A mad-libs style text generator based on configurable grammars.
Usage:
./text-generator <path to dat file>The beauty of this program is its configurability. You can generate anything from names, to faux English words to character backstories. The mechanism here is essentially strings of tokens chosen at random from predefined lists. The tokens can be simple strings or complex arrangements of strings and other tokens.
The syntax of the grammar files is based on an INI file, with embellishments described below.
When a grammar file is parsed, a line is selected at random from the [MAIN] section. In turn, each token (as indicated by being surrouded by angular braces < and >), is expanded.
Token expansion is defined by other sections. A section consists of a header like [TokenType] and subsequent lines representing possible values of tokens of that type. Lines may include other token types.
When a token is expanded from a list, a line is selected at random from that section, any necessary token expansion is done on it, and then the resulting string is used as the full value of that token.
In more complicated grammars, the user may want to refer back to the same value of a previously-generated token. For example, in a backstory generation grammar, the program keeps track of the generated name of the character in question. This is done by adding a reference tag to the token in question. The first time the reference tag is used in a token, its expansion gets stored. In subsequent times the reference tag is used, the first, stored expansion gets used instead of producing another token expansion.
A reference tag is appended to the name of the token type by a '$', like so: <TokenType$referencetag>.
Additional references will be the exact same, i.e. <TokenType$referencetag>.
For example, let's say we want to generate a character backstory. Our story consists of a character name, a hometown, and a favorite activity. Our grammar might look like this:
[MAIN]
<Name$name> grew up in <Place$hometown> and loved to <Activity>. One day, <Name$name> will go back to <Place$hometown> again.
[Name]
Sally
Jimmy
Bobby
Petunia
[Place]
Paris
Logan
New York
[Activity]
go bowling
have lunch with <Name>
watch movies