It is noted that Creature (aka Xena, by Killarny and Tav) and Phenny (by sbp) can already do most of what would be needed.
sbp has already written a bot relay/proxy thing, and both Creature and Phenny are written in python.
TheBot could be available at #TheBot and/or by doing /query TheBot, and a CGI:IRC web interface would be enabled. This would allow everyone, including people not normally using IRC, to harness the amazing (and often amusing) power of the IRC bot (xena, phenny, irc-stats-bot, chump, monty, piespyy, jibot, etc.)
Some discussion: (from #swhack)
11:07:18 <kandinski> phenny: tell sbp to please add a .ltok, .ltoh and .jtol proxy commands to phenny 11:07:20 <phenny> I'll pass that on when sbp is around. 11:07:44 <kandinski> rationale: typing "!" and "2" is awkward and cumbersome, too far away from home row 11:07:59 <kandinski> and keeping track of all the bot prefixes sucks 11:08:11 <kandinski> s/keeping/having to keep/ 11:42:39 <qopi_> kandinski: yes. i want someone to merge the power of all the bots into TheBot ... 11:43:42 <JibberJim> TheBot, tell phenny he's obsolete 11:44:14 <kandinski> phenny is a she! ... 11:44:22 <qopi_> as an option anyhow. it could just be an extra bot that then relays the command onto the relevant bot, but we could choose to only speak to TheBot if we choose to be lazy and not speak to phenny, monty, xena etc 11:44:40 <kandinski> qopi_, I told sbp exactly the same thing ... 15:22:19 <qopi> sbp: one reason for bot proxies, would be to enable us to just have /query TheBot open for all our needs 15:22:59 <qopi> people could configure TheBot to include / exclude whatever bots they like 15:23:02 <JibberJim> TheBot, beer, women, coffee 15:23:08 <candyman> qopi, good thinking 15:23:11 <candyman> lets corner sbp 15:23:21 <candyman> sean, we want your money too! 15:23:26 <candyman> * candyman is trollish today 15:23:41 <candyman> * candyman was severely and metaphorically beaten up yesterday 15:24:10 <qopi> TheBot is just a bot that speaks to all the other bots. 15:25:55 <qopi> TheBot will have a CGI:IRC interface too, making it the most useful website on the planet 15:26:17 <qopi> * qopi wishes he had any coding skills at all and could actaully code TheBot himself 15:26:21 <JibberJim> Is this a pitch for Venture Capital? 15:26:52 <qopi> JibberJim: no. a pitch for someone to code it 15:27:23 <qopi> TheBot will be a public domain application hosted on a server supported by donations 15:27:45 <qopi> but just imagine! 15:28:45 <JibberJim> * JibberJim doesn't believe in monolithic do everything projects, you end up with mozilla 15:30:01 <qopi> JibberJim: TheBot is not a do anything project. All it does is speak to existing IRC bots 15:31:13 <qopi> it seems like something very simple doable and useful to me 15:31:59 <qopi> where are the logs of this channel so that i can point people to the idea? 15:34:26 <qopi> * qopi notices http://swhack.com/logs/2004-07-03#T15-15-16 above
Further discussion: (from #esp)
16:28:00 <qopi/#esp> newflash: TheBot will rule! ... 16:47:16 <qopi/#esp> let me say more about TheBot... 16:47:34 <qopi/#esp> TheBot is a bot that does nothing but speaks to other bots 16:47:49 <simmo/#esp> hehe 16:48:01 <simmo/#esp> o/~ let me hear it for thebot o/~ 16:48:01 <qopi/#esp> it allows people to /query TheBot and provide for all there needs 16:48:19 <qopi/#esp> or to simple visit #TheBot 16:48:57 <qopi/#esp> or, of course, the TheBot CGI:IRC web interface 16:49:12 <qopi/#esp> i.e the most useful website on the planet 16:49:17 <qopi/#esp> way better than dozomo 16:49:57 <qopi/#esp> TheBot - giving the power of bots to the masses! 16:52:30 <qopi/#esp> bone_idol: TheBot will enable you to have less channels overall! 16:53:01 <qopi/#esp> you'll be able to get it to relay what other bots are relaying into #mybot 16:53:03 <qopi/#esp> hehe 16:53:29 <qopi/#esp> and hence what are on other channels 16:53:56 <qopi/#esp> someone: pleaaaaasssssssssseeeeeee give me TheBot! 17:01:20 <sbp`/#esp> sounds like what phenny does with xena, added with my current relay/proxy thing 17:05:20 <sbp`/#esp> qopi: got a wiki page about TheBot yet? difficult for people to implement it for you unless there's a full clear description 17:06:05 <qopi/#esp> sbp`: exactly, TheBot has pretty much been written aldready 17:06:38 <qopi/#esp> but no. udoo/wtf is down, so i guess i should whack it on some other wiki. Suggestions? 17:07:21 <sbp`/#esp> CommunityWiki would probably be okay. there's also a fairly nice developer community around it, so if they're interested in the idea they might help out 17:07:25 <qopi/#esp> perhaps i should put it on the #onebigsoup page on communitywiki 17:07:48 <sbp`/#esp> well, make http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/community/TheBot 17:07:58 * qopi/#esp goes to do just that 17:09:27 <sbp`/#esp> I really like their new design. works especially well with a smaller default font size in the browser 17:10:57 <qopi/#esp> sbp`: is phenny python too? 17:11:05 <sbp`/#esp> she is 17:11:14 <qopi/#esp> cool 17:11:57 * qopi/#esp assumes he is correct in thinking Creature is all python 17:12:05 <qopi/#esp> .seen killlarny 17:12:05 <xena/#esp> qopi: no match found: killlarny 17:12:12 <sbp`/#esp> AFAIK, yeah 17:12:20 <sbp`/#esp> probably uses a lot of Zope though
Heh! I like it! This is totally cool!
And this would work EXCELLENT together with ULI!
"Universal Line Interface," is a universal line interface that would work by XML-RPC or whatever protocol you like.
Bots basically receive lines and return them, along with some other concepts (session, usernames, passwords, which could be layered or included or something), you would have a standard line interface to do these things.
So you could write web pages to the ULI, you could write bots that just translate to the ULI, etc., etc.,.
If you were writing a generic web service, you could just open up to the ULI interface as well, and without writing any code, people with bots would be able to access your web service.
For instance: The OneBigSoup:LocalNames server could just support the ULI interface. The OneBigSoup:DingDing server could just support the ULI interface. So you could manipulate local names, inspect the connections to the event server, make subscriptions, disconnect subscriptions, even post events, entirely from within IRC- the "visible command line" I guess.
This concept is super-cool when put together with TheBot.
Think about it: TheBot has the advantage of working entirely within existing infrastructure. ULI has the advantage of being able to extend servers to work with IRC- without knowing a thing about bots. (No "bot" knowledge required.) (Or, it could work with Jabber, or whatever.)
So, they fit perfect together. All you need to write, is one bot that has ULI support, and then TheBot opens it up to everyone else, by existing infrastructure!
One bot that meets the ULI, and then BAM! Our work is done!
Does this have a project site? Is there a web page for TheBot?
I'd be totally stoked if this were a "OneBigSoup" project. It can make use of our Subversion Server, our wiki, whatever. I totally want to help make TheBot into a reality. And I totally want to help integrate it with ULI.
I'd like to see about getting Suw to work on ULI. SeanPalmer can supervise her developments, and others can oversee as well.