If you're nostalgic like me, believe in fate, or are just a nerd (read: not dork; big difference), I think you'll enjoy the magic eightball.
I find it particularly useful & funny to ask if you should or shouldn't do some thing that you can't make your mind up about.
When you're in that situation along with a friend or family member, it's even more enjoyable. One of you can ask the magic eightball, and be pleased or disappointed–depending on the answer.
Since I cannot actually manufacture a plastic ball filled with liquid, I have at least ensured that the set of answers that are possible for any given question are the original set from the toy.
I am impressed with CMake Tools. I've always wanted to try CMake because it seems like if you do it right, you can build your software anywhere–and that appears to be true in this case. There is a learning curve for sure, but I've become a fan.
You either need to install the CMake Tools extension and then execute CMake: Configure, and then CMake: Build. I have only tested this on macOS and Ubuntu, so YMMV.
If the build is successful, you will find the build/magic-eightball binary ready for use.
I have not configured an install step; it's on the TODO list, so you'll have to manually move it somewhere useful.
The CLI app is very straightforward–if you execute it with the -q parameter, it will just provide and answer and quit. Otherwise it enters an interactive mode where you can keep asking questions until you enter q.
I have some plans for the CLI app that I am excited about:
- I would like to add new categories of responses. I know this is a breakaway from the traditional toy, but I think if we crowdsourced it, we could come up with some gems. Perhaps different categories of new responses.
- I am going to rewrite the way the ASCII art is generated; it will be off by default, and there will be several options to choose from when opting for that type of output.
There is now a complete working PHP-based web interface to the magic-eightball program. You'll find that it's in the web folder, and really all you'd need to do to start your own instance is upload the contents of the web folder (to a server with PHP obviously), install magic-eightball on the server where PHP could interact with it and you'd be set.
I have just tonight completed a somewhat-presentable version of the web interface, which is online at https://rml.dev/magic-eightball/. I've got work to do on reactive/mobile stuff, but the main bits should at least be functioning.
I would grealy appreciate any input you might have about this project, so please write if you have something in mind!
For those of you wondering how it generates pseudo-random answers, it utilizes the STL's Mersenne Twister implementation mt19937, and seeded with the CRC32 checksum of the question input text.
- URL is hard-coded in Open Graph tags for images and the current URL.