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The installation of Program N (AIMLpad) has a few variations. It depends upon what features you need or want to do your work. Here are the simple, quick start steps for the desktop version:
a: If you have never installed AIMLpad before, you will need to download aimlpad-exe-x.x.zip, aimlpad-req-x.x.zip and aimlpad-docs-x.x.zip from SourceForge. Note that the x.x represents a version number.
b: If you already have a previous installation of AIMLpad, then you will probably only require aimlpad-exe-x.x.zip. However, always read the release notes just in case something has changed that may affect the files in aimlpad-req-x.x.zip and aimlpad-docs-x.x.zip
Unzip the contents keeping the file directory structure contained in the zipped archive. Note that the zipped archives from SourceForge already contain an upper-level directory called AIMLpad, so extract it to a directory one level higher.
For example, extracting the archive contents from SourceForge into "C:\Program Files" will create a directory called "AIMLpad" within "C:\Program Files". This will create the directory structure "C:\Program Files\AIMLpad" (which we’ll call the standard install folder). You can move it closer to the root like "C:\" (which creates "C:\AIMLpad") for ease in programming the editor script macros (some commands may refer to the full file directory names which are easier to enter if they are shorter).
Start AIMLpad.exe to begin programming AIML. The download comes with an AIML set loaded into its database. You chat with the bot by pressing the balloon icon on the toolbar and typing in the text edit area. Pressing the enter key signals the bot to respond.
The next feature is to add a character that will speak what the bot replies. This is the Microsoft Agent software. It is optional and shouldn’t interfere with the editor if not included.
Download msagent.exe, tv_enua.exe, and genie.exe from the Microsoft site at http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/user.asp for the download site. Select the Microsoft Agent core components, the Microsoft Agent character files (choosing the Genie character), and a Text-to-speech voice engine.
Install these downloads per their instructions.
Start AIMLpad.exe and click on the balloon icon to chat. Then choose the menu option Tools->Context->Use MS Agent and the MS agent Genie should appear.
The last feature to get you started using the full AIMLpad capabilities is installing the WordNet dictionary files. It is again an optional function utilized only by some selected script commands.
Download the WordNet 2.0 dictionary archive aimlpad-dict-wn2.0.zip at SourceForge. This file is just over 10 megabytes in size so it may take some time to transfer.
Extract the files, retaining the directory structure, into the folder where you installed AIMLpad. It expands to around 35 megabytes, so make sure you have plenty of storage space on your computer!
Start AIMLpad.exe and press Ctrl-E to get the immediate script command window. Type define success and press Enter to see the definition of the word success.
In the installed folder is a directory called docs. There is a system manual included for explaining AIMLpad and the script language. There is also a couple of quick reference documents for AIML and AIMLpad's script language.
In the data directory is some sample script files. There are a couple of games, a script to make the bot talk to itself, etc.
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