Hi,

Is there any discussion / notes / help on some of the proofs and
theorems specified in the exercise of the book. I am interested in
some of them in the initial chapters like 3, 4 and 5.

I would really appreciate if somebody could write to me regarding the
proofs.

PK

I am trying to compile the JAVA code from
http://aima.cs.berkeley.edu/java-overview.html I downloaded the
aima.zip and unzipped the files into a folder aima-code as the following

C:\javamyprograms\aima-code

I have C:\javamyprograms\ in my class path. I am trying to run one
file in the following location (AStarSearch.java),

C:\javamyprograms\aima-code\src\aima\search\informed

also the folders which is mentioned as package exisit properly in the
right location.
But I am getting the error :

AStarSearch.java:9: package aima.search.framework does not exist
import aima.search.framework.Metrics;
^
AStarSearch.java:10: package aima.search.framework does not exist
import aima.search.framework.Node;
^
AStarSearch.java:11: package aima.search.framework does not exist
import aima.search.framework.PrioritySearch;
^
AStarSearch.java:12: package aima.search.framework does not exist
import aima.search.framework.Problem;
^
AStarSearch.java:13: package aima.search.framework does not exist
import aima.search.framework.QueueSearch;
^
AStarSearch.java:19: cannot find symbol
symbol: class PrioritySearch
public class AStarSearch extends PrioritySearch {
^
AStarSearch.java:21: cannot find symbol
symbol : class QueueSearch
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
public AStarSearch(QueueSearch search) {
^
AStarSearch.java:55: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Metrics
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
public Metrics getMetrics() {
^
AStarSearch.java:59: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Problem
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
protected Comparator getComparator(Problem p) {
^
AStarSearch.java:26: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Problem
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
private Problem problem;
^
AStarSearch.java:28: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Problem
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
NodeComparator(Problem problem) {
^
AStarSearch.java:22: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable search
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
this.search = search;
^
AStarSearch.java:33: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Node
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
Node one = (Node) aNode;
^
AStarSearch.java:33: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Node
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
Node one = (Node) aNode;
^
AStarSearch.java:34: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Node
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
Node two = (Node) anotherNode;
^
AStarSearch.java:34: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Node
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
Node two = (Node) anotherNode;
^
AStarSearch.java:56: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable search
location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
return search.getMetrics();
^

So I am not sure where is the mistake that I am doing. I would be
really glad if you could help me with this respect.

Thanks in advance.

PK

Hi all, I have taken this for the first time. I was going through the
book but I am not able to make out the exact differences between
Actuators and Sensors. Please someone help me by giving me what each
term means. If possible please also give some example which is
different from one given in the book.

Please reply quickly. Thanks.

Hi all, I have taken this for the first time. I was going through the
book but I am not able to make out the exact differences between
Actuators and Sensors. Please someone help me by giving me what each
term means. If possible please also give some example which is
different from one given in the book.

Please reply quickly. Thanks.

--- In aima-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Gaurav" <gaurav_gup1@y...> wrote:
> [...]

Sensors are input to an artificial intelligence;
actuators are output from an artificial intelligence.

Sensors are like the human eyes and ears.
Actuators are like the muscles of the human body.

http://mind.sourceforge.net/sesorium.html#sensors is a list
of sensors available for robots to use.

http://mind.sourceforge.net/motorium.html is a webpage on
the use of actuators for the motor output of AI agents.
An agent is a being who acts with actuators.

I hope this helps (and spreads the news that AI has been solved).

Arthur

thanks man,
what i can figure out from your example is that
sensors are basically used for input to any AI agent
while actuators are mainly involved with the output of
the AI agents.

is this correct?

please can you help me in finding out what exactly is
"Web Crawler". I think its some tool to help in
demystifying the abbreviations used in the webpages.
But i coudln't find out much about it in detail. Can
you also help me in finding out some of its task
environments such as the sensors and actuators used
in.

I also need to know the sensors and actuators of the
following. I found out some but am not sure whether
they are correct? Please help me in this:

Robot Soccer:
Sensors:
Vision and Image processing
Omnidirectional Vision
Adversarial Planning
Speech Synthesis

Actuators:
Sensor-Motor Control


Computer Chess Player:
Sensors:
Inputs moves made by the opponent.

