Re: [Pygoogle-discuss] First post: hobby pyGoogle script, seeking feedback...

[Ron S. <rd...@ma...>]

I have uploaded a text file to my web server that is the exact same as 
my askmerlina.cgi file, except that it is named askmerlina.txt so that 
you can see it and copy and paste it or download it. If anyone wants 
the source code (or wants to help me modify the cgi script so that a 
user can enter their own Google license key instead of  using mine 
(hint hint) ) then just go to www.awaretek.com/askmerlina.txt adn you 
will have it.

Thanks

Ron

On Oct 31, 2004, at 12:51 PM, Ron Stephens wrote:

> Hello. I am new to this list. I hope there is some activity on here?

No, there really isn't any activity on this list. :(

> I have a (very rough, I admit it) script using pyGoogle that runs on 
> the command line and can be found on my web site at 
> www.awaretek.com/plf.html .  It takes questions from users and options 
> to decide amongst.

What options are there? What kinds of questions can it answer?

> There are also two online CGI versions there that are easy to try out, 
> first a "simple" one that takes a question and options to choose from 
> amongst only, then a second more "sophisticated" version that tries to 
> emulate the full command line version; but it doesn't get as good of 
> answers yet.

I asked "What is the buick six?" and I got this:

  Traceback (most recent call last):  File 
"/var/www/cgi-bin/askmerlin.cgi", line 351, in ?  decide.turntheCrank() 
  File "/var/www/cgi-bin/askmerlin.cgi", line 236, in turntheCrank  
self.choices = form['choices'].value.split(",")  File 
"/usr/local/python/lib/python2.2/cgi.py", line 550, in __getitem__  
raise KeyError, key KeyError: choices

> So the command line version (merlina.py) is the one I am hoping 
> someone from this list might take the time to look at. I need to 
> refine the CGI versions.
>
> I am a but a poor coder but it's a fun hobby. I love pyGoogle and 
> Python. Pleas let me know if you have any suggestions.

You can't be that poor if your program actually deciphers natural 
speech (see START at http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/infolab/)

> Maybe someone can build something better from the ideas I am trying 
> out? If not, I hope to be able to spend some time during the late 
> December holidays to refine and improved Ask Merlin, both the command 
> line version and the CGI versions.

Again, see START

> By the way, I originally did these scripts using web scraping 
> techniques, but of course as Google (and then Yahoo, which I switched 
> to) kept changing things the scripts that once worked kept breaking. 
> It was way too much work to waste time keeping up with. But now that I 
> switched to the Google API, it makes a lot more sense ;-)).
>
> Only problem is, today I already used up all of my 1000 queries, in 
> debugging my CGI versions of the scripts. ;-(((

It looks like your online versions use YOUR personal google developer 
key, even when someone else is using your script. You should have 
people enter their own google developer key when they are using Merlin. 
Your web interface should also give the user some idea of how many 
queries it will use.

> Anyway, don't expect too much, but if anyone looks at the scripts, I'm 
> eternally grateful

Well I won't have time to really look at this until at least November 
6th, but I'll be sure to give you some feedback at that point.

30 second response:

List has been moribund.

Look at effbot.org ElementTree package which has (much better IMO)
Google functionality built in.

Will try to look at your URL if no one responds before I get 5 minutes.

On Sun, 2004-10-31 at 09:51, Ron Stephens wrote:
> Hello. I am new to this list. I hope there is some activity on here?
>
> I have a (very rough, I admit it) script using pyGoogle that runs on
> the command line and can be found on my web site at
> www.awaretek.com/plf.html .  It takes questions from users and options
> to decide amongst.
>
> There are also two online CGI versions there that are easy to try out,
> first a "simple" one that takes a question and options to choose from
> amongst only, then a second more "sophisticated" version that tries to
> emulate the full command line version; but it doesn't get as good of
> answers yet.
>
> So the command line version (merlina.py) is the one I am hoping someone
> from this list might take the time to look at. I need to refine the CGI
> versions.
>
> I am a but a poor coder but it's a fun hobby. I love pyGoogle and
> Python. Pleas let me know if you have any suggestions.
>
> Maybe someone can build something better from the ideas I am trying
> out? If not, I hope to be able to spend some time during the late
> December holidays to refine and improved Ask Merlin, both the command
> line version and the CGI versions.
>
> By the way, I originally did these scripts using web scraping
> techniques, but of course as Google (and then Yahoo, which I switched
> to) kept changing things the scripts that once worked kept breaking. It
> was way too much work to waste time keeping up with. But now that I
> switched to the Google API, it makes a lot more sense ;-)).
>
> Only problem is, today I already used up all of my 1000 queries, in
> debugging my CGI versions of the scripts. ;-(((
>
> Anyway, don't expect too much, but if anyone looks at the scripts, I'm
> eternally grateful
>
> Ron Stephens
>
> www.awaretek.com/plf.html
>
>
>
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