Lingua::ManagementSpeak - Tool to generate managerial-sounding text and full documents

SYNOPSIS

  use Lingua::ManagementSpeak;
  my $ms = new Lingua::ManagementSpeak;

  print $ms->words(
    'pronoun article sub_conjunc power_word verb aux_verb adjective ' .
    'noun to_be conj_adverb conjuntor adverb phrase maybe_1/2_phrase'
  );

  print $ms->sentence;
  print $ms->sentence(1);
  print $ms->paragraph;
  print $ms->paragraph(2);
  print $ms->paragraph(2, 3);

  print join("\n\n", $ms->paragraphs(2));
  print join("\n\n", $ms->paragraphs(2, 1));
  print join("\n\n", $ms->paragraphs(2, 1, 3));
  print join("\n\n", $ms->bullets);
  print join("\n\n", $ms->bullets(3));
  print $ms->header;
  print $ms->header(5);
  print join(', ', $ms->structure);
  print join(', ', $ms->structure(3, 3, 5));

  my $body = $ms->body;
  my $body = $ms->body({
    p_min   => 2,
    p_max   => 4,
    p_s_min => 1,
    p_s_max => 1,
    b_freq  => 20,
    b_min   => 4,
    b_max   => 6
  });

  my $document = $ms->document;
  my $document = $ms->document(
    [ 1, 2, 2, 1, 2 ],
    {
      p_min   => 1,
      p_max   => 2,
      p_s_min => 1,
      p_s_max => 3,
      b_freq  => 40,
      b_min   => 3,
      b_max   => 4
    }
  );

  print $ms->to_html($document);

DESCRIPTION

This module generates grammatically correct, managerial-sounding text and full-length documents that mean absolutely nothing. It can output sentences, paragraphs, and whole documents with embedded structure. The goal is to easily provide filler or lorem ipsen content that has the potential to pass as real. This module does for geeks what lorem ipsen does for designers.

METHODS

The most commonly used method (at least for me) is document(). It calls several other methods internally and returns a randomly generated document based on some good defaults. However, you can tap into the process at a variety of levels.

words()

Using a text string of meta words, this returns a management-speak block of text. It parses the meta string and converts each meta word into a randomly picked associated real word.

  my $real_words = $ms->words($meta_words_string);
  print $ms->words('verb article adjective noun');

Currently supported meta words include:

noun

Nouns like: paradigms, interfaces, solutions, markets, and synergies

verb

Verbs like: expedite, revolutionize, visualize, facilitate, and maximize

pronoun

Pronouns: I, we, and they.

adjective

Adjectives like: innovative, extensible, seamless, distributed, and interactive

adverb

Adverbs like: expediting, revolutionizing, visualizing, facilitating, and maximizing

aux_verb

Auxilary verbs: will, shall, may, might, can, could, must, ought to, should, would, and need to

article

Articles: the, your, my, our, this, and its

conjuntor

Conjuntors: though, although, notwithstanding, yet, still

sub_conjunc

Subordinate conjuntors like: even though, if, in order that, so that, and until

power_word

So-called management "power words" like: assured, discovered, sketched, communicated, examine, and modified

conj_adverb

Conjunctive adverbs: however, moreover, nevertheless, and consequently

to_be

This looks at the preceding word and conjugates the verb "to be" accordingly, placing it next in the returned string.

phrase

This is a keyword that gets literally translated into: "conjuntor article noun to_be power_word"

maybe_n/n_word

This is a fun little keyword that says, "insert 'word' here every n/n times." For example, "maybe_1/4_noun" will insert a random noun at this point in the string 25% of the time. This also works with stuff like "phrase" to give you "maybe_1/2_phrase" things.

