A script to create visual poems in Python, made for RWET Midterm by Rebecca Lieberman.

rwet_midterm_shapeshift.py

#SHAPESHIFT: A Poetic Form by Rebecca Lieberman
#Reading and Writing Electronic Text Midterm Project
#Made at ITP, Spring 2015


import sys
import random

words_by_len = dict()						#create an empty dictionary to store words by their length


#Create a dictionary where the key is the # of characters in the word and the value is a list of words
for line in sys.stdin:					#load each line from standard in
	line = line.strip()					#strip the whitespace
	words = line.split()				#split each line into a list of words
	for word in words:			
		word = word.strip('!.?,;:-')			#NOT WORKING - strip the punctuation from each word
		charcount = len(word)						#assign the length of the word to a variable 'charcount'
		if charcount not in words_by_len:			#if that length is not yet in the dictionary as a key
			words_by_len[charcount] = []			#add it to the dictionary as a key
		if word not in words_by_len[charcount]:		#if statement to get rid of duplicates
			words_by_len[charcount].append(word)		#words_by_len[charcount] evaluates to a list - add each word to that list 



#-------------------------------------SHAPE 1: SAWTOOTH-----------------------------------
#-------------------------------------ONE WORD PER LINE-----------------------------------


def sawToothLeft(startCharCount, endCharCount):

	for x in range(8):
		for i in range(startCharCount,endCharCount):
			print random.choice(words_by_len[i])
		for i in reversed(range(startCharCount,endCharCount-1)):
			print random.choice(words_by_len[i])

def sawToothRight(startCharCount, endCharCount):
	for x in range(8):
		for i in range(startCharCount,endCharCount):
			print random.choice(words_by_len[i]).rjust(15)
		for i in reversed(range(startCharCount,endCharCount-1)):
			print random.choice(words_by_len[i]).rjust(15)
			
sawToothLeft(3,8)
sawToothRight(3,8)		

#***NEED TO ADD SOME KIND OF CHECK: if endCharCount is greater than what's in words_by_len



#----------------------------------SHAPE 2: DIAMOND CHAIN---------------------------------
#---------------------MULTIPLE WORDS PER LINE-----LEFT OR RIGHT JUSTIFY-------------------
#-------------------------1 X CHAR WORD, 2 X CHAR WORD, 3 TX CHAR WORD--------------------


def diamondChain(diamondWidth, charCount):
	
	for x in range(10):
		for i in range(diamondWidth):
			print " ".join(random.sample(words_by_len[charCount], i)).center(50)

		for i in range(diamondWidth, 0, -1):
			print " ".join(random.sample(words_by_len[charCount], i)).center(50) 

diamondChain(3, 6)



#-----------------------------------SHAPE 3: HOURGLASS------------------------------------
#---------------------------------MULTIPLE WORDS PER LINE---------------------------------

def hourGlass(width, charCount):
	
	for i in range(width, 0, -1):
		print " ".join(random.sample(words_by_len[charCount], i)).center(50) 
	for i in range(width+1):
		print " ".join(random.sample(words_by_len[charCount], i)).center(50)

		
hourGlass(10, 6)



#-----------------------------------SHAPE 4: CHECKERBOARD------------------------------------
#---------------------------------MULTIPLE WORDS PER LINE---------------------------------


def checkerBoard (charCount, spacing):
	centerOffset = 0
	for x in range(8):
		for i in range(4):		
			print random.choice(words_by_len[charCount]).center(centerOffset)
		centerOffset = centerOffset + spacing

for i in range(5):
	checkerBoard(6, 20)