gigasquid/babar

A little language for machines with speech acts

babar

Hello Babar!
    ____ 
   /.   \_ 
  /_  \_/  \
 // \  ___ ||
 \\  |_| |_|  
 
ctl-c or quit to exit
===============
babar> 

A little language for machines with Speech Acts inspired by Elephant 2000. The parser uses the wonderful Clojure Instaparse library. The language aims to have syntactically sugared "speech acts" that the machine uses as inputs and outputs. The language also supports beliefs and goals from McCarthy's paper, Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines.

Expressions and programs are run through the Babar REPL and have the following features:

• The Babar program can accept requests, that are then stored as internal commitments.
• The Babar program can be convinced of beliefs that can affect when and how often a request is executed.
• The Babar program has one goal - to fulfill its commitments. It checks every 5ms to see if it has any commitments to fulfill and will execute them based on its beliefs. (An Elephant is true 100 percent.)
• The Babar program can be queried about its commitments. For example, was the request completed, what was the value, etc..
• The Babar program can speak aloud its beliefs. Specifically, it will vocalize any belief that is held (evaluate to true), while it is fulfilling commitments.
• The Babar program remembers all the commitments that it ever had and they can all be queried - even cancelled ones. (An Elephant never forgets.)
• The Babar program can ask a question - (very experimental still). The only questions that it will ask currently is about undeclared vars.

Installation

Git clone this repo

In some of the examples, I hook up to the clj-drone library, which uses some local jars.

You need to install the h264 (for video conversion) jar locally. You can use the lein-localrepo plug in. Run:

lein localrepo install dronelibs/h264-decoder-1.0.jar h264-decoder/h264-decoder 1.0
lein localrepo install dronelibs/opencv-245.jar opencv/opencv 2.4.5

Or - If you don't really care about drone stuff - feel free to remove the clj-drone from the project.clj

Let's back up a bit and look at the basic datatypes and commands.

Data Types

Most of the data types are directly from Clojure. You have integers, decimals, strings, booleans, keywords, maps, vectors, and atoms

1     ;=> 1
2.3   ;=> 2.3
-3.4  ;=> -3.4
"cat" ;=> cat
:bird ;=> bird
true  ;=> true
{:cat :meow :dog :bark} ;=> {:cat :meow :dog :bark}
[1 2 true :bird] ;=> [1 2 true bird]
atom 1 ;=> #<Atom 1>

Vectors are a bit interesting in the respect that you don't need to input the square brackets. If you just put in space delimited items, it will automatically construct a vector for you.

1 2 3 4 ;=> [1 2 3 4]

If you want to nest the vectors, you need to include the square brackets.

1 2 [3 4 5] ;=> [1 2 [3 4 5]]

Operations

The basic usual suspects are supported : ( +, -, / , *). The interesting thing to note is that parens are optional, and all operations work on a vector by default - so:

(+ 1 2 3 4 5) ;=> 15

Is the same as:

+ 1 2 3 4 5 ;=> 15

Commands

A subset of the clojure commands have been included. This will grow in time. Mind you parens are optional in most cases. You can call functions with the typical () or with a shorthand : syntax

• def - def identifier expression

  (def dog 16)
  dog ;=> 16
  def cat 18
  cat ;=> 18

• defn - defn identifier params expression

  (defn cat [x] (+ x 2))
  (cat 2); => 4
  defn dog [] "woof"
  dog: ;=> "woof"

• if - if predicate truecase falsecase

  if true :cat :dog ;=> :cat

• =, <,> - operator val1 val2

  = :dog :dog ;=> true

• and - and val1 val2 & others

  and true true true ;=> true
  and true true false ;=> false

• or - or val1 val2 & others

  or true false true ;=> true
  or false false false ;=> false

• import - import "ns" There is basic support for importing clojure namespaces. At this basic level it imports the whole namespace and does require :refer :all

  import "clojure.java.io"

• println - println item & others

Concatenates the items as a string and prints it out to stdout

println "cat" ;=> "cat" (returns nil)
println "cat" " " 1 " " :duck ;=> "cat 1 :duck" (returns nil)

• get - get hash key Gets the value of a hash by key

get {:a 1} :a => :a

• do - do expr expr+ Do multiple expressions

do def s1 1
   def s2 2
s1 ;=> 1
s2 ;=> 2

• sleep - sleep ms Sleep for given milliseconds

sleep 5

• first - first vec First element of vector

first [1 2 3] ;=> 1

• swap! - swap atom fn applies a fn to the atom and changes the value in a safe manner

def x atom 1 ;=> x
swap! x inc ;=> 2
@x ;=> 2

• reset! - swap atom val resets the value of atom in a safe manner

def x atom 1 ;=> x
reset! x 8 ;=> 8
@x ;=> 8

Anonymous Functions

You can create anonymous functions with the fn [x] syntax from clojure. And call them with surrounding parens.

fn [x] + x 1 ;=> fn
(fn [x] + x 1) ;=> fn
((fn [x] + x 1) 3) ;=> 4
((fn [x y z] + x y z) 1 2 3) ;=> 6
((fn [] [4 5 6])) ;=> [4 5 6]

Speech Acts

According to John Searle's Speech Acts There are Illocutionary Acts that involve the pragmatic meaning of a behind a sentence. Some of the english verbs denoting these acts are "assert", "command", "request", "query". For example the sentence, "Pass the salt.", is an illocutionary act. When a person hears the sentence, the meaning is interpreted as a command. There are also Perlocutionary Acts, in which significance is on the statement's effect on the hearer's actions, thoughts, and beliefs. An example of this is "persuade" or "convince". Some of these speech acts have been incorporated into the language. So far there is support for:

Datatypes

• Commitment - *name

A commitment is a datatype designated by a *name

*bark

• Belief - #name

A belief is a datatype designated by a #name

#sunny

Convincing

• convince - convinced belief string predicate-function

To be convinced will create an internal belief that has a human readable string as a description and a predicate function that evaluates to true when the machine "believes" it.

convince #sunny "It is sunny" fn [x] (= 1 1)

Requests

• request - request commitment function

Accepting a request creates an internal commitment that is evaluated at a future time. Behind the scenes there is a cron-like watcher that continually sees if it has any commitments to execute. If there is an error that occurs, then it will have an error captured that you can query by using "query request-errors".

request *dog fn [] :bark ;=> babar.speech_acts.Commitment

• request when - request commitment when belief function

You can also specify a request to be executed when a belief is held. The request is executed when the belief predicate function evaluates to true.

convince #too-warm "It is too warm." fn [] > temperature 70
request *lower-temp when #too-warm fn [] :lower-the-temp-action

• request until - request commitment until belief function

You can specify a request to be executed until a belief is held. The request will continue to execute until the belief is held.

convince #just-right "It is just-right" fn [] > @temp 70
request *raise-temp until #just-right fn [] (increase-temp)

• request when until - request commitment when belief until function

You can specify a request to be executed when a belief is held and until another belief is held.

convince #just-right "It is just-right" fn [] > @temp 70
convince #start "Time to start" fn [] > @temp 68
request *raise-temp when #start until #just-right fn [] (increase-temp)

• request ongoing - request commitment ongoing function

You can specify a request to be executed repeatedly with no end.

request *count ongoing fn [] (inc-x1)

• request when ongoing - request commitment when belief ongoing function

You can specify a request to be executed repeatedly with no end, when a belief is true.

convince #start "Time to start" fn [] = y2 2
request *count when #start ongoing fn [] (inc-x1)

• cancel-request - cancel-request request

You can cancel a request. The request itself is still remembered and can be queried, but it will not be executed.

cancel-request *dog

Answering Queries

• query

Answering questions about requests, beliefs and values.

• query - request-[fn | completed | value | errors | created | when | until | is-done | cancelled | ongoing] request)

request *dog fn [] :bark.
query request-value *dog ;=> :bark
query request-completed *dog? ;=> "2013-05-17T19:58:07.882"
query request-is-done? ;=> true

• query belief-[str | fn ]

convince #sunny "It is sunny" fn [] = 1 1 ;=> belief
query belief-str #sunny ;=> "It is sunny"
query belief-fn #sunny ;=> function

• query requests-all

request *step1 fn [] + 1 1 ;=> commitment
request *step2 fn [] + 2 2 ;=> commitment
query requests-all ;=>  [:step1 :step2]

• query beliefs-all

convince #sunny "It is sunny" fn [] = 1 1 ;=> belief
convince #rainy "It is rainy" fn [] = 1 2 ;=> belief
query beliefs-all? ;=> [:sunny :rainy]

• query value identifier

You can ask what the value of a identifier is

assert x 1 ;=> x
query value x ;=> 1

Asking Queries

Experimental

You can ask queries are well as answering them. Asking a query is manifested as a side effect - a printed speech act. Right now the statement prints on the REPL console. It always could be directed to an external file that another system could read...

• ask-query identifier

ask-query what-is-this ;=> query what-is-this.

• ask-config true | false

This configures the repl to automcatically ask questions about unbound vars.

ask-config true

The REPL will also respond with an ask-query if you define a function with a undeclared variable. You need to config to ask questions automatically first.

ask-config true
assert cat [] + x 1 ;=> query x.
assert cat x 2 ;=> x
cat: ;=> 3

Even cooler - if the speak-beliefs flag is true, it will also speak the query aloud as well :)

Speaking the Beliefs using Say

• speak-config

• speak-config [true | false ]
• speak-config true voice-name

speak-config true ;=> default voice
speak-config true "Zarvox" ;=> speak with Zarvox

If you toggle on the speak-beliefs, then (if you have a mac and say), then any beliefs will be spoken aloud when there belief fns evaluate to true - or the beliefs are being held. If there are multiple beliefs, (like using an until), then it will only speak when the belief changes.

Reading babar programs

• read - read filename

This command will read a *.babar file into the repl and evaluate it it. A program is composed of multiple expressions that are delimited by a period or a question mark. Question marks can of course be used for queries.

simple.babar

assert a 1.
assert b 10.
assert c [:a :b (+ a b)].

read "simple.babar" ;=> #'user/c
c ;=> [:a :b 11]

REPL

Launch a REPL

lein run

or run the standalone shell script

./bin/babar.sh

Examples

There are a couple of examples to get you going with playing with it. To run the examples:

• launch a repl using 'lein run' or ./bin/babar.sh'

At the babar repl prompt

read "./examples/simple.babar"

There are also other example programs.

• examples/speech_acts.babar
• examples/requests_until.babar
• examples/asking.babar

The programs has the speak-config set to true. This will work fine if you have a mac, just turn it to false if you are on another system.

Have fun!

Videos

I made a few videos to show Babar in action

• An example of the Babar REPL speaking beliefs with requests video
• An example of Babar REPL using a request with an until belief [video] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT8MK0w71LM)
• An example of Babar REPL asking you a question about an undeclared var [video] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmi_fafmjsg)
• An example of Babar REPL flying an AR Drone with Speech Acts [video] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIzR8jD2d3c)

TESTS

lein midje

Ascii Art

The lovely ascii elepant is a modified version of the one found here

License

Copyright © 2013 Carin Meier

Distributed under the Eclipse Public License, the same as Clojure.