Free-form coding.

mycat.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl
# Like you thought i'd use something else

my %cats = (
    purring => {
        # Specify default probability as well as probabilities given the previous
        # action.
        default => .1 / 24
    },
    eating  => {
        default => 1 / 24.0
    },
    sleeping => {
        sleeping => .7,
        purring => .5,
        default => .5
    },
    scratching => {
        default => .2/24
    },
    "licking itself" => {
        default => 1/12.0
    },
    "whining about not being allowed in the basement" => {
        eating => .25,
        default => 1/24.
    },
    "using the litter box" => {
        sleeping => .2,
        default => .5/24
    }
);


sub getNumberFollower {
    my ($num) = @_;
    { 1 => "st", 2 => "nd", 3 => "rd" }->{$num} || "th";
}


my @prev;
for my $hour (1..24) {
    my $follower = &getNumberFollower($hour);
    print "on the $hour$follower hour of today, my cat was probably";
    my @acts;
    for my $action (keys %cats) {
        my $act = "default";
        my $probability = 1;
        
        for (@prev) {
            $probability *= 1 - $cats{$action}->{$_} if defined $cats{$action}->{$_};
        }
        $probability = ($probability != 1 ? 1 - $probability : $cats{$action}->{default});
        if (rand() < $probability) {
            if (@acts) {
                print " and";
            }
            push @acts, $action;
            print " ".$action;
        }
    }
    if (scalar @acts == 0) {
        print " just plain doing nothing!";
    }
    else {
        print ".";
    }
    @prev = ();
    push @prev, @acts; # i forgot how to clone data
    print "\n";

}