Model Compilation Adapter

In simon 0.2 we introduced some mechanisms to catch common errors during the compilation of the model and display nicer error messages to the user explaining ways to solve the issue manually. In simon 0.3 simon, however, simon will automatically repair some common mistakes without the user even noticing.

To explain what I am talking about, I first have to talk about simons architecture a bit so bear with me...

During normal operation, the simon client gathers the instructions (words, grammar, etc.) that will then be sent to simond. simond in turn compiles the model out of the given input files. To do that, simond first converts them to a format usable by the underlying tools (HTK, Julius). This conversion step was not needed in 0.2 because simon 0.2 only used the raw file formats of HTK / Julius. However, in simon 0.3 we need more control over the model and also want to give the user some advanced features that were not possible with just the information contained in those raw formats.

In simon 0.3 we introduced a new step between gathering the data and compiling it to a usable model: Adapting the input files.

This sounds like a boring but nescessairy conversion and indeed it is.

But what makes it interesting is that at the point of adaption we have all the input data that will be turned in to a mode in a format that is easily parsable. This means that it is an ideal place to do some last minute optimizations on the temporary files that are then used to generate the model.

The model adaption manager will for example automatically remove words from lexicon that have no training data associated. It will also clean the grammar of sentences that have no associated words. It will even remove samples containing words that are not in your dictionary. Basically, simon should be able to handle a lot of case that would cause an error in simon 0.2, automatically.