was bored, so random text generator (don't run james joyce's dirty letters through it)

randomtext.rb

# parse input
input = IO.read(ARGV.shift)
scanned = input.scan(/([A-Z].+?)([.?!])/).collect{ |arr| arr.join(" ").split }

words = Hash.new # store the successive probabilities of words
firstcount = 0
firsthash = Hash.new(0) # store the initial words' probabilities

scanned.each do |sentence|
  last = sentence.shift
  firsthash[last] += 1
  while current = sentence.shift
    words[last] ||= Hash.new(0)
    words[last][current] += 1
    last = current
  end
end

class MarkovNode < String

  def initialize(word, hash)
    super(word)
    @next = Array.new
    hash.each do |word, num|
      num.times{ @next << word }
    end
  end

  def get_next
    if @next.size > 0
      @next[rand(0...@next.size)]
    else
      throw :done
    end
  end

  def MarkovNode.iterate(first, all)
    words = [first]
    catch :done do
      while true
        n = words.last.get_next
        if /[.!?]/.match(n)
          words << n
          throw :done
        else
          words << all[n]
        end
      end 
    end
    return words[1..-1]
  end

  def inspect
    puts @next.inspect
  end

end

nodes = Hash.new
words.each do |word, hash|
  node = MarkovNode.new(word, hash)
  nodes[node] = node
end

first = MarkovNode.new("first", firsthash)

#puts first.inspect

10.times do
  puts MarkovNode.iterate(first, nodes).join(" ")
  puts
end