[  RST home page  ] [  intro to RST  ][  French pages  ][  Spanish pages  ] [  tools  ] [  text generation  ] [  published analyses  ] [  unpublished analyses  ]
[  bibliographies  ] [  downloading  ] [  ongoing projects  ] [  research topics  ] [  email list  ] [  discussion archives  ]

The ILEX Text Generation System

One development project that is extensively represented on the web is the ILEX system at the University of Edinburgh. The web resources represent various states of the project before it was completed but after substantial amounts of work were done. The ILEX site includes these entries:

Information	Comment	Link
DEMONSTRATION!	The system is used as an interface to a (simulated, online) jewelry museum. Each text presented to the user is generated on demand. The content varies depending on what has been seen before and whether each item is being visited for the first time. SEE NOTES BELOW.	to the online demonstration Look for: Click here to access the system itself.
Whole Project Overview	This is an entry point, with an overview of the whole project and access to everything else.	Project Description
ILEX 2 description	This is a detailed description, with discussion of both theory and application.	ILEX 2
ILEX 3 description	This is also a detailed description, with discussion of both theory and application. It is in a few large files, in both html and postscript forms, which will facilitate downloading.	ILEX 3
Expression of Text Structures	This is an overview of the designers' view of text structures and how they were expressed.	Text Structure Realization
Final Project Report	This is brief and well written for non-technical readers. It gives a good overview of accomplishments.	ILEX Final Report

There is more that is not mentioned here.

Notes: The demo has some odd features, but you should not let that deter you from seeing it.

• It starts slowly, because it must present many pictures. On my system it showed a nearly blank page for about 4 minutes. Speed depends on network busy times where you are and in the UK.
• Moving around is a bit mysterious. The arrow buttons move to the previous or next item that you look at and read about. The button marked "Jewels" takes you to the whole array of pictures of jewelry.
• All of the work shown is work in progress, so there are many aspects that could have been (and perhaps were) improved.
• Two different systems are represented, with differing emphases. Both are worth reading about.
• The EXIT button will not get you out. You must give your browser some other place to go.

Some recommendations:

• Visit similar items, and return to the same item more than once.
• Watch for words like "also" and "previous" which indicate adjustment to the user.
• Try "tell me more" just once per item.