Let’s consider this example:

Wouldn’t this go forever as * is there to match any pattern and topic movies was set? Is there a way to interrupt this, something like return directive in functions? If * isn’t present and there’s no matching pattern in that topic, it will look for categories outside of it, right?

I see now that I forgot to add categories in topics… Nevermind, question is the same.

With AIML, it’s important to have a “breakout” category that removes the topic in order to change the topic if the user’s input doesn’t match anything within the topic being discussed. Usually, they look like this:

Now bear in mind that this isn’t the only way to get out of a given topic, just the most common way. The use of topics in AIML can be a powerful and useful way to direct the flow of a conversation, but it can be tricky to implement properly. However, I think that it’s worth the effort.

Did topics behave that way in Alicebot Program D? I seem to remember that they weren’t as “binding” (I was used to the AIML implementation used by RunABot where a user is trapped in a topic unless the topic is explicitly set to something else via a tag in a reply somewhere).

I’m not really sure, Noah. I never used Program D, to be honest. I’ve used Program E and O (of course), and both of those were that way from the start.I think that Pandorabots is also like that, if memory serves (though Steve would be the one to ask there).

Yes, that is correct. If you want to get out of a topic, you need to set it to something else (or blank it out as in Dave’s example)