! version = 3
This is an in-development new version of the RiveScript chatbot scripting language.
RiveScript is a simple text-based language for creating chatbots that respond to pre-programmed patterns with clever responses. Version 2 of the language was implemented in five different programming languages by its author and supported and maintained with the help of contributors on GitHub: Perl, Java, Python, JavaScript and Go. Across these five languages RiveScript has amassed hundreds of users and spawned a few startups in bot hosting services.
RiveScript 3 will be backwards compatible in that the RS3 interpreter will be able to read and use your existing RiveScript 2 code just fine while supporting new tags and syntax in new source files.
- I'm only going to program RiveScript 3 in one programming language, not five.
- That language is going to be Go.
- I will make it backwards compatible to RiveScript 2 so that you can mix and
match files written in either dialect in the same chatbot.
- Designated by that header,
! version = 3 - Will use the rivescript-go library to understand RiveScript 2 syntax, and translating it into the new engine will be a first-class feature to be kept working.
- Designated by that header,
- I'll explore ways to create tight bindings to the existing programming
languages that have a lot of existing RiveScript users:
- JavaScript: via GopherJS and WebAssembly, which I've experimented with before in Go at rsgb.
- Python: via CPython API for native modules.
- Other: Go makes for really good web servers, so RiveScript 3 can include a built-in RESTful API over good old HTTP.
- All development of RS3, including its language specification, will be kept at https://github.com/aichaos/rivescript3 at least until the stable release of the project.
MIT. Noah Petherbridge © 2019.