chicken.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Getopt::Long;
use constant USAGE => <<'eof';

usage: $0 [options]

    --numberofwords -nw <n>: number of words
    --enumerate -en     <n>: create a list of arguments

eof

our %OPT;

my $opt_numberOfWords = 0;
my $opt_enumerate     = 0;

GetOptions(
    'numberofwords|nw=i' => \$opt_numberOfWords,
    'enumerate|en=i'     => \$opt_enumerate,
) or die USAGE;

my @WORDS
    = ( "puk", "pukaak", "cluck", "cluckity", "bwak", "waak", "bok", "bwok", "cluck-a-buh-gawk", "cock-a-doodle-doo", "bwwwaak", "gobble", "honk");

my @PUNCTUATIONS = ( ".", "...", "!", "?" );

my @PARAGRAPH_SIZES = ( 15, 30, 75 );

my $enumerate = ($opt_enumerate) ? $opt_enumerate : 1;

for ( my $e = 0; $e < $enumerate; $e++ ) {
    if ($opt_numberOfWords) {
        $numberOfWords = $opt_numberOfWords;
    }
    else {
        $numberOfWords = $PARAGRAPH_SIZES[ int( rand( scalar @PARAGRAPH_SIZES ) ) ];
    }

    # generate paragraph, with random words, capitalization, and punctuation.
    my $paragraph                  = "";
    my $previousWordHadPunctuation = 0;
    for ( my $i = 0; $i < $numberOfWords; $i++ ) {

        # pick a random word

        my $word = $WORDS[ int( rand( scalar @WORDS ) ) ];

        # magic multiplier
        $word = join( "-", ($word) x ( 4 - int( ( log( rand(7) + 1 ) / log(2) ) + 1 ) ) );

        # even more magical multiplier
        $word =~ s/([aou]){2,}?/$1 x (rand(7)+1)/ge;

        # optionally add punctuation
        # note: always add punctuation if it's the last word.

        my $shouldAddPunctuation = $i == $numberOfWords - 1 || rand() > 0.9;
        my $punctuation          = $shouldAddPunctuation ? $PUNCTUATIONS[ int( rand( scalar @PUNCTUATIONS ) ) ] : "";
        $word = $word . $punctuation;

        # optionally capitalize the word
        # note: always capitalize if it's the first words, or if preceded by punctuation
        my $shouldCapitalize = $i == 0 || $previousWordHadPunctuation || rand() > 0.7;

        $word = $shouldCapitalize ? uc( substr( $word, 0, 1 ) ) . substr( $word, 1 ) : $word;

        # preserve info for next iteration
        $previousWordHadPunctuation = $shouldAddPunctuation;

        # add word to paragraph
        $paragraph = $paragraph . $word;

        # if not last one, add a space
        $paragraph = $i == $numberOfWords - 1 ? $paragraph : $paragraph . " ";
    }

    if ($opt_enumerate) {
        printf "%d. ", $e + 1;
    }
    print $paragraph;
    print "\n";

}