basic script.  Robert M at Zabaware is in charge and could change when he feels it would be useful to.
Carl2

[Freddy]

I don't know anything about Lisp...wasn't that developed specifically for AI programming ?  I know Robert at Zabaware uses a variety of languages, each picked I assume for their individual value.  A while back he announced he was changing to an alternative version of BASIC, but that will probably take some time.

Using BASIC would seem to be  a good choice for end users as it is one of the easier languages to pick up..

[Art]

Basic, while relatively simple in it's straightforwardness (nice word), is not as fast nor efficient as a lower level language like assembly or machine code.

LISP has been an old tried and discarded language for the most part. Lots of people commented on it's abundance of parentheses. It had a brief resurgence but was fairly short lived.

The newer language is / has been C# (C-Sharp) which was accepted with better reaction than C, C+, C++.

Given the massive hard drive and memory space, a language developer can forgo the machine code and have all the cpu calls made by the program indirectly and still give the illusion of being fast and efficient. So Freddy and a lot of us might get a "newer" version of a basic language with which to program.

Stay tuned...it's all downhill from here...!

[lrh9]

I can't sing the praises of Python enough.

[Bragi]

My opinion on this is very simple:
it really doesn't matter which language you use. The most important thing is the person using  it.  Can you program and are you intimate enough with your tools to get the most out of them. Everything else is just candy.

[Sigma X]

I knew lisp was pretty old but I had no idea it was that old
in truth it was an idea I was throwing out there

[spydaz]

I would love there to be a programming language that was an AI specfic yet even that would also take the joy out of writing plugins etc i would be more inclined to add these functions to .NET platforms and create an AI framwork like the .Net framework with datamining and other natural language processing concepts like R or even Python.
It hard for new programming languages to have the same Robustness as >net plaforms which can already do everything. the open sourcing of .net would make it more used by independant programmers with no "money"....

Python although a Hmm "ok" platform can not really compete just as Lisp and "prolog" etc or even java.... although each has some usage which is exclusive to it. there are many plugings and scripts created and shared for java and python yet a lot of them are paid...

For me Personally C and its clones and Basic and its clones are still the originals and even though sometimes they are late in adopting new concepts they eventually do. Microsofts "lifestyle and Knowlege base" actually Pollute thier developers and change thier concepts of programming creating "Microsoft Clones" although very smart and full of knowledge are a bit like the apple geek squad... given a real task ... Hmmm.... the approach will always be Rigid or Agile or UML based and often locked in to the software development life cycle. where as programmers that are independant work totally difffernt and often come up with new innovations ....

[Art]

It's kind of like Bragi mentioned, whatever floats your boat is your language of choice.

Actually Python has proven to be a very capable A.I. based language as is numerous Bot languages like AIML, RiveScript, ChatScript and others.

I guess it largely depends on your usage and audience.

There are robot specific languages, machine learning, expert systems, systems / languages for NLP that derive their speech and logic from Spreadsheets and others from databases.

I think it's what works best for your (one's) particular application as there is no one size to fit all in this arena.

Just my take...

[8pla.net]

In my opinion, porting a chatbot to LISP is likely to upgrade it to more advanced.
I say this because, LISP is used today in advanced mathematics.

For example, Maxima, a computer algebra system is written in LISP.
And you can use LISP syntax in advanced computer algebra, which is really nice.
 
Did you know, the LISP programming language is FREE on Linux?
LISP is the 2nd oldest high level computer language.  (FORTRAN is the oldest.)

[Richard]

Lets keep in mind that advanced systems like HAL support multiple paradigms beyond our current capacity in computation (such as sophisticated speech, and in the case of 2001: A Space Odyssey it even have emotional or illusion-emotional capabilities) and as such it would likely be wiser to not use just one programming language. Different tasks require different forms of abstraction, and unfortunately although LISP is great with computational efficiency its not terribly dynamic enough for the computer to be thinking about the math its doing (that is if your going for a Hard-AI, if your going for a soft-AI then this is perfect), many of the such languages that would go into a program or multi-program AI would likely be C++ for the backbone, and a high level language like Lua as the interfacing language for which the AI thinks or comprehends. (Although Lua is a derivative scripting-language of C, im sure a compiler or at least a near-exact compiler could be made for a Java or C++ variant backbone.)

In my current project called LOOP I am designing a language that can emulate any other language or even create new languages from inside its own source, making it effectively a universal language to fit any problem the AI would need to solve based on real world constraints.

[Freddy]

I'm in the right tools for the job camp mostly, but I favour working in some languages over others because things click for me in some better than others.

I write a lot of PHP for example, it's great for working with strings, web sites of course and databases. My other favourite language now is C#. I did do a fair bit in VB for years, but made the switch a year or two back. I found myself doing a lot of searches for the C# equivalent of a PHP function.

C# and PHP are differently focused of course. I find doing things in C# that I can easily do in PHP is not difficult, but not straightforward either. It's the nature of the beast. My newest project for my simple scripting language is being built in C#. I'm trying to decide how to handle the database side, perhaps SQLite..., but then it would really open things up if I had online elements too.

Anyway, my point is, you need to pick the language for the task in most situations, but some aspects can be bent to your will. And sometimes more than one language can be very useful too. Like UltraHal as already mentioned.

[spydaz]

Lisp ...  Lol ... Prolog ... Lol
These languages are really dated and really only used in academic circles who are definitely out of touch with reality ...

Python is their new baby ...
R, is also their new data mining toy ... Each have merits but both have loads of demerits ....

I personally would keep with the prime languages such as C++ and its clones and basic (personal fave) even Java is dieing in comparison to Python yet obviously much more powerful ... And it's a c++ clone ....

I work a lot with databases and the Microsoft route works very easily (not a lover of MySQL) most things that work on SQLserver databases work with Msacess databases ... I generally use Msacess databases for programming projects as they are easier to redistribute and package ... When using SQLite and MySQL although lots of people love them I find them tricky redistribute or even set up as a beginner ...
Plus when adding a database to your project in visual studio it's real simple creating queries is even easier. The query can be saved as a string or accessed via a table adapter ... Oledb .... Can still be used and is in all .net frameworks now ....

(I'm. Microsoft junkie always has worked for me only vista let me down ) everything else is third party (to me)

[spydaz]

Ps I do use Python some times but it reminds me of

10: print "leroy";
20: goto 10

A spaghetti basic type programming language with advanced concepts ...

[Carl2]

  A go to statement, I haven't seen that since the days of Fortran which is similar to VB,  I like the idea of having an AI write their own programing. 
Carl2