I am having trouble with the TellMe scratchpad, particularly the syntax checker. What can I do?
While the TellMe scratchpad is a convenient way to quickly test simple VXML, it is not ideal for creating complex or even trivial applications. One way to make your development less frustrating is to create your VXML using your preferred text editor, and post the file(s) in your personal web space. TellMe is capable of loading external VXML resources (or even other media, such as audio), and executing them. To have TellMe load your application over the web, do the following:

1. When in the TellMe developer area click on the "Application URL" tab.
2. Type in the URL of your file in the "Application URL" box.
3. Press the update button on the web page.
4. Call your system (or examine the error messages).

The homework description says that my application should at least let the user ask questions about directors and movies. What styles of questions should I expect?
Valid user input should be simple and short responses to the prompts given by your system. For example, if your system says "I can give you information about the directors of 'Star Wars', 'E T', and 'Blade Runner'. Please say one of these movie names so I can tell you who directed it.", the user should respond with "Star Wars", "E T", or "Blade Runner". Your system should give clear instructions during each conversation on what it expects the user to say next, in other words, give the user limited options so he/she will not ask unrestricted questions. However, your system should deal with unexpected user input, no user input, or user interruption appropriately. You are, of course, free to develop a system that can accept more free-form user input if you wish.

Should my system connect to a search engine or other external data resource to fetch movie information?
For this homework, your system is not required to have the capability of obtaining information about movies from a database. Any information about movies can be coded directly in your VoiceXML script. You can discuss how your system can be extended to support this capability in the report. If, however, you wish to implement a system that can look up information from an external data source, you are free to do so.