I started messing with a definition to mess up text in a random way. It seems to be a little demanding, performance-wise. A slight delay after input. I don’t know that it is bad enough to truly bother someone, but it might. I’ll include the snippet here as a curiosity, but I thought it might be interesting for people to discuss how they might approach the problem.
Though I do have one question about the example: my approach truncates the text four words early. I’m assuming that’s a mistake I’ve made somewhere. (fixed it! was missing “punctuated” from my initial repeat phrase)
So how about it? What is the best way to randomly alter/format a text in Inform?
Code
lab is a room.
to say the randomly capitalized form of (t - a text):
let the modified text be a text;
let placeholder be a text;
let next character be a text;
let future be a text;
let word count be the number of punctuated words in t;
repeat with N running from 1 to word count:
now placeholder is punctuated word number N in t;
now future is punctuated word number (N + 1) in t;
repeat with CN running from 1 to the number of characters in placeholder:
now next character is character number CN in placeholder;
if a random chance of 1 in three succeeds:
now next character is the substituted form of next character in upper case;
now the modified text is the substituted form of "[modified text][next character]";
unless "[future]" is a punctuation mark or "[future]" is "":
now the modified text is the substituted form of "[modified text][the random thing] ";
say the modified text;
portrait is a text that varies.
portrait is "The Vances lived in number seven. They had a different father and mother. They were Eileen’s father and mother. When they were grown up he was going to marry Eileen."
instead of jumping:
say portrait;
say paragraph break;
say the randomly capitalized form of portrait;
to decide if (c - a text) is a punctuation mark:
if "[c]" matches the regular expression "\p":
decide yes;
to say the random thing:
if a random chance of one in 5 succeeds:
say "[one of][line break][or][paragraph break][purely at random]";
if a random chance of one in 5 succeeds:
say "[one of][line break][or][paragraph break][purely at random][fixed letter spacing] [variable letter spacing]";
if a random chance of one in 5 succeeds:
say "[fixed letter spacing] [variable letter spacing]";
if a random chance of one in 5 succeeds:
say "[fixed letter spacing] [variable letter spacing]";
otherwise:
say " ";
test me with "jump"
Sample Output
>jump
The Vances lived in number seven. They had a different father and mother. They were Eileen's father and mother. When they were grown up he was going to marry Eileen.
The Vances Lived in number
seven.
ThEY Had
a diFfErent fATher and
motHER. TheY were
EIleEn'S fatHer And mOther. WhEN
theY Were growN up he waS
goinG
>
Iterating over characters in a text in I7 is always going to be very slow, because of all the machinery necessary to transmute and untransmute the arrays. But that can be worked around with a bit of I6, after which there shouldn’t be any noticeable delay.
That’s too bad about the Inform 6; I think it’s beyond my grasp
I mocked up a simple bisquixe demo that changes color and font while jumping, and switches those characteristics back to a “default” when doing something else. The font is illegible, but gets the point across.
The gblorb, which runs in any interpreter, just randomizes the capitalization.
I share this as a curiosity that might interest anyone finding this in a search. I think it would be interesting to go further and add some animation, though out-of-the-box Bisquixe can’t format keyframe stuff. I’ve thought about tweaking this in the template, but since I publish my source code, I like to leave extensions and templates as-is.
"The Trouble with Jumping"
lab is a room.
include simple multimedia effects for v10 by mathbrush.
include basic screen effects by emily short.
release along with a "bisquixe" interpreter
To decide if bisquixe is active:
(-(glk_gestalt(5376, 0) )-)
to decide if bisquixe is inactive:
unless bisquixe is active, decide yes.
to decide if (c - a text) is a punctuation mark:
if "[c]" matches the regular expression "^\p$":
decide yes;
keypress is a number that varies;
first when play begins:
if bisquixe is active:
follow the styling startup rule;
follow the default rule;
ask for device information;
follow the initial page setup rule;
otherwise:
now keypress is 2;
to ask for device information:
say paragraph break;
say "This demo supports mobile and desktop screen configurations. Please choose:
1) I am using a mobile device.
