.Dd March 6, 2001
.Dt NONSENSE 6
.Sh NAME
.Nm nonsense
.Nd generates random text from datafiles and templates
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl b Ar bullet
.Op Fl dDeF
.Op Fl f Ar data_file
.Op Fl n Ar number
.Op Fl t Ar template_file
.Op Fl p
.Op tag ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Nonsense
generates random
.Pq and sometime humorous
text from datafiles and templates using a very simple, recursive grammar.
It's like having a million monkeys sitting in front of a million
typewriters, without having to feed or clean up after them.
From fake Slashdot headlines to absurd
college courses to buzzword bingo cards,
.Nm
is a good way to waste time.
.Pp
The following options are available:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl b Ar bullet
Specify a
.Dq bullet
go in front of each item.
.It Fl d
Debug mode
.Pq shows each substitution
.It Fl D
Verbose debug mode
.Pq shows each substitution and the result
.It Fl e
Disable direct eval()'s
.It Fl f Ar data_file
Specify a data file to load in.
Use multiple
.Fl f
options to include additional files.
The
.Pa default.data
file is always loaded.
.It Fl F
Load all
.Pa *.data
files.
.It Fl n Ar number
Repeat
.Ar n
times.
.It Fl t Ar template_file
Use a template file.
The markup in this file will be processed and the result output to
.Dv stdout.
.It Fl p
Separate each item with a blank line.
.El
.Pp
The
.Fl d
and
.Fl D
options are mutually exclusive.
.Pp
Thanks to contributions by
.An Fred Hirsch Aq truehand@darkhart.com ,
.Nm
can also be executed as a CGI script.
Details are in
.Pa %%PREFIX%%/share/doc/nonsense/README .
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
.It Pa %%PREFIX%%/share/nonsense/data/*
.Nm
data files.
Any files specified with the
.Fl f
option are found by looking in the current directory and then this
directory.
The
.Fl F
option loads all files in this directory.
.It Pa %%PREFIX%%/share/nonsense/template/*
.Nm
template files.
Any file specified with the
.Fl t
option is found by looking in the current directory and then this
directory.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
Bellow is a list of things that
.Nm
can output with the data files included.
.Pp
For a realistic simulation of the Slashdot homepage:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -t slashdot.html.template
.Ed
.Pp
For a buzzword-enhanced mission statement that only a
.Dq Pointy Haired Boss
could love:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -f mission.data
.Ed
.Pp
For a PHB-inspired business plan
.Pq in HTML :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -t bizplan.html.template -f mission.data
.Ed
.Pp
For a person's name:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense Person
.Ed
.Pp
For a long list of random fake e-mail addresses suitable for sending to
a spammer's e-mail harvester:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense FakeEmail -n 1000
.Ed
.Pp
For a buzzword bingo card
.Pq in HTML
to print out for your next meeting:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -t bingo.html.template
.Ed
.Pp
For a listing of absurd college classes
.Pq these might be offensive to liberal-arts professors :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -f college.data -n 20
.Ed
.Pp
For a listing of political organizations
.Pq again, these might be offensive to certain people :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense OrgPolitical -n 10
.Ed
.Pp
For a listing of stupid laws that may or may not really exist:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -f stupidlaws.data -n 10
.Ed
.Pp
For a list of Open Source programs as they would appear on Freshmeat:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -f linux.data FreshmeatApp
.Ed
.Pp
For the resume of a random geek
.Pq in HTML :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -f resume.data -t resume.html.template
.Ed
.Pp
For a news headline:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -f newspaper.data Headline
.Ed
.Pp
For the front page of a newspaper
.Pq in HTML :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -f newspaper.data -t newspaper.html.template
.Ed
.Pp
For a cheap replacement for the
.Xr fortune 6
program:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -F Fortune
.Ed
.Pp
To produce a file containing 100 items suitable for feeding to
.Xr fortune 6 :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nonsense -F FortuneFile -n 100
.Ed
.Sh FILE FORMATS
.Nm Nonsense
reads in
.Dq template files
and
.Dq data files .
