Infobot
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Original author(s) | Kevin Lenzo |
---|---|
Initial release | 1995 |
Stable release | 1.5.3
/ August 1, 2008 |
Written in | Perl |
Operating system | Unix-like |
Type | IRC bot |
License | Artistic License |
Website | infobot |
Infobot is a
Although the main project is now inactive, many
Operation
The Infobot works by a method of factoids. It stores information in its database by connecting a phrase with its definition, usually an informative short line. It records its information by constantly listening to the chat (which is configurable). It states its factoids when it recognizes a question in the chat. For example:
<someone> wikipedia is http://www.wikipedia.org/
- The Infobot at this point silently remembers the statement.
<someone> wikipedia?
<infobot> somebody said wikipedia is http://www.wikipedia.org/
Because of its ability to store statements and re-state them with ease, many
Using its automated replies, Infobots are also often used as an entertainment bot, giving humorous replies to certain queries. For example, to prevent the Infobot from saying 'X is Y', the key word '<REPLY>' is used, to have this effect:
<someone> dumb bot is <REPLY>stupid human
<someone> infobot: what's up?
<infobot> huh?
<someone> dumb bot
<infobot> stupid human
Derived bot projects
Infobots running the original Infobot code have become less popular on IRC now, mostly because of the inactivity of the original project. Newer Infobots have additional features. Most of them involve connecting to websites. For example, some bots have a 'weather' module. So someone can ask the Infobot the weather at a certain address, and the Infobot will connect to a weather site and report the up-to-date weather on the chat. Infobots are also useful as calculators, and in currency conversions, word definitions, and many other things which one would otherwise have to open a site for.
A notable fork was blootbot[1] by Tim Riker. In 2008 it was merged back with the original infobot. The resulting code is now maintained under the original infobot name by Riker.[2] It uses an SQL back-end such as MySQL, PGSQL, or SQLite to store factoids.
References
- Paul Mutton, IRC hacks, ISBN 0-596-00687-X, pp. 159–164
- ISBN 0-596-00312-9, pp. 115–125
Notes
- ^ Juergen Haas, About.com Guide, blootbot Archived 2010-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "blootbot: The slowest and most bloated bot in the world". Retrieved January 27, 2010.
External links
- Research in Focus: InfoBots (July 18, 2017)
- infobot at SourceForge
- infobot.org - old site, unmaintained please see the SourceForge page for new information.
- Infobots and Purl article from The Perl Journal