f2ffac4e66
And clean up some logic in `rule.py`. This is the place where the "brains" of Copycat really live, it seems; Copycat can only succeed at solving a puzzle if it can take the `Rule` it deduced and apply it to the target string to produce a new string. And it can only do that if the necessary *actions* have been programmed into `rule.py`. Right now, it explicitly can't deal with "rules" that involve more than one local change; that involve reversal; or more importantly, IIUC, rules that involve "ascending runs", because the idea of a successor-group is(?) known to the Slipnet but not to `rule.py`; the latter deals only in "strings", not in "workspace objects". This seems like a major flaw in the system... but maybe I'm missing something.
co.py.cat
An implementation of Douglas Hofstadter's Copycat algorithm. The Copycat algorithm is explained on Wikipedia, and that page has many links for deeper reading.
This implementation is a copycat of Scott Boland's Java implementation. The original Java-to-Python translation work was done by J Alan Brogan (@jalanb on GitHub). The Java version has a GUI similar to the original Lisp; this Python version has no GUI code built in but can be incorporated into a larger GUI program.
J Alan Brogan writes:
In cases where I could not grok the Java implementation easily, I took ideas from the LISP implementation, or directly from Melanie Mitchell's book "Analogy-Making as Perception".
Running the command-line program
To clone the repo locally, run these commands:
$ git clone https://github.com/Quuxplusone/co.py.cat.git
$ cd co.py.cat/copycat
$ python main.py abc abd ppqqrr 10
The script takes three or four arguments. The first two are a pair of strings with some change, for example "abc" and "abd". The third is a string which the script should try to change analogously. The fourth (which defaults to "1") is a number of iterations.
This might produce output such as
ppqqss: 6 (avg time 869.0, avg temp 23.4)
ppqqrs: 4 (avg time 439.0, avg temp 37.3)
The first number indicates how many times Copycat chose that string as its answer; higher means "more obvious". The last number indicates the average final temperature of the workspace; lower means "more elegant".
Running the curses interface
Follow the instructions to clone the repo as above, but then run curses_main instead of main:
$ git clone https://github.com/Quuxplusone/co.py.cat.git
$ cd co.py.cat/copycat
$ python curses_main.py abc abd ppqqrr
This script takes only three arguments. The first two are a pair of strings with some change, for example "abc" and "abd". The third is a string which the script should try to change analogously. The number of iterations is always implicitly "infinite". To kill the program, hit Ctrl+C.
Installing the module
To install the Python module and get started with it, run these commands:
$ pip install -e git+git://github.com/Quuxplusone/co.py.cat.git#egg=copycat
$ python
>>> from copycat import Copycat
>>> Copycat().run('abc', 'abd', 'ppqqrr', 10)
{'ppqqrs': {'count': 4, 'avgtime': 439, 'avgtemp': 37.3}, 'ppqqss': {'count': 6, 'avgtime': 869, 'avgtemp': 23.4}}
The result of run is a dict containing the same information as was printed by main.py above.