A: NICOLE is an acronym which stands for NEARLY INTELLIGENT COMPUTER OPERATED LANGUAGE EXAMINER.
A: NICOLE was inspired by the program NIALL written back in 1990. NIALL was a simple program that linked one word with the next.
A: If you need help, or want to ask questions then go the the support request area at Sourceforge. You can log support requests for nicole at http://sourceforge.net/support/?group_id=2968
A: The lastest version of NICOLE can be downloaded from http://nicole.sourceforge.net
A: You need to run the 'root.sh' script located in the sql directory when you have downloaded NICOLE. You need to be logged in as root to do this. You will also need the root password for your MySQL installation.
A: You aren't doing anything wrong. You can't expect NICOLE to know everything from a blank database. The knowledge base needs to grow over time and use. When you encounter a *I'm speechless* response, NICOLE doesn't know how to answer, so it gives up and starts up a new conversation thread.
A: NICOLE automatically populates the database with new words that it encounters as it is used. This is a uniqie feature with NICOLE that stands above the rest with other similar programs is that NICOLE learns as it goes.
A: Yes there is. With the distribution of NICOLE, there is a sample.db.gz file which needs to ungzip'd and imported into the database using the 'importdb' utility. This should get your version of NICOLE to have some responses back. For more detailed information on how the 'imoportdb' and 'exportdb' commands work, read the Utilities file in the doc directory of the distribution.
A: There is now a 'learn' utility included with NICOLE. You can use this utility to import sentences and conversations into NICOLE from other files, however the file MUST be in a specific format. See the Utilities file in the doc directory of the distribution for detailed information about this command..
A: There is currently a file generated in the /tmp directory called history.txt This file is a record of all the conversations that you have ever had with NICOLE. You can simply mail this file to someone else, and they can 'learn' this file into their own copy of NICOLE's database.
Another alternative (and prefered) method is to import/merge someone's export file into your own copy of your database. Simply get someone to email you their export file, that was generated by 'exportdb' and you can simply import it using 'importdb'. For further information on these utilities, refer to the Utilities file in the doc directory of the distribution.
A: At this stage, the only database that is available for import is the sample database provided with the distribution. This should hopefully change as soon as other people start creating their own databases. Try asking other NICOLE users, or asking in the message forums. Once a few databases are available then a download area will be setup for extra databases. Why not create and submit your own? :)
A: Great! I love to know about bugs. Go the the Bug report page and report your nasty bug so that it can be fixed ASAP. (I hate bugs and I love to squash them as soon as they appear!)
A: If only I had $! everytime someone asked my that. Well due to popular demand, I'm planning on doing just that!! While it is still in the early planning stage, NICOLE will have a WWW interface, which means it doesn't matter what platform you are running on, providing that you have a WWW browser, you can talk to NICOLE. Stay tuned as more details are released.
A: Simply go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/nicole and read up on the latest and greatest about NICOLE. Join into the discussion groups, and suggest ideas to add to the project (even become a programmer to the group) You can also submit patches to the NICOLE team via the sourceforge web site on the patches page.
A: To put it simply, C/C++ is what I'm most comfortable with. Sure NICOLE could be more portable using some other language, and anyone is welcome to port NICOLE to another language, but why should I develop NICOLE in a language that I'm not familiar with and take twice as long as developing in something that I know quite well.
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