Re: [lojban] Programming Languages for Lojban

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@RATTLESNAKE.COM>]

   I don't know a thing about parsers, LALR and yacc, AI and inference
   engines, Lisp or Prolog. Hence, I am asking zero-level questions, ...

I understand.  Basically, I am in your boat.  But other people have
given me advice over the years, some of which I remember, and some of
which might be useful.... :-)

   ... I need an inference engine, and I think its internal language
   should be Lojban.

Yes!  I am told that some contemporary AI r Lisp text books contain
exercises on writing your own inference engine.  If so, one of these
books might be a place to start.

   It seems elegant to do as much of the coding in Lojban itself, but I
   really have no idea how realistic that is.

The alternative is to provide a user interface to an inference engine
written in another language.  That is useful, but won't take you very
far.

   > I am looking forward to your write ups about turning Lojban into a
   > humanly speakable programming language.

   That's not me. I have almost no interest in speaking to computers. 

I did not make myself clear:  I did not mean speaking to computers,
although I think that is attractive.  What I meant was that Lojban is
not only a computer programming language, but a language that humans
can use for other things, such as for speaking about dinner.

Perhaps I should have written;

   I am looking forward to your write ups about turning Lojban into a
   programming language.


You went on to say:

   ... The back-introduction of (the computer language concept of)
   strong typing into a human language is interesting, and might
   provide benefits, although I have bristled at pedantry in the past.

Hmmm.... that is interesting.  Could you elaborate more on this?

   I would think a decent agent would understand both sentence formats. Some
   sentences convey knowledge, while others issue orders.

You are right.

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                  bob@rattlesnake.com
    Rattlesnake Enterprises             http://www.rattlesnake.com