The meta string gets searched for these keywords, so you can usually insert extra text into the meta string and it will come through as expected:

  print $ms->words('I need you to verb the adjective noun.');
  # Might return: "I need you to expedite the customized interfaces."

sentence()

This returns a fully-formed sentence randomly selected from a set of pre-defined patterns. It accepts a true or false input. If true, the returned sentence is assumed to be the lead sentence of a paragraph and will therefore not contain a leading conjunctive adverb. The default is false, which means there is a 1/4 change of a leading conjunctive adverb.

  print $ms->sentence(1);
  # Might return: "Our mindshare engages open-source architectures."

  print $ms->sentence;
  # Might return:
  #   "Consequently, our mindshare engages open-source architectures."

paragraph()

This returns a paragraph with a certain number of constructed sentences. It accepts either two or one integers. If passed two, it returns a paragraph consisting of n sentences where n is between the two integers. (The lower integer should get passed in first.) If passed only one, then it returns that number of sentences. If no integers are passed, it returns between 4 and 7 sentences.

  print $ms->paragraph;       # Returns between 4 and 7 sentences.
  print $ms->paragraph(2);    # Returns 2 sentences.
  print $ms->paragraph(2, 5); # Returns between 2 and 5 sentences.

paragraphs()

This returns a set of paragraphs. You can optionally supply a number of paragraphs to return and sentence parameters like sentence count per paragraph or a range for sentence count.

  my @paragraphs1 = $ms->paragraphs($total_paragraphs, $sentence_count);
  my @paragraphs2 = $ms->paragraphs(
    $total_paragraphs,
    $sentence_min,
    $sentence_max
  );

  # Returns two paragraphs
  my @paragraphs3 = $ms->paragraphs(2);

  # Returns two paragraphs, each with three sentences
  my @paragraphs4 = $ms->paragraphs(2, 3);

  # Returns two paragraphs, each with between one and three sentences
  my @paragraphs5 = $ms->paragraphs(2, 1, 3);

bullets()

This returns a certain number of bullet items, either defined or random. The elements within each set of bullets will be written in parallel structure, but each set may be different than the others. Each bullet is just a string that's capitalized.

  my @bullets = $ms->bullets(5); # Returns five bullet items (just strings)

There are no periods at the end of each bullet. If you want your bulletted lists to have periods, you have to add them yourself; but you shouldn't, because periods at the end of bullet items are dumb.

body()

This will build a "body" chunk that you might find inside any given section of a document. It will only ever contain paragraphs and bulletted lists. The method returns a reference to an array where each element is a reference to a hash containing two keys: type and text. Type will be either paragraph or bullet.

It accepts parameters in a reference to a hash as follows:

  my $ref_to_array = $ms->body({
    p_min   => 2,  # Minimum number of paragraphs to return
    p_max   => 4,  # Maximum number of paragraphs to return
    p_s_min => 1,  # Minimum number of sentences in a paragraph
    p_s_max => 1,  # Maximum number of sentences in a paragraph
    b_freq  => 20, # % chance of a bulletted list after each paragraph
    b_min   => 4,  # Minimum number of bullet items in a bulletted list
    b_max   => 6   # Maximum number of bullet items in a bulletted list
  });

Note that body() will work without any parameters.

By the way, if you're reading this far into the POD, you've earned the privilege to gripe about any bugs you find.

The data structure of $ref_to_array might look something like this:

  [
    {
      type => 'paragraph',
      text => 'blah ... blah ... blah'
    },
    {
      type => 'bullet',
      text => 'blah ... blah ... blah'
    },
    {
      type => 'bullet',
      text => 'blah ... blah ... blah'
    },
    {
      type => 'paragraph',
      text => 'blah ... blah ... blah'
    }
  ]

header()

This returns a correctly formatted (meaning most words will appear in upper-case) text string for use as a header. It accepts a single whole number integer between 5 and 1 that represents the "level" of header. Header 1 is highest, 2 is next, etc. If no integer is given, it will randomly pick a number between 5 and 1.

  my $header = $ms->header(3);
  # Might return: "Monetizing Distributed Partnerships"

structure()

This returns an array of numbers, each number representing a "heading level" for a document structure. The purpose of this method is to build what could pass for a real document's information architecture.

