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

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. : )

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... )

Perhaps if you would have asked the right question...

What is the area of Singapore?

Area:
total: 692.7 sq km
water: 10 sq km
land: 682.7 sq km
Area - comparative:
slightly more than 3.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Actually quite informative, if you ask me...

--
3dan

If you have to supply the word "area" to get the answer for the "physical size" of a country, then it's rather restrictive. It's doing just key-word spotting and not really "understanding" what a human person is asking. I may well have typed in "area singapore" without having to phrase it like a question, because those are the words it needs.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think most average speakers of English will comprehend the questions What is the physical size of Singapore? or How big is Singapore? At the very least, a human person will be able to correct me and prompt me with a question like: Do you mean the area of Singapore?

Yes, and your point is?

It doesn't strike me as a very intelligent system, despite its claim "Unlike information retrieval systems (e.g., search engines), START aims to supply users with "just the right information," instead of merely providing a list of hits. Currently, the system can answer millions of English questions about places (e.g., cities, countries, lakes, coordinates, weather, maps, demographics, political and economic systems), movies (e.g., titles, actors, directors), people (e.g., birth dates, biographies), dictionary definitions, and much, much more. Below is a list of some of the things START knows about, with example questions."

I read your reply to xenchu with interest and decided to try out the system. That's all :)

On the other hand, if you had asked "What is the area of Singapore," you would have gotten:

Area:

total: 692.7 sq km
water: 10 sq km
land: 682.7 sq km
Area - comparative:

slightly more than 3.5 times the size of Washington, DC

That was one of the points I was trying to make. With a system such as START you have to know how to ask the question. Usually rather exactly how to ask. At Perl Monks, questioner often get the answer to the question s/he should have asked. And I am not trying to downrate START. I don't know the area of Singapore or most of the millions of other questions START can answer. It appears, though, that you had better know the question you want to ask.

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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The Needs of the World and my Talents run parallel to infinity.