Actuators:
?????


--- Dharmesh Jani <janidharmesh@...> wrote:

> hey
> sensors are devices that are used to convert the
> signal from one physical form to another...they are
> also called transducers.....eg. pressure transducers
> like strain gauge convert the pressure into voltage
> that can be fed to controllers..  temperature
> transducers convert temperature into voltage or
> current.....
> actuators are devices that are used as a converter
> between the controller and the control
> devices...generally all of the control devices have
> actuators........for example we can have actuators
> for control valves which are the final control
> elements in control systems.....
>
> take the example of controlling the temperature in a
> tank of water......
> first comes the sensor which senses the temperature
> and gives the input to a microcomputer....the
> microcomputer runs some algorithm to see as what
> needs to be done according to the input
> temperature...it gives appropriate output to the
> actuator which drives a valve controlling the flow
> of water in the tank....in this way the loop is
> closed....
>
> tell me if u r able to understand this example.....
> take care
>
>
> Gaurav <gaurav_gup1@...> wrote:
>
>
> Hi all, I have taken this for the first time. I was
> going through the
> book but I am not able to make out the exact
> differences between
> Actuators and Sensors. Please someone help me by
> giving me what each
> term means. If possible please also give some
> example which is
> different from one given in the book.
>
> Please reply quickly. Thanks.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>    To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aima-talk/
>
>    To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> aima-talk-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>    Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the
> Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
>
> DHARMESH JANI
> janidharmesh@...
> janidharmesh@...
> Let us think about the thinking things...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
>  Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term'


=====
Bye
Gaurav Gupta


" You will never be able to escape from your heart, so it is better to listen to
what it has to say."







__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free!
http://my.yahoo.com

> I am trying to compile the JAVA code from
> http://aima.cs.berkeley.edu/java-overview.html I downloaded the
> aima.zip and unzipped the files into a folder aima-code as the following
>
> C:\javamyprograms\aima-code
>
> I have C:\javamyprograms\ in my class path. I am trying to run one
> file in the following location (AStarSearch.java),
>
> C:\javamyprograms\aima-code\src\aima\search\informed
>
> also the folders which is mentioned as package exisit properly in the
> right location.
> But I am getting the error :
>
> AStarSearch.java:9: package aima.search.framework does not exist
> import aima.search.framework.Metrics;
> [...]

Try the following:
- open a console and change the directory (cd) to
C:\javamyprograms\aima-code\src

- execute e.g.: java -cp . aima\search\informed\AStarSearch (or whatever)
(I don't use Windows, maybe you should replace '\' with '.')

<advertisement>
     I'm implementing the code in the book in java, but trying to provide
     more documentation, a better design, and more general algorithms.
     I'm finished with chapter 6 now. If you like I can send you my
     source code.
</advertisement>

Iván.

Why?

> Why?
It is not the only one.

It is a pity that such a good book being used in over 800 universities
has so little support from its own mailing list.

Iván.

Hello,
somebody has asked me to send him the Java library I am implementing
with the algorithms of the book.

Maybe other people here are interested too.

I have finished all classes until chapter 7.
They are supposed to be easy to use and well documented general classes
with the algorithms of the book and examples of problems for them, I
have used Java 5 with generics: States, etc. can be everything and not
just only Strings.

An Applet for chapter 3 can be found in:
http://www.artificialidea.com/java_examples/uninformed_search/index.html

All the sources and docs in:
http://www.artificialidea.com/java_examples/artificialidea-0.1.0.tar.bz2

If somebody have time and would like to help, welcome !
Any comments are welcome too.

Iván Villanueva

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Sorry for the delay in responding.  I was trying to duplicate the
problem but couldn't; I believe that for a short time there was an
inconsistent set of files in the zip archive; please try again.  I
just downloaded the bundle and tested in Python 2.3 and it works for me.

