NAME

  MegaHAL - Perl interface to the MegaHAL natural language
            conversation simulator.

SYNOPSIS

  use MegaHAL;

  $megahal = new MegaHAL('Path'     => './',
                         'Banner'   => 0,
                         'Prompt'   => 0,
                         'Wrap'     => 0,
                         'AutoSave' => 0);

  $text = $megahal->initial_greeting();
  $text = $megahal->do_reply($message);

DESCRIPTION

  Conversation simulators are computer programs which give
  the appearance of conversing with a user in natural 
  language.  Such programs are effective because they 
  exploit the fact that human beings tend to read much more
  meaning into what is said than is actually there; we are
  fooled into reading structure into chaos, and we 
  interpret non-sequitur as valid conversation.

  This package provides a Perl interface to the MegaHAL
  conversation simulator written by Jason Hutchens.

USAGE

     $megahal = new MegaHAL('Path'     => './',
                            'Banner'   => 0,
                            'Prompt'   => 0,
                            'Wrap'     => 0,
                            'AutoSave' => 0);

  Creates a new MegaHAL object.  The object constructor can
  optionaly receive the following named parameters:

  'Path'   - The path to MegaHALs brain or training file
             (megahal.brn and megahal.trn respectively).
             If 'Path' is not specified the current working
             directory is assumed.

  'Banner' - A flag which enables/disables the banner
             which is displayed when MegaHAL starts up.
             The default is to disable the banner.

  'Prompt' - A flag which enables/disables the prompt. This
             flag is only useful when MegaHAL is run
             interactively and is disabled by default.

  'Wrap'   - A flag which enables/disables word wrapping of
             MegaHALs responses when the lines exceed 80
             characters in length.  The default is to 
             disable word wrapping.


     $text = $megahal->initial_greeting();

  Returns a string containing the initial greeting which is
  created by MegaHAL at startup.  


     $text = $megahal->do_reply($message);

  Generates reply $text to a given message $message.

BUGS

  None known at this time.

AUTHORS

  The Perl MegaHAL interface was written by Cory Spencer
  <cspencer@interchange.ubc.ca>

  MegaHAL was originally written by and is copyright
  Jason Hutchens <hutch@ciips.ee.uwa.edu.au>