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1995-02-04
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Artificial Weirdness Generator - Virgin 5.0
by George Pope
02-04-95
Hi there! This is my most recent release of the AWG.
Not much has changed. So, I'll just list the changes and
provide the old docs. Enjoy!
1. Fixed bug in noun finding. It used to be a binary
probability, regardless of what you entered. Now you
really can enter a number between zero and one.
2. Added code to allow for a non-integer number of words
per phrase. So, if you find the change between 1 and
2 to be too much, enter something in between! This is
a cool feature. Try it out.
3. Allowed for 'non-standard' characters. The program
used to strip out these characters. I did this at the
request of a fellow from Denmark who complained that
it was eating the special Danish characters. Yes,
this crazy program works in languages besides English!
Not the noun-finding part, though. Sorry.
4. Performed some memory-saving magic. The program takes
a lot less memory, at the expense of a tiny bit of
speed. There is only one version now, and it should
run on all machines. Let me know if there are any
problems.
5. My email address is now pope@rrwilson.ucdavis.edu.
Mail to the old address will have an uncertain fate.
And now for the old docs:
Artificial Weirdness Generator - Virgin 4.0
by George Pope
06-30-93
Hello and welcome to the world of artificial weirdness!
Yes, now you and your loved ones can witness the latest
technological breakthrough in the quest to simulate the
intricate workings of the human brain. And here's how...
I. What it does
This program takes a large text file, analyses it, and
spits out a hilarious/grotesque/just-plain-stupid parody of
it. Note that whenever I write 'large text file' I mean
something larger than a page of text, but not more than
about 20K for the 4 Meg version of the program (10k for the
1 Meg version). The text file should be something like a
letter, academic paper, story, or list of instructions.
II. Getting to know it
I have provided a very short text file that I was using
for testing purposes. You should use it for input until you
get familiar with how this program works. So, run the
program and tell it to use 5 words per phrase when it asks.
Also give it a zero probability for finding nouns when it
asks. Select the test file at the appropriate time and
watch as it crunches its way through the file. Note that
all of the phrases are unique. You will realize later that
this is not a good thing. When it is done processing, it
will prompt for number of sentences to be output and a
destination. Use the screen for output right now and try
20 or 30 sentences. The parody will then be printed. In
this case it should be identical to the original input file.
Ok, now quit by entering zero for number of sentences. Run
the program again with everything the same except for only
1 word per phrase. Wow! Big difference, huh? The other
thing you should try is to set words per phrase back to 5
but give it a noun-finding probability of 1. With noun-
finding turned on, even large phrases get broken up and
nouns get swapped like some kind of Mad Libs.
III. Take off!
Well, I think that is enough to get you started. Play
around with the settings and see which ones give you the
'best' output. And use your own files! Feel free to try
weird inputs and settings. Feel free to try to crash the
program: I bet it is not that hard!
IV. Everything else
Just a few more notes before I sign off. This program
was inspired by a book I read called The Magic Machine by
Martin Gardner. It has lots a cool ideas for programs to
write on your computer. I read it a long time ago and when
I wrote this program I had forgotten the details of his
program outline, so this program works a little differently
(and better, of course) than the description in the book.
I was also inspired by the way-cool Mac programs SimBush,
SimJesse, and their brethren.
I think this program would be called Post-Ware. If you
get a kick out of it, send me a post card from your home
town or state or country and write on it your favorite line
of output from the Generator. (I want to track the spread
of madness as it sweeps the globe...heh heh heh). I also
welcome all comments, questions, praise and criticism. I
can be contacted by mail or by e-mail for these. If I get
some feedback, I'll do more with the program. If not, well
screw you too!
Finally, keep in mind that this is MY program and if
you distribute it, please have the courtesy to keep all of
the files together in their original archive. At the same
time, I accept no responsibility for damage to you or your
computer through the use of this program. This program was
written with good intentions, so enjoy it!
George Pope
2040 San Angelo St.
Fairfield, CA 94533
U.S.A
pope@feynman.ucdavis.edu
The archive should include:
ARWEIRD4.PRG The 4 Meg version of the program.
1000 phrases maximum
ARWRD41M.PRG The poorly-named 1 Meg version of
the program. 500 phrases max
TEST2.TXT The test text file for your
amusement. Yes, I wrote it. So
what? It's just for testing!
ARTWEIRD.DOC This file. Duh!
Spread the weirdness!