May 1999
- Object server. Quzah [softhome]
- Censorship & Its Impact On World Immersion J C Lawrence
- OT: Ethics v Law Greg Munt
- Virtual v Artificial Worlds Greg Munt
- Virtual v Artificial Worlds Matthew Mihaly
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Custom Server Roll Call? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Custom Server Roll Call? Wes Connell
- Custom Server Roll Call? David Bennett
- Custom Server Roll Call? Koster, Raph
- Custom Server Roll Call? Greg Munt
- Custom Server Roll Call? The Arrow
- Custom Server Roll Call? Alex Stewart
- Custom Server Roll Call? Nathan F Yospe
- Custom Server Roll Call? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Custom Server Roll Call? Jon A. Lambert
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Custom Server Roll Call? Jon A. Lambert
- Custom Server Roll Call? Matthew Mihaly
- Custom Server Roll Call? Jon A. Lambert
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Custom Server Roll Call? Jon A. Lambert
- Custom Server Roll Call? Chris Gray
- Custom Server Roll Call? Marc Hernandez
- Custom Server Roll Call? Greg Munt
- Custom Server Roll Call? Jon A. Lambert
- Custom Server Roll Call? Matthew Mihaly
- Custom Server Roll Call? Jon A. Lambert
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Custom Server Roll Call? J C Lawrence
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ling
- Custom Server Roll Call? Jon A. Lambert
- Custom Server Roll Call? Emil Eifrem
- Custom Server Roll Call? Niklas Elmqvist
- Custom Server Roll Call? Chris Gray
- Custom Server Roll Call? Emil Eifrem
- Custom Server Roll Call? Chris Gray
- Custom Server Roll Call? Emil Eifrem
- Custom Server Roll Call? Chris Gray
- Custom Server Roll Call? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Custom Server Roll Call? J C Lawrence
- Custom Server Roll Call? Emil Eifrem
- Custom Server Roll Call? Marc Hernandez
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Custom Server Roll Call? Jo Dillon
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Custom Server Roll Call? Marc Hernandez
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Custom Server Roll Call? Marc Hernandez
- Custom Server Roll Call? Adam Wiggins
- Custom Server Roll Call? Matthew Mihaly
- Custom Server Roll Call? Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Custom Server Roll Call? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Custom Server Roll Call? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Custom Server Roll Call? claw@kanga.nu
- Custom Server Roll Call? Emil Eifrem
- Custom Server Roll Call? Chris Turner
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ling
- Custom Server Roll Call? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Custom Server Roll Call? Jay Carlson
- Custom Server Roll Call? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Custom Server Roll Call? Ling
- Interesting dilemma Peck, Matthew x96724c1
- Interesting dilemma Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Interesting dilemma Quzah [softhome]
- Interesting dilemma Brandon A Downey
- Interesting dilemma Shawn Halpenny
- Interesting dilemma Matthew Mihaly
- Interesting dilemma Benjamin D. Wiechel
- Interesting dilemma Koster, Raph
- Interesting dilemma Wes Connell
- Interesting dilemma Mattias Lönnqvist
- Interesting dilemma Mik Clarke
- Interesting dilemma Joel Kelso
- Interesting dilemma Ronan Farrell
- Harvey's Rules of Immship John Hopson
- Confiscating items (Interesting dilemma) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- AW: Interesting dilemma Hofbauer Heinz
- Virtual Property J C Lawrence
- Virtual Property Koster, Raph
- Virtual Property Jon A. Lambert
- Autogenerating maps from muds using cardinal directions for exits? Ben Greear
- Discussion of large server IO handling desing J C Lawrence
- Planes of existance Quzah [softhome]
- Planes of existance Greg Munt
- Planes of existance Quzah [softhome]
- Planes of existance Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Planes of existance Ben Greear
- Planes of existance Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Planes of existance Greg Munt
- Planes of existance T. Alexander Popiel
- Planes of existance Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Planes of existance Matthew Mihaly
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Ronan Farrell
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Mik Clarke
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Ben Greear
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Koster, Raph
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Richard Bartle
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Matthew Mihaly
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Travis Casey
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Travis Casey
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Jon A. Lambert
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Eli Stevens {KiZurich/GreySylk}