-Peter Norvig

Ponguru,
Sorry for the delay in reply .
I was away from my pc for a week .
Your classpath needs to include the "build" directoryinside tha aima
dierctory .
feel free to contact me if you have any problems.
Regds,
Ravi



--- In aima-talk@yahoogroups.com, "ponguru" <ponguru@y...> wrote:
>
>
> I am trying to compile the JAVA code from
> http://aima.cs.berkeley.edu/java-overview.html I downloaded the
> aima.zip and unzipped the files into a folder aima-code as the following
>
> C:\javamyprograms\aima-code
>
> I have C:\javamyprograms\ in my class path. I am trying to run one
> file in the following location (AStarSearch.java),
>
> C:\javamyprograms\aima-code\src\aima\search\informed
>
> also the folders which is mentioned as package exisit properly in the
> right location.
> But I am getting the error :
>
> AStarSearch.java:9: package aima.search.framework does not exist
> import aima.search.framework.Metrics;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:10: package aima.search.framework does not exist
> import aima.search.framework.Node;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:11: package aima.search.framework does not exist
> import aima.search.framework.PrioritySearch;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:12: package aima.search.framework does not exist
> import aima.search.framework.Problem;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:13: package aima.search.framework does not exist
> import aima.search.framework.QueueSearch;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:19: cannot find symbol
> symbol: class PrioritySearch
> public class AStarSearch extends PrioritySearch {
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:21: cannot find symbol
> symbol : class QueueSearch
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
> public AStarSearch(QueueSearch search) {
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:55: cannot find symbol
> symbol : class Metrics
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
> public Metrics getMetrics() {
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:59: cannot find symbol
> symbol : class Problem
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
> protected Comparator getComparator(Problem p) {
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:26: cannot find symbol
> symbol : class Problem
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
> private Problem problem;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:28: cannot find symbol
> symbol : class Problem
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
> NodeComparator(Problem problem) {
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:22: cannot find symbol
> symbol : variable search
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
> this.search = search;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:33: cannot find symbol
> symbol : class Node
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
> Node one = (Node) aNode;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:33: cannot find symbol
> symbol : class Node
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
> Node one = (Node) aNode;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:34: cannot find symbol
> symbol : class Node
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
> Node two = (Node) anotherNode;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:34: cannot find symbol
> symbol : class Node
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch.NodeComparator
> Node two = (Node) anotherNode;
> ^
> AStarSearch.java:56: cannot find symbol
> symbol : variable search
> location: class aima.search.informed.AStarSearch
> return search.getMetrics();
> ^
>
> So I am not sure where is the mistake that I am doing. I would be
> really glad if you could help me with this respect.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> PK

I think I found a mistake at page #356 of the first edition of the book.

Figure 11.3 shows the partial-order planning algorithm.

The problem resides in

choose either:
   Promotion: Add S_threat < S_i to ORDERINGS(plan)
   Demotion: Add S_j < S_threat to ORDERINGS(plan)
   ...
...

Either I didn't get the concept of promotion and demotion, or these
statements are wrong.

If S_threat is promoted, it is put before S_i (like Figure 11.10 shows),
if demoted it is put behind S_j, so I think it should read:

   Promotion: Add S_j < S_threat to ORDERINGS(plan)
   Demotion: Add S_threat < S_i to ORDERINGS(plan)

Could anyone please clarify this?

Thanks in advance!

hi
anybody knows how to view .tex slides??

> anybody knows how to view .tex slides??

In Linux (or Unix or probably Mac too) on the console:
  latex file.tex          (translate the source code)
  xdvi file.dvi           (to view it)
  dvips -f file | lpr     (to print it)

If you use Windows, sorry, I have no idea. Ask Microsoft, after all you
have paid for that operating system, and thus you can expect some help
from them.

Iván.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

LaTex is also avail for win32. (It's a text-editing package, not a
part of your OS).

Try at www.miktex.org for a commandline utility or at
http://www.toolscenter.org/front_content.php?idcat=26 for an editor
with gui. Both are free.

Worst case, LaTex is an ascii format, so you can often get much of the
content by opening the file in a text editor.

