Tip of the day generator.

[Neil Cerutti]

On 2007-11-28, Joseph king <king.a.joe at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey i was wondering if any one would know if there was a way to
> have python randomly read form a file or would you ahve to know
> the byte postion and somehow randomize splicing the file so the
> sentence you want show's up.
>
> i.e have a file with a lot of tips and useless facts and then
> have python randomly read one sentence when the code is run and
> print at any time you would want it to.

I use a Python application sort of like that to install the
random quotes in my sig. It reads a text file containing one
quote per line, selects a random one, and updates my signature
file with a quote half the time.

Originally it ran as a daemon and updated my sig every 60
seconds, but it was a pain to remember to stop and start it. Now
I just have the program run automatically whenever I edit a post.

Incidentally, you don't want to the the C++ program that this
replaced.

import textwrap
import random
import os

print "Sigswap v0.4"

homedir = os.getenv("HOME")
homedir = '/'.join(homedir.split('\\'))
sigpath = homedir + '/my.sig'

quotepath = homedir + '/quotes.txt'
qfile = file(quotepath)
quotelist = []
for quote in qfile:
    quotelist.append(quote)
qfile.close()
sigfile = file(sigpath, "w")
sigfile.write("-- \n")
sigfile.write("Neil Cerutti\n")
random.seed()
if random.choice([True, False]):
    quote = random.choice(quotelist)
    for line in textwrap.wrap(quote, 78):
        sigfile.write(line)
        sigfile.write('\n')
sigfile.close()

-- 
Neil Cerutti
Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick Raper, which did the work of a hundred
men. --History Exam Blooper