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Jon A. Lambert
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Ling
- Dynamically changing room descriptions Christopher Allen
- old fight system I toyed with Koster, Raph
- APE 0.2.1 J C Lawrence
- OT: robots, agents and emotions Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- OT: robots, agents and emotions Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Time Discontinuous MUD Ling
- Semi-OT: International intellectual property right (was: Custom Server Roll Call?) Custom Server Roll Call?) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Semi-OT: International intellectual property rights Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Marc Hernandez' Server Greg Munt
- Marc Hernandez' Server Jay Carlson
- Marc Hernandez' Server Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Marc Hernandez' Server Travis S. Casey
- Marc Hernandez' Server Adam Wiggins
- Marc Hernandez' Server Marc Hernandez
- Marc Hernandez' Server qitelremel@hotmail.com
- Scry 1.9.1 (Feature Freeze) released. Ben Greear
- The distinction between magic spells and magic abilities Greg Munt
- The distinction between magic spells and magic abilities Matthew Mihaly
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ross Nicoll
- Multi-threaded mud server. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Multi-threaded mud server. Jon A. Lambert
- Multi-threaded mud server. Jo Dillon
- Multi-threaded mud server. Travis S. Casey
- Multi-threaded mud server. Jon A. Lambert
- Multi-threaded mud server. Chris Gray
- Multi-threaded mud server. Chris Gray
- Multi-threaded mud server. Jon A. Lambert
- Multi-threaded mud server. Mik Clarke
- Multi-threaded mud server. Chris Gray
- Multi-threaded mud server. Mik Clarke
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ross Nicoll
- Multi-threaded mud server. Jon A. Lambert
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ross Nicoll
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ross Nicoll
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ross Nicoll
- Multi-threaded mud server. Jon A. Lambert
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ross Nicoll
- Multi-threaded mud server. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Multi-threaded mud server. Mark Gritter
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ross Nicoll
- Multi-threaded mud server. Travis S. Casey
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ross Nicoll
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Multi-threaded mud server. David Bennett
- Multi-threaded mud server. Ross Nicoll
- Multi-threaded mud server. Jon A. Lambert
- Multi-threaded mud server. Travis Casey
- Macro languages Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- LOTR and Mud [was: Marc Hernandez' Server] Marc Hernandez
- Noise: boys will be boys (was Multi-threaded mud server.) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Kanga.Nu has finally moved... claw@kanga.nu
- Java & MUD servers Laurent Bossavit
- ScryMUD 1.9.3 released. Ben Greear
- ScryMUD 1.9.3 released. Chris Gray
- ScryMUD 1.9.3 released. Ben Greear
- ScryMUD 1.9.3 released. Jon A. Lambert
- [TECHNICAL] How to generate pre-processor output (template problem). Ben Greear
- Searching the archives claw@kanga.nu
- Text Parsing Albert
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing Kylotan
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Albert
- Text Parsing Mik Clarke
- Text Parsing Cynbe ru Taren
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Text Parsing Nathan F Yospe
- Text Parsing Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Text Parsing Mik Clarke
- Text Parsing Marc Hernandez
- Text Parsing Kylotan
- Text Parsing Ross Nicoll
- Text Parsing Kylotan
- Text Parsing Travis Casey
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Ross Nicoll
- Text Parsing Travis Casey
- Text Parsing Albert
- Text Parsing Travis Casey
- Text Parsing Mik Clarke
- Text Parsing Ross Nicoll
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Katrina McClelan
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Travis Casey
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing Albert
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Text Parsing Travis Casey
- Text Parsing Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Ben Greear
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing David Bennett
- Text Parsing Travis Casey
- Text Parsing Cynbe ru Taren
Ben Greear (greear@cyberhighway.net) asks:
| However, has anyone ever done any study or seen anything that proports
| to explain what a common (for some value of common) user would like?
| In other words, usability?
|
| For instance, which of these would you chose to type:
| get the sword from the second bag
| get sword 2.bag
| ge sw 2.bag
I've been keeping quiet since being politely ridiculed for suggesting
that it would make more sense to research what the last people to do
all this found out than to re-discover it all the hard way.