-rh

--- In aima-talk@yahoogroups.com, Ivan Villanueva <ivan@a...> wrote:
> > anybody knows how to view .tex slides??
>
> In Linux (or Unix or probably Mac too) on the console:
>  latex file.tex          (translate the source code)
>  xdvi file.dvi           (to view it)
>  dvips -f file | lpr     (to print it)
>
> If you use Windows, sorry, I have no idea. Ask Microsoft, after all
you
> have paid for that operating system, and thus you can expect some
help
> from them.
>
> Iv�n.

(not sure where to send this PAIP note - I'm using AIMA
and PAIP in my grad course)

Trying to run the Zebra PAIP example w. PAIP prolog  makes it clear
that compiling the files first is important -- difference
between very long run time and quite quick. (Franz on Solaris)

But the requires function in auxfns seems to prefer to load
the uncompiled .lisp files, not the compiled .fasl ones.

I can do a workaround, but it surprised me.

    - Bob Futrelle

_______________________________________________________________
Robert P. Futrelle      | Biological Knowledge Laboratory
     Associate Professor  | College of Computer  and Information
                          |     Science MS WVH202
Office: (617)-373-4239  | Northeastern University
Fax:    (617)-373-5121  | 360 Huntington Ave.
futrelle@...    | Boston, MA 02115
           http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/futrelle
    http://www.bionlp.org   http://www.diagrams.org

            http://biologicalknowledge.com
         mailto:biologicalknowledge@...
_______________________________________________________________

Ivan Villanueva <ivan@...> writes:

> If you use Windows, sorry, I have no idea. Ask Microsoft, after all you

Windows users may try MikTeX:

   http://www.miktex.org/


Paolo
--
Lisp Propulsion Laboratory log - http://www.paoloamoroso.it/log

Bob,

You don't say what version of Lisp you are running, and I admit I
haven't done any changes to track changes in the last few years.  But
probably if you edit the conditionalized code for *paip-binary* in
auxfns.lisp, it should work.

-Peter

--- In aima-talk@yahoogroups.com, Robert Futrelle <futrelle@c...> wrote:
>
> (not sure where to send this PAIP note - I'm using AIMA
> and PAIP in my grad course)
>
> Trying to run the Zebra PAIP example w. PAIP prolog  makes it clear
> that compiling the files first is important -- difference
> between very long run time and quite quick. (Franz on Solaris)
>
> But the requires function in auxfns seems to prefer to load
> the uncompiled .lisp files, not the compiled .fasl ones.
>
> I can do a workaround, but it surprised me.
>
>    - Bob Futrelle
>
> _______________________________________________________________
> Robert P. Futrelle      | Biological Knowledge Laboratory
>     Associate Professor  | College of Computer  and Information
>                          |     Science MS WVH202
> Office: (617)-373-4239  | Northeastern University
> Fax:    (617)-373-5121  | 360 Huntington Ave.
> futrelle@c...    | Boston, MA 02115
>           http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/futrelle
>    http://www.bionlp.org   http://www.diagrams.org
>
>            http://biologicalknowledge.com
>         mailto:biologicalknowledge@g...
> _______________________________________________________________

In chapter 3 of the text book, exercise 3.7 a, at the back of the
chapter.  They ask: to give all these functions such as cost
functions etc. of a planar map, but my problem is I don't know what a
planar map is. If any of you can help explain or show what a planar
map is I would appreciat it because a search on google and yahoo
hasn't provided me much except mathematical things, which is useless
to me.
If anyone can please help me email me please at KroaX2@...

ThanX

From the #1 result for the query [planar map] on Google:

"The data type planar_map represents a planar drawing of a planar
graph. A graph is called planar if it can be drawn without edge
crossings."

In other words, take a map, draw a point for the capital of each
region, connect adjacent capitals with lines, and then throw away the
original borders.  You now have a graph.  If this graph can be drawn
on a flat plane with no lines crossing, it is a planar map.

--- In aima-talk@yahoogroups.com, "kroax2" <kroax2@y...> wrote:
>
>
> In chapter 3 of the text book, exercise 3.7 a, at the back of the
> chapter.  They ask: to give all these functions such as cost
> functions etc. of a planar map, but my problem is I don't know what a
> planar map is. If any of you can help explain or show what a planar
> map is I would appreciat it because a search on google and yahoo
> hasn't provided me much except mathematical things, which is useless
> to me.
> If anyone can please help me email me please at KroaX2@y...
>
> ThanX

Thanx a lot for your help!


