portable fortune program

[Jacob Hallen]

In article <z4Xy8.72324$z55.71416 at atlpnn01.usenetserver.com>,
Steve Holden <sholden at holdenweb.com> wrote:
>"J.Jacob" <joost_jacob at hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:13285ea2.0204270857.2f34f8a4 at posting.google.com...
... Complicated suggestion by Steve deleted.
>>
>> # file fortune.py
>> import random, os
>>
>> def randlistindex(yourlist):
>>     "Return a random index number into yourlist"
>>     return random.randint(0, len(yourlist)-1)
>>
>> def quote():
>>     """
>>     Return a quote <string> from file allfortunes,
>>     assume the file allfortunes is located in the same
>>     directory as this module."""
>>     datafile = os.path.join(
>>       os.path.dirname(__import__(__name__).__file__),
>>       'allfortunes' )
>>     quotesfile = open(datafile)
>>     quoteslist, quote = [], ''
>>     for s in quotesfile.readlines():
>>         if s[0] == '%':
>>             if quote:
>>                 quoteslist.append(quote)
>>                 quote = ''
>>         else: quote = quote + s
>>     if quote: quoteslist.append(quote)
>>     print quoteslist[randlistindex(quoteslist)],

Simple suggestion by me added:

1. Get the size of the file.
2. Get a random number 0 - size-1.
3. Index to this point in the file.
4. Iterate back to the nearest previous '%'.
5. Print fortune from there.

This will of course skew the probability of getting printed towards longer
cookies, but nobody will notice that.

Jacob Hallén


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