[line break]2) I am using a full-sized screen.";
while 5 is 5:
let T be the chosen letter;
now T is T minus 48;
if T is greater than zero and T is less than 3:
now keypress is T;
say "You have chosen [if playmode is mobile]mobile[otherwise if playmode is full]full[end if].";
make no decision;
to decide if playmode is mobile:
if keypress is 1, decide yes;
to decide if playmode is full:
if keypress is 2, decide yes;
to say the randomly capitalized form of (t - a text):
let the modified text be a text;
let placeholder be a text;
let next character be a text;
let future be a text;
let word count be the number of punctuated words in t;
repeat with N running from 1 to word count:
now placeholder is punctuated word number N in t;
now future is punctuated word number (N + 1) in t;
repeat with CN running from 1 to the number of characters in placeholder:
now next character is character number CN in placeholder;
if a random chance of 1 in four succeeds:
now next character is the substituted form of next character in upper case;
now the modified text is the substituted form of "[modified text][next character]";
unless "[future]" is a punctuation mark or "[future]" is "":
now the modified text is the substituted form of "[modified text][the random thing]";
say chaos;
say the modified text;
say line break;
portrait is a text that varies.
portrait is "The Vances lived in number seven. They had a different father and mother. They were Eileen’s father and mother. When they were grown up he was going to marry Eileen. He hid under the table. His mother said:[unicode 8233]—O, Stephen will apologise."
instead of jumping:
say portrait;
say paragraph break;
css-set-fast ".Input; background; transparent";
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow .Input; color; #0A0A0A";
css-set-fast ".Input; color; #0A0A0A";
css-set-fast ".Style_input; color; #0A0A0A";
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow; background; #F2A005";
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow; color; #0A0A0A";
say the randomly capitalized form of portrait;
to say the random thing:
if a random chance of one in 7 succeeds:
say "[one of][line break][or][paragraph break][purely at random]";
if a random chance of one in 7 succeeds:
say "[one of][line break][or][paragraph break][purely at random][ms] [variable letter spacing]";
if a random chance of one in 5 succeeds:
say "[ms] [variable letter spacing]";
if a random chance of one in 5 succeeds:
say "[ms] [variable letter spacing]";
otherwise:
say " ";
test me with "jump"
first when play begins:
css-set-fast ".Style_console; font-family; Roboto Mono, monospace";
css-set-fast ".Style_console; font-size; 16px";
css-set-fast ".Style_large; font-size; 20px";
css-set-fast ".Style_chaos; font-family; Rubik Glitch, monospace";
css-set-fast ".Style_chaos; font-weight; lighter";
css-set-fast ".Style_chaos; font-size; 18px";
css-set-fast ".Style_chaos; color; #0A0A0A";
this is the initial page setup rule:
css-set-fast ".BufferLine; white-space; pre-wrap";
if playmode is full:
css-set-fast "#gameport; left; 22%";
css-set-fast "#gameport; right; 22%";
css-set-fast "#gameport; top; 0%";
css-set-fast "#gameport; bottom; 0%";
otherwise if playmode is mobile:
css-set-fast "#gameport; left; 0%";
css-set-fast "#gameport; right; 0%";
css-set-fast "#gameport; top; 0%";
css-set-fast "#gameport; bottom; 0%";
this is the styling startup rule:
import-google-fonts "Open+Sans&family=Rubik+Glitch&family=Bitcount+Ink";
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow;padding;0px 15px 0px 15px";
css-set-fast ".GridWindow;padding5px 15px 5px 15px";
css-set-fast ".play; background; #00030a";
css-set-fast ".links; display; none";
css-set-fast ".interpretercredit; display; none";
css-set-fast ".coverimage; display; none";
this is the default rule:
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow .Input; font-size; 16px";
css-set-fast ".Input; background; transparent";
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow .Input; color; #210303";
css-set-fast ".Input; color; #210303";
css-set-fast ".Style_input; color; #210303";
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow; background; #F7F2F2";
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow; color; #210303";
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow; font-size; 16px";
css-set-fast ".BufferWindow; font-family; sans-serif";
before doing something other than jumping:
follow the default rule;
to say ms:
if bisquixe is active:
set-any-class "console";
otherwise:
say fixed letter spacing;
to say chaos:
set-any-class "chaos";
E: no phone version, sorry! I might add it later
E2: Updated to include a mobile mode!
The VANCES
lIVEd IN number seveN. They hAd a DiFFErEnt Father and moTHer. TheY weRe EilEen'S father
ANd
moTHer. WhEn
they weRe gRoWn up hE WAs gOINg to mArrY EIlEEn.
Thanks for this! It’s amazing how different inform 6 is. It’s like going from modern English to old English (I’m sure experienced programmers have no such difficulties)
e: as a final note, I added a mobile version to the demo (only available in web play)