--- In aima-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Peter Norvig" <peter@n...> wrote:
>
> From the #1 result for the query [planar map] on Google:
>
> "The data type planar_map represents a planar drawing of a planar
> graph. A graph is called planar if it can be drawn without edge
> crossings."
>
> In other words, take a map, draw a point for the capital of each
> region, connect adjacent capitals with lines, and then throw away
the
> original borders.  You now have a graph.  If this graph can be drawn
> on a flat plane with no lines crossing, it is a planar map.
>
> --- In aima-talk@yahoogroups.com, "kroax2" <kroax2@y...> wrote:
> >
> >
> > In chapter 3 of the text book, exercise 3.7 a, at the back of the
> > chapter.  They ask: to give all these functions such as cost
> > functions etc. of a planar map, but my problem is I don't know
what a
> > planar map is. If any of you can help explain or show what a
planar
> > map is I would appreciat it because a search on google and yahoo
> > hasn't provided me much except mathematical things, which is
useless
> > to me.
> > If anyone can please help me email me please at KroaX2@y...
> >
> > ThanX

I'm taking a course in AI, we are using the textbook "A Modern
Approach".  I saw in the textbook that the code they work around
looks more or less something like Java.  I'm not to certain myself.
My question is: I have only learnt one language so far and that is
Visual Basic.net, I still want to learn those other languages, but
for this course in AI we have to do a practical in AI, to develop an
AI Agent, will VB.net be sufficient for a small practical agent, or
should I consider looking at another language, if so which language
would you say is the best for AI programming?

Thanx

Hello Unknown (I think it is not polite to avoid your name in a
mailing list),

> I'm taking a course in AI, we are using the textbook "A Modern
> Approach".  I saw in the textbook that the code they work around
> looks more or less something like Java.  I'm not to certain myself.
> My question is: I have only learnt one language so far and that is
> Visual Basic.net,

The worst choice. Sorry.

> I still want to learn those other languages, but
> for this course in AI we have to do a practical in AI, to develop an
> AI Agent, will VB.net be sufficient for a small practical agent, or
> should I consider looking at another language, if so which language
> would you say is the best for AI programming?

Probably you can program what you want in VB, but I would recommend to
learn anything else: python. You can learn everything you need reading
a few pages. Check out:
http://www.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide

For almost everything in the book there is a wonderful implementation in
Python at: http://aima.cs.berkeley.edu/python/readme.html

With very few effort you can be able to understand the code, and use it
for your own course, adding and changing things.

There is other implementations of the code in the book, but they are far
from being easy and fast to understand if you don't know the language
(and probably even so):
Lisp by Peter Norvig, A Java implementation without too much comments by
Ravi Mohan, and another Java implementation of the first chapters by
myself (you can see a runnable applet example at:
http://www.artificialidea.com/java_examples/uninformed_search/index.html)

Iván Villanueva

--- In aima-talk@yahoogroups.com, "kroax2" <kroax2@y...> wrote:
>
> <snip>
> My question is: I have only learnt one language so far and that is
> Visual Basic.net, I still want to learn those other languages, but
> for this course in AI we have to do a practical in AI, to develop an
> AI Agent, will VB.net be sufficient for a small practical agent, or
<snip>

I think VB.NET would be fine for agent programming since it has
object-oriented features, and that's important when you're
representing agents as objects in your system. The thing you may find
difficult is that none of the AIMA sample code is written in VB, so if
you want to understand the samples that have been provided, you'll
need to understand Lisp, Java or Python. Of course, you can always
write your code without looking at the samples. I've written C++ and
Python implementations of many exercises without reading anything
except the book, but be prepared to invest more time if you write
something from scratch.