.Pp
A template file is merely a text file containing
.Dq tags
enclosed in curly braces
.Po
.Sq {
and
.Sq }
.Pc .
.Nm Nonsense
substitutes random text for these
tags using a really crude markup language.
.Pp
A data file is a text file divided into sections
.Pq seperated by a blank line ,
each one containing a list of text items
.Pq seperated by a newline
that are randomly selected to fill in the template.
.Pp
There are a few special cases that allow
.Nm
to handle more elaborate situations:
.Bl -tag -width 6n
.It {#number1-number2}
This tag will be replaced with a random number between
.Ar number1
and
.Ar number2
.Pq inclusive .
.It {[item1|item2|item3...}
This tag will be replaced with one item from the list.
If only one item is listed then it will be output %50 of the time
.Pq and nothing output the other 50% .
.It {@strftime format}
This tag will be replaced with the current date/time using the
.Xr strftime 3
format string.
So, for instance,
{@A}
would be replaced with the current day of the week.
.It {@strftime format|number1|number2}
Same as above, but uses the date/time that occurred X seconds ago,
where X is a random number between
.Ar number1
and
.Ar number2 .
For instance,
{@%H:%M|0|86400}
would be replaced by the hour:minute anywhere from 0 to 86400 seconds
.Pq 1 day
ago.
.It {;short perl code segment}
The perl code within the braces will be evaluated.
This is useful for doing something really
complicated that requires the full power of Perl.
However, this is risky since there's no error checking and no
.Dq sandbox .
You can disable this behavior with the
.Fl e
option.
.It {\echaracter}
This allows literal characters that couldn't otherwise be specified,
such as:
.Bl -tag -width "{\e###}" -compact -offset indent
.It {\en}
newline
.It {\e0}
null
.Pq i.e. nothing
.It {\eL}
Left brace
.Pq Sq {
.It {\eR}
Right brace
.Pq Sq }
.It {\e###}
.Xr ascii 7
character in decimal
.El
.It {variablename=literal text}
Stores the text on the right-hand side of the equals sign to
the specified state variable, without outputting anything.
This is useful for preserving context and is
used, for example, in the Slashdot simulator.
.It {variablename:=command}
Similar to above, but evaluates the command
and stores the result into a state variable.
.It {$variablename}
Returns the contents of a state variable.
.It {command#number1-number2}
Evaluates the command a random number of times between
.Ar number1
and
.Ar number2 .
.El
.Pp
Case is important!
{ProductName}, {productname} and {PRODUCTNAME} are slightly different.
If the name is given in lowercase, the
substitution will be converted to all lowercase
.Pq i.e. fed through the perl lc function .
.Pp
Upercase names specify the opposite; the result is uppercoased with uc.
Mixed case names tell
.Nm
to leave the case of the result alone
.Pq this is usually what is used .
Finally, if you prepend a name with a caret,
.Sq ^
.Pq i.e. {^ProductName} ,
the result is fed through the perl ucfirst function, which will
capitalize the first character only.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr fortune 6
.Pp
http://i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/downloads.shtml
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
program is written by
.An -nosplit
.An James Baughn Aq nonsense@i-want-a-website.com .
.Pp
.An Fred Hirsch Aq truehand@darkhart.com
and
.An Peter Suschlik Aq peter@zilium.de
have both submitted code.
.Pp
Send suggestions, comments, feedback, patches, and new
datafiles/templates to the above address.
Direct your hate mail and flames to
.Aq devnull@i-want-a-website.com .
.Pp
This manual page was written by
.An Dave Chapeskie Aq dchapes@ddm.crosswinds.net
from the
.Pa README
file.
.Pp
Copyright 2000-2001.
This program and accompanying files are licensed
under the GNU General Public License 2.0.
.Sh BUGS
The
.Fl e
option is not the default.