  my @structure1 = $ms->structure;
  my @structure2 = $ms->structure($block_limit, $depth_limit, $mimimum_length);

$block_limit is the maximum of any similar heading level within the same parent level. $depth_limit is how deep the levels are allowed to nest. $minimum_length is, well, the minimum length.

document()

This is my favorite function. It builds a complete document with a structure and body sections containing paragraphs and bulletted lists. It returns a reference to an array containing hash references, similar to body. It works solo, but it can optionally accept a reference to an array with the document structure and a reference to a hash containing body parameters.

  my $ref_to_array1 = $ms->document;
  my $ref_to_array2 = $ms->document(\@structure,    \%body_parameters);
  my $ref_to_array3 = $ms->document($ms->structure, \%body_parameters);

The "type" for each header will be referenced along with it's level. For example, a header 1 will be header1. The data structure of $ref_to_array1 might look something like this:

  [
    {
      type => 'header1',
      text => 'blah ... blah ... blah'
    },
    {
      type => 'paragraph',
      text => 'blah ... blah ... blah'
    },
    {
      type => 'bullet',
      text => 'blah ... blah ... blah'
    },
    {
      type => 'bullet',
      text => 'blah ... blah ... blah'
    },
    {
      type => 'paragraph',
      text => 'blah ... blah ... blah'
    }
  ]

to_html()

This accepts either a body() or document() result and converts it into mostly good HTML. By mostly, I mean that you could probably parse it with some simple regexes, but it ain't gonna validate against the W3C.

  my $html_body = $ms->to_html($ms->body);
  my $html_doc  = $ms->to_html($ms->document);

I tossed this in here because I use this functionality a lot. If you want to build real web pages, you should probably use something better than this function.

EXAMPLES

This will dump out 100 sentences into a single block. Originally this module was a script that just did this only, and I'd cut-and-paste the text into the various locations I needed it.

  use Text::Wrap;
  use Lingua::ManagementSpeak;

  $Text::Wrap::columns = 78;
  my $ms = new Lingua::ManagementSpeak;
  print wrap('', '', $ms->paragraph(100));

The following will create a simplistic HTML document that contains a full document-length document. (Er... I mean, it will look like a real document.) It definately won't create beautiful HTML, but it's useful when you need to write a spec and put it on your bosses desk in 20 seconds.

  use CGI qw(header);
  use Lingua::ManagementSpeak;

  print header;
  my $ms = new Lingua::ManagementSpeak;
  my $document = $ms->document;

  print
    '<html><head><title>',
    $document->[0]{text},
    "</title>\n</head><body>\n",
    wrap('', '', $ms->to_html($document)),
    "</body></html>\n";

Also, check out the examples that ship along with this module.

KNOWN ISSUES

All the words and word groupings that are setup with a new() are not exposed with a good API. Should add that. Also, there are a few grammatical word groups that aren't included that should be by default.

Some of the sentence meta forms render grammatically invalid sentences from time to time. Need to investigate this.

Need to add an API to get at the saved sentence forms, read and write.

Need to centralize the defaults of other methods into new() just for cleanness karma.

The test script doesn't do a very effective job of testing. It mostly only makes sure the API functions, but it doesn't check the output. Not sure if it could without some insane logic, though.

AUTHOR

Gryphon Shafer <gryphon@gryphonshafer.com>

  code('Perl') || die;

If you're not a member of PerlMonks (http://www.perlmonks.org/), you should be. My username is gryphon. Yeah, I'm a Saint; but I don't let that go to my head. I'd like to give special thanks to Larry Wall for Perl, Randal Schwartz for my initial and on-going Perl education, Sam Tregar for teaching me how to write and upload CPAN modules, and the monks of PerlMonks for putting up with my foolishness.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2005 by Gryphon Shafer

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.4 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

cpanm Lingua::ManagementSpeak

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Lingua::ManagementSpeak