Richard Lynch wrote: ...
Now, perhaps, an INTERESTING project for some of us to work on would be that system:
Spec: Robot subscriber to PHP-General. Reads all incoming messages. Discards anything that looks like a 'Reply:' including: Has 'Re: ' or 'Fwd: " in subject Has Message ID in-reply-to header thingies Concats Subject and body, with signatures removed. Removes all common English words Searches for remaining [key]words in php.net/faq.php
Would it perhaps be better to use a whitelist approach, i.e. have a list of PHP keywords that are in the FAQ / online manual?
If any matches, deep-link (with #xyz) to the FAQ answers. If number of remaining [key]words (above) is small, also compose a URL link to http://php.net/remaining+keywords
For function names we could just generate a url that goes to the appropriate manual page. Then we can search PHP's site with the rest of the keywords (thanks Google :)
Creates a reply email (to original poster only) suggesting that maybe they
For those of us reading this message now, we would know about the parrot. But what about new users we pick up in the future? I understand why you suggested this; it will cut down on the list traffic. However, we would still want people to know about the parrot. So perhaps having a weekly message (as per Jay Blanchard) would still be "A Good Thing"? After we add an entry about our parrot, of course ;)
just need to check those links, but to REPLY to their post if they're STILL lost after reading all that stuff.
That way, if any of us see a question that we KNOW is answered in FAQ or php.net/xyz and that is not a Reply of some kind, we can let the robot handle it.
What do you think?
Get a parrot to answer parrot questions... sounds like a reasonable way to handle these things. And if / when wiki development gets going it might be worthwhile to have the robot point there?
Worth doing?
Waste of time?
I tend to think: not a waste. At least, it's not a waste so long as people on the list actually *know* about the parrot and ignore parrot questions. Which is why I still think having the parrot respond on list might be better.
You interested in implementing or testing it?
Sometimes I am one *bored* accountant... so heck, I just might be willing to give implementing and/or testing a go. However...
Got a server where you control smrsh and whatnot enough to handle it?
I'm not going to promise any of this. If someone else is willing to donate the hardware to make this happen then contact me / the list. Of course anyone else that wants to donate coding time is more than welcome to join project ParrotHeadPoster. :)
I can already imagine it now...
"I'm a talking phParrot and I think I can help you. Try reading what you find at the following link(s):
http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.html.php#faq.html.your-faq-question.php http://www.php.net/manual/en/your-messed-up-function.php http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aphp.net+your+remaining+php+keywords
If I didn't solve your problem... well I apologize. What did you expect, lottery numbers or something?"
I don't think my cable-modem provider would like it if I did this at home, and my shared server host ain't gonna let me add a smrsh file or muck with his mail server -- Hell, he don't even run email through the same machine I have my website on anyway... So I'm not gonna sit down and write the code if I know in advance I can't run it on any hardware that will be feasible in the end.
-- Teach a man to fish...
NEW? | http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
STFA | http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=php-general&w=2
STFM | http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php
STFW | http://www.google.com/search?q=php
LAZY | http://mycroft.mozdev.org/download.html?name=PHP&submitform=Find+search+plugins
-- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
