Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcrware!jejones
From: jejones@mcrware.UUCP (James Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Online Guru ..
Message-ID: <586@mcrware.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jan 88 17:28:27 GMT
References: <2665@shamash.UUCP>
Organization: Microware Systems Corp., Des Moines, Ia.
Lines: 18
Summary: munged ELIZA?

In article <2665@shamash.UUCP>, jwabik@shamash.UUCP (Jeff Wabik) writes:
> I'm curious if there exists (running
> on any system, be it PEE CEE, or UNIX) a sort_of, "Online Guru"..
> Software that you could literally ask, "How to I do disk backups", to
> which the response would be, "Dump is the UNIX utility that [...].
> Please see the manual page for dump(8) for further [...]."
> 
> Anyone know of such a thing?

Long ago, I recall that some university comp center wrote some scripts for
ELIZA or her moral equivalent to turn her into an advisor on how to use
the system.  It struck me as a pretty neat idea.  It was written up in an
issue of CACM, I believe in the mid '70s.  You might try that sort of approach;
it should just be a question of editing up keywords and responses for an
ELIZAoid program (an added hack that would do command substitution in
responses might be nice; no doubt there are other neat hacks as well).

		James Jones