I think maybe you are missing the point xenchu. MIT's START project has nothing to do with PerlMonks other than some anonymous person wishes to use START via Perl. START is a "natural language question answer system" whereas PM is a community of Perl enthusiasts. The only real similarity is that both deal with questions. START is, from what I understand, a very mature project, and calling it an "inferior system" compared to PM is (kinda) like calling a bicycle an inferior car; bicycles and cars both provide transportation, but they have two completely different uses.
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I miss a lot of points Mad Hatter, so I may have been completely off-base here. My point, though, was that however good the MIT system is (I have never seen or used it), that IMHO information, especially about Perl, is going to be better using a system dedicated to Perl rather than any Natural Language system. To me START is still canned information and not as useful or as up-to-date as answers from real live people.
As for the 'inferior system' crack, that was simply sarcasm that obviously fell flat. I apologize to anyone who was offended in any way.
xenchu
Perl has one Great Advantage and one Great Disadvantage:
It is very easy to write a complex and powerful program in three lines of code.
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Ah. Of course a system dedicated to a topic (especially by live people) will be better than one that tries to deal with multiple topics, but I don't think anyone suggested or indicated that MIT's START was going to be used for just Perl questions. : )
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I asked START a number of questions and the following are what I got:
1) What is the size of Singapore?
->The population of Singapore, Singapore is 2,792,000.
( I was expecting the physical size of Singapore... )
1a) What is the physical size of Singapore?
->I don't have this information.
( Huh? )
1b) How big is Singapore?
->Singapore is located at 3 feet above sea level.
( Hm... )
2) Who is the prime minister of Singapore?
->chief of state: President Sellapan Rama (S. R.) NATHAN (since 1 September 1999)
head of government: Prime Minister GOH Chok Tong (since 28 November 1990) and Deputy Prime Ministers Brig. Gen. (Ret.) LEE Hsien Loong (since 28 November 1990) and TAN Keng Yam Tony (since 1 August 1995)
cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president, responsible to Parliament
elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term; election last held 28 August 1999 (next to be held by August 2005); following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of a majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the president; deputy prime ministers appointed by the president
election results: Sellapan Rama (S. R.) NATHAN elected president unopposed
( A simple "Goh Chok Tong" would have been greatly appreciated. )
3) How many states are there in America?
->50 states and 1 district*; Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia*, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
( That looks okay... )
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