MSA - Matt's Script Archive SