WELCOME TO THE AI_ATTIC of the The University of Texas at Austin "You are standing in an open field west of a white house. There is a small mail box here. . . " Sound familiar? If you have ever played the classic AI Adventure game, Zork, it should. We like to think that in this white house is the location of the AI_Attic, an anonymous ftp site maintained at The University of Texas at Austin. In this attic you will find the classic Artificial Intelligence programs, pointers on where to buy commercial AI programs, and the like. Word has it that behind a pile of junk in the corner are two doctors, a psycho-path, a statue come to life, a self- professed expert, and a sex writer--if only you know where to look. This archive is intended for professors teaching courses in AI and the students they teach. But others interested in expert systems, neural nets, ATN's, perceptrons, etc are, of course, welcome to rummage around. As would be expected in an attic, some things in this archive work, others need a little nudge to get them going, and some of them are "over the hill" for good. In all cases they should bring back a sense of nostalgia to the old timer and give a sense of history to new workers in the field of Artificial Intelligence. HOW TO ACCESS THE AI_ATTIC The AI_ATTIC is an anonymous FTP site that can be accessed by telneting or ftping to either the IP address 128.83.186.13 or the node address, bongo.cc.utexas.edu At the request for your name, just type the word, anonymous, and at the request for a password, type your own personal E-mail address. Mine, for example is atticmaster@bongo.cc.utexas.edu. It is important that you give us your address, because we want to justify keeping this archive open and you can help by letting us evaluate how active it is. When you follow the above procedure, you will arrive at the root directory of bongo. Change your directory to /pub/AI_ATTIC. We recommend that you now download and read the PleaseReadMeFirst message (which is essentially this message) to get an idea of what is in store for you. When you have finished your visit, just type bye at the ftp prompt. LANGUAGES and COMPUTERS A visit to the attic can sometimes be frustrating and you should not expect all of the programs to work for you. As might be expected, many of these programs are written in LISP (one of its many dialects) and might need some conversion to run on your machine. Others are in C, Pascal, and, of course, ADVENTURE is available in FORTRAN. There are even a few programs in BASIC over in a dusty corner, but I'm too embarrassed to admit where they are located. There is something for everyone here. Many of these programs were written to run on the Macintosh or IBM PC and should be of interest to students with access to these machines. Others, however, were written for the TI Explorer or the MicroExplorer and without these specialized computers it might be a hopeless task to convert them. I have it on good authority that somewhere around is a program that runs on a PDP-10, but you see, I haven't been everywhere in this attic myself so I can't be sure where it is. Where possible, source code is given and the clever programer may be able to convert the codes given here to his own machine. PUBLIC DOMAIN We have made every effort to include only programs that are in the Public Domain or those that have been released by the author. One problem in trying to maintain an archive such as this is that many programs are thrown in over the transum and one never knows for sure where they came from or who owns them. If you locate a program that sneaked in, please let us know and we will remove it. You should also take standard procedures to avoid introducing viruses into your computer system by checking all programs you download carefully. And while we are on the subject of ownership, we make an earnest plea to all commercial venders with classic programs that are no longer bringing in big bucks to allow us to store their programs here for access by all. I have a tear in my eye when I think of a generation of students that has never stared at the computer screen and read the opening lines from Zork with which this introduction began. Just thinking about these words sends shivers down my spine--or are these shivers caused by the damp, cold atmosphere up here in the attic. Would the owner of Zork, Ractor, and Puppy Love even consider letting us have a copy? Like CocaCola, some products become so famous and such an integral part of the culture that they transend private ownership. GOOD TASTE In a attic? We really have not censored the programs that have been submitted. Some are a bit, . . .lively? . . .agressive? . . . well, let's admit it--naughty. If ELIZA can give advice, surely it is not surprising that she can give spicy advice. I am grateful to the guy who gave me a copy of the adult version of ELIZA that he runs on his bulletin board. Please don't feel offended. If you aren't old enough to reach the keyboard yet, don't go get a chair. ORGANIZATION OF THE ATTIC Finding your way around the attic can be a bit confusing at first. It is rather like a "twisty, turny" maze or was that a "turny, twisty" maze? This section will explain what you can expect. On each level of the attic, you will find a ##ReadMe file## and a directory called #DropBox#. The ##ReadMe## file will contain an extension such as #ReadMe.Adventure## so you can download more than one and keep them straight. They will help you decide whether it is worthwhile downloading the information located at this level. It may also give you valuable information telling the download mode (Binary, MacBinary, or Text) and the size of the files. The #DropBox# is there so you can communicate with your colleagues. For example, the classic game ADVENTURE exists in many versions conveniently stored in the directories called ADVENTURE#1, ADVENTURE#2, and so on. In the #DropBox# you might want to leave a note telling the next guy which ones work for you, which one you think is best, etc. Once you arrive at the level of a specific version of a program, say ADVENTURE#3, hints telling what you had to do to get this version to run are appropriately placed in the #DropBox#. The entry level directory also contains a ##MailBox## where you are free to leave a note for the atticmaster. You can also contact him by sending E-mail to: atticmaster@bongo.cc.utexas.edu. The entry directory is divided into the following subdirectories: PROGRAMS This is the main area in the attic. Here you will find subdirectories containing Classic, Commercial, and General AI programs. LANGUAGES This directory contains copies of the AI languages in the Public Domain. You will find a copy of the latest XLISP, LittleSmallTalk, and the famous Obfus C version of Lisp. among others. TOPIC AREAS Subdirectories in this area contain collections of programs in a variety of research areas in AI. Typical of those areas are Neural Nets, Perceptrons, Turing Machines, etc. DOWNLOADING HELP Programs in the archive have been stuffed, compressed, tarred, and zipped. This section tries to give help in downloading the programs and jolting them back to life. It includes general instructions and small archiving and compacting programs to help in this effort. Be sure to look at the ##ReadMe.Downloading## file in this directory for this much needed aid. INCOMING We need are actively seeking additional programs. Again, please look at the ##ReadMe.Incoming## file to read our hints on how to submit programs. Since you may not have time to read this file now, let us give one extremely important word of advice. Periodically, we will try to locate a classic program or solicite programs in a specific research area. If everyone submits copies of ELIZA, for example, we will have name conflicts and overwrite each others programs. Therefore if you send the attic a program, say Eliza, please put it into a directory called Eliza.xyz where xyz are your initials. In this way, the next guy will not overwrite your program when he submits a different version of Eliza. Please see the ReadMe in the Incoming directory for futher hints on submitting stuff for the attic. SOURCES Even an attic has limited capacity. With professors around the world assigning term projects and graduate students completing their degrees every day, we can not hope to contain a copy of every significant program Here we list additional sources of AI programs as they become available. Recognize that computer archives change rapidly and no guarantee can be given that the program you are looking for is still in the directory we indicate. YOUR WISH LIST This directory contains additions we are seeking to the attic. If you have enjoyed your visit here, why not help us locate some of the programs listed here. Atticmaster: Dr. B. V. Koen atticmaster@bongo.cc.utexas.edu Assistants: Desh R. Anand Shih-Chung Chao Ravi Malhotra Jay Michael Raghav Vajjhala Thad Ware