Best regards,
Brandon

Dear "Kroax",
I am the maintainer of the aima  java code .
a couple of points in regard to your query,
From my experience , a language like lisp or python or ruby is the
most "suited" to ai programming because of
1)dynamic typing
2) "built in" common data structure like hashtables and lists . This
avoid a LOT of code bloat and makes traversal of trees etc a lot easier.
3)it is easier to write small interpreters in languages like python or
ruby or lisp vs languages like java or c# .This is particularly
important for the logic chapters.
4)they embody multiple paradigms (functional , object oriented etc)
wheras languages like java or C# are more or less  only OO .The OO
version of an algorithm can look superficially very different from a
fucntional version .

Having said all that, i belive the pseudo code in AIMA is VERY
amenable to implementation in any language you could think of. You
need to carefully balance the potential benefits of learning a new
language vs using what you laready know . Unfortunately this is a
decision only you can make .

I don't know enough about VB .net to comment. However i would be every
surprised if it turned out to be hard .If the code can be writen in
jvava it can be written in any decent language . :-)

May be the best thing to do would be to take the pseudo code form any
ONE chapter and try implementing it in VB.net . that will tell you far
more about the suitability or othewise of  the language than speculation .

And of course, as Ivan pointed out you have lisp, python and a couple
of variants of the java code to look at  .

Regds,
ravi






--- In aima-talk@yahoogroups.com, "kroax2" <kroax2@y...> wrote:
>
>
> I'm taking a course in AI, we are using the textbook "A Modern
> Approach".  I saw in the textbook that the code they work around
> looks more or less something like Java.  I'm not to certain myself.
> My question is: I have only learnt one language so far and that is
> Visual Basic.net, I still want to learn those other languages, but
> for this course in AI we have to do a practical in AI, to develop an
> AI Agent, will VB.net be sufficient for a small practical agent, or
> should I consider looking at another language, if so which language
> would you say is the best for AI programming?
>
> Thanx

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 15:39:41 +0100, Ivan Villanueva
<ivan@...> wrote:
>
> Hello Unknown (I think it is not polite to avoid your name in a
> mailing list),
>
> > I'm taking a course in AI, we are using the textbook "A Modern
> > Approach".  I saw in the textbook that the code they work around
> > looks more or less something like Java.  I'm not to certain myself.
> > My question is: I have only learnt one language so far and that is
> > Visual Basic.net,
>
> The worst choice. Sorry.

Wrong! Be serious! There would be plenty of languages more worse for
plenty of different reasons. COBOL, PL/1...

> > I still want to learn those other languages, but
> > for this course in AI we have to do a practical in AI, to develop an
> > AI Agent, will VB.net be sufficient for a small practical agent, or
> > should I consider looking at another language, if so which language
> > would you say is the best for AI programming?
>
> Probably you can program what you want in VB, but I would recommend to
> learn anything else: python. You can learn everything you need reading
> a few pages. Check out:
> http://www.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide

Everything I ever need? Just afew pages - what are the rest for?

I like Python but please don't overstate things. I've a friend who
programs in VB.NET. He tell me that there's only afew things you can
do in C# that you can't do in VB.NET (he still prefers C#). C# is so
close to Java that if you can make a reasonable implementation in Java
then I assume you can make one in VB.NET.

If deliverly on the .NET platform is the main constraint (otherwise
you could simply use Java or Lisp), you could consider IronPython - a
recent Python implementation for .NET. From what I've read it sounds
pretty wonderful (apparently can be faster than CPython)!

As most DotNetists seem to use C#, you should probably consider using
that rather than VB if there is no constraint - purely from a
marketable skills point of view.

If you'd like to learn a language that you won't probably use in your
professional career, perhaps the best is Common Lisp. It will provide
the most insights. I read bits of On Lisp, Lisp in Small Pieces, PAIP
and such when I can get a chance. Another option is Ruby. I like Ruby
alot - it is the most fun :-).

--
Steven Shaw http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?StevenShaw

I'm taking a course in AI, we are using the textbook "A Modern
Approach".  I saw in the textbook that the code they work around
looks more or less something like Java.  I'm not to certain myself.
My question is: I have only learnt one language so far and that is
Visual Basic.net, I still want to learn those other languages, but
for this course in AI we have to do a practical in AI, to develop an
AI Agent, will VB.net be sufficient for a small practical agent, or
should I consider looking at another language, if so which language
would you say is the best for AI programming?

Thanx