But since you ask, there -have- been such studies (couple decades
back, so I can't quote chapter and verse from memory) and it was found
that user's resent having to type fluff: They quickly figure out the
minimum needed to make the machine understand, and switch to it.
Most quick and dirty "natural language input" parsers pretty much
ignore most prepositions and such, and as soon as users figure
this out (which doesn't take long) they stop entering them.
---Above is study results, below is my personal interpretation---
The simple fact is that natural language is optimized for
communication between human-level intelligences, and as long as the
computer end exhibits less than human-level intelligence, "natural
language" will be a poor solution to the communication problem.
What -users- want is a simple, compact notation with easy to
understand meaning. (Lots of conflicts and trade-offs hidden in that
spec, of course!)
What attempts to do "natural language parsing" usually produce are the
opposite: complex, verbose, inconsistent notations where it is
anybody's guess what the machine will do in response to a given input.
Normal users find this very frustrating. Predictability is -very-
high on the list of what users want from a computer interface.
There's a common myth that natural language would make a great
programming language if only we could write compilers for it.
This is flat-out WRONG.
Remember that Algol was invented well before electronic computers,
simply because natural language sucks as a medium for giving precise
directions, even between humans.
Mathematicians similarly developed math notation because natural
language is completely inadequate for precise communication.
In specific answer to your question, any normal user given the choice
will quickly progress to using the third of your three choices. The
earlier ones will be preferred, if at all, only as transitional forms
useful for flattening the initial learning curve. To the best of my
knowledge. ("bag.2" or "bag2" "bag 2" would probably be preferred to
"2.bag" though, imho.)
Cynbe - Text Parsing Katrina McClelan
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Martin C Sweitzer
- Text Parsing Jp Calderone
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Ben Greear
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Ben Greear
- Text Parsing Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Text Parsing Adam Wiggins
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Kylotan
- Text Parsing Koster, Raph
- Text Parsing Ben Greear
- Text Parsing Jon A. Lambert
- Text Parsing Adam Wiggins
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Koster, Raph
- Text Parsing Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Text Parsing Koster, Raph
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing David Bennett
- Text Parsing Ross Nicoll
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Ross Nicoll
- Text Parsing Albert
- Text Parsing Travis S. Casey
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Adam Wiggins
- Text Parsing Katrina McClelan
- Text Parsing Adam Wiggins
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Adam Wiggins
- Text Parsing Katrina McClelan
- Text Parsing Jon A. Lambert
- Text Parsing J C Lawrence
- Text Parsing J C Lawrence
- Text Parsing Joey Hess
- Text Parsing J C Lawrence
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing J C Lawrence
- Text Parsing Koster, Raph
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Koster, Raph
- Text Parsing Chris Gray
- Text Parsing Albert
- Text Parsing Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing J C Lawrence
- Text Parsing Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Text Parsing Jon A. Lambert
- Text Parsing Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Text Parsing Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Text Parsing claw@kanga.nu
- Text Parsing Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Text Parsing Greg Miller
- Text Parsing Petri Virkkula
- Text Parsing Matthew Mihaly
- Text Parsing Petri Virkkula
- Text Parsing Adam Wiggins
- Text Parsing Katrina McClelan
- Text Parsing Petri Virkkula
- Dylan Programming Language Ling
- Dylan Programming Language Jon A. Lambert
- Ultimate Universe Documentation Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Oh yeah... Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- [TECHNICAL] [SOLVED] (template problem). Ben Greear
- [RELEASE] ScryMUD 1.9.4 available for download. Ben Greear