70_Poetry in Lua

A working port of the poetry game in Lua.
-Variables were given meaningful names
-Added a limit so it did not spit out infinite poetry at lightning speed.
-The variable U was changed to a boolean for readability.
-Adjusted the randomizing to work with any number of phrases since Dave Ahl encouraged users to write their own content for the poems.

Author: awestsecurity

70_Poetry/lua/poetry.lua

@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+--[[
+Poetry 
+From the classic book BASIC Computer Games, published by Creative Computing.
+
+This program produces random verse which might loosly be considered in the Japanese Haiku style.
+It uses 20 phrases in four groupd of five phrases each and generally cycles through the groups in order.
+It inserts commas (random - 19% of the time), indentation (random - 22% of the time), and starts new paragraphs (18% probability, but at least once every 20 phrases).
+
+The phrases in POETRY are somewhat suggestive of Edgar Allan Poe.
+
+The Original author of this program is unkown. It was modified and reworked by Jim Bailey, Peggy Ewing, and Dave Ahl at DEC.
+
+Ported to Lua by Allen West
+**CHANGES 
+Added a limit so it did not spit out infinite poetry at lightning speed.
+The variable U was changed to a boolean for readability. 
+Adjusted the randomizing to work with any number of phrases since Dave encouraged users to write their own content for the poems.
+]]
+
+limit = 60
+
+phrase_one = {"MIDNIGHT DREARY", "FIERY EYES", "BIRD OR FIEND", "THING OF EVIL", "PROPHET"}
+phrase_two = {"BEGUILING ME", "THRILLED ME", "STILL SITTING....", "NEVER FLITTING", "BURNED"}
+phrase_three = {"AND MY SOUL", "DARKNESS THERE", "SHALL BE LIFTED", "QUOTH THE RAVEN", "SIGN OF PARTING"}
+phrase_four = {"NOTHING MORE", "YET AGAIN", "SLOWLY CREEPING", "...EVERMORE", "NEVERMORE"}
+
+function printintro()
+	print("\n               POETRY")
+	print("Creative Computing  Morristown, New Jersey")
+	print("\n\n")
+end
+
+--Insert commas, spaces, new lines,and tabs randomly
+function randomformatting()
+	--Random comma
+	if new_line == false and math.random() < 0.19 then
+		io.write(",")
+		new_line = false
+	end
+	--Random space or new line
+	if math.random() < 0.65 then
+		io.write(" ")
+		new_line = false
+	else
+		print("")
+		new_line = true
+	end
+	--Random Tabs
+	if new_line and phrase_set % 2 ~= 0 then
+		io.write("	")
+	end
+end
+
+--Poetry printing loop
+function printpoetry(run_length)
+	math.randomseed(os.time()) -- lua needs it's random function initialized to work
+	run_count = 0 --Added so it doesn't print infinitely
+	phrase_set = 0 --var j in original code
+	lines_without_break = 0 --var k in original code
+	phrase_choice = 0 --var i in original code
+	new_line = true  --var u in original code
+	while(run_count < run_length) do
+		if phrase_set == 0 then
+			phrase_choice = math.random(1,#phrase_one)
+			io.write(phrase_one[phrase_choice])
+		elseif phrase_set == 1 then
+			phrase_choice = math.random(1,#phrase_two)
+			if phrase_choice == 0 or phrase_choice == 3 then
+				new_line = false
+			end
+			io.write(phrase_two[phrase_choice])
+		elseif phrase_set == 2 then
+			phrase_choice = math.random(1,#phrase_three)
+			if phrase_choice < #phrase_three and new_line == false then
+				io.write(phrase_three[phrase_choice])
+			end
+		elseif phrase_set == 3 then
+			phrase_choice = math.random(1,#phrase_four)
+			io.write(phrase_four[phrase_choice])
+		end
+		if phrase_set == 4 then
+			phrase_set = 0
+			print("")
+			if lines_without_break > 20 then
+				new_line = true
+				lines_without_break = 0
+				print("\n")
+			end
+		else
+			phrase_set = phrase_set + 1
+			lines_without_break = lines_without_break + 1
+			randomformatting()
+			run_count = run_count + 1
+		end
+	end
+	print("")
+end
+
+printintro()
+printpoetry(limit)