Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site peora.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!vax135!petsd!peora!jer From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) Newsgroups: net.mail Subject: Re: The TRUTH about .UUCP Message-ID: <1735@peora.UUCP> Date: Mon, 14-Oct-85 10:15:57 EDT Article-I.D.: peora.1735 Posted: Mon Oct 14 10:15:57 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 15-Oct-85 20:39:32 EDT References: <593@down.FUN> <273@graffiti.UUCP> <899@plus5.UUCP> <1718@peora.UUCP> <601@down.FUN> Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl. Lines: 44 > give me a fucking break, eric... Gee, Peter, what did I say? You're right, I haven't read pathparse's code yet (I'm still working on getting one of those "easy to install, works on all versions of Unix" mailers to work on a non-Berkeley system), and thus have only the information on it from comments people had posted before. My understanding was that pathparse was the program you wrote a paper on awhile back, which attempted to disambiguate addresses by the context in which they were used. My point was that programs that try to employ nontrivial heuristics of the sort people would use in solving the same problem only work if it is possible for a person to solve the problem in the first place! I've forgotten which article I was commenting on now, but it made reference to the confusing tangle of counterexamples that currently lead to most of the disagreement on how to do the mail routing. If people make the routing so confusing, by coming up with schemes based on confused principles, that it is difficult for a *person* to do the routing by hand (how do I get to Reed from here these days?), then I don't think a program will be able to do it either. This has nothing to do with the program itself; it has to do with other things. > ... pathparse and AI couldn't be more dissimilar ... Actually, the reason for my eternal boycott of unix-wizards has to do with an argument over philosophical issues related to AI; I hope this won't de- velop in here. I tend to feel that current definitions of "Artificial Intelligence" have grown to be unduly constraining. But AI is not presently my business, though it was a few years ago; so I merely observe it and keep busy. Let's not get into issues of semantics here. My point was just that the world's most flexible, adaptive program can't resolve routing problems that are outside its domain, as is the case when, for example, there is a mailer down the line that recognizes a different language from the one others in the same transport mechanism are using. Thus we have to not only have good programs, but good rules for making the things the program works with; which in this case is simply a routing language. -- Shyy-Anzr: J. Eric Roskos UUCP: Ofc: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer Home: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jerpc!jer US Mail: MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC; 2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642