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rwg - the Random Word Generator

The Random Word Generator generates words from a rulefile.

If no arguments are given (e.g. if you click on the executable from the desktop), interactive mode will be launched, giving you step-by-step instructions.

Otherwise, see:

Command Line Options

Usage: rwg [-h] [-l] [-s <seed>] [-n <count>] [--man] [cp-options] <rulefile>

  • The -h option shows a basic description of the command line arguments.
  • The -l is a mystery option!
  • The -s option sets the randomness seed - if you use the same number, the same words will be generated. The default is random.
  • The -n determines how many words will be generated; 100 is the default.
  • The --man opens the RWG homepage in the browser.
  • The [cp-options] are documented in their section below.
  • The <rulefile> is the location of a rulefile in the file system.

Rulefile

Rulefiles contain ASCII or UTF-8 plain text Comments reside between the # character and a newline; these are ignored.

Any line can be:

  • a blank line.
  • a generate declaration.
  • a disallow declaration.
  • a rule definition.

All rulefiles must have a single generate declaration. This must define what rule to generate:

generate Word

Rulefiles may contain a disallow declaration. The comma-separated character sequences are banned; when rwg generates a word with a disallowed sequence, it retries.

disallow yi, wu # if rwg generates e.g. "payi", it will try again

Most important are rule definitions, of the syntax:

<RuleName> = <RuleExpr>

RuleNames should start with upper-case alphabetic characters, preferrably within Ascii.

Rule Expressions

A rule expression can be:

# A simple constant.
Coda = n

# A rule name.
Nucleus = Vowel

# A sequence of various rulexprs:
Syllable = Onset Nucleus (20% n)

# A random choice between rulexprs
Vowel = [a, e, i, o, u]

# Which may include a choice of nothing:
Onset = (p, t, k) # same as [p, t, k, ]

# Percentages may be given starting from the left:
Onset = [80% Consonant, Stop Liquid]

# This is invalid:
Coda = [Consonant, 20% Stop Liquid]

For any questions, please contact the author whose gmail username is nathanmswan.

Compiler Options

You may, if you wish, compile the rulefile into a machine-code executable file that takes similar options to generate the random words. This feature is meant for generating a large amount (> one million) of words, as with small wordcounts the time taken to compile isn't made up for.

This feature is turned on with the --compile option.

By default, the executable is a temporary file which is deleted after use. To prevent deletion, set the output file with the --compile-out=<file> option.

Use the --compile-only option if you don't want the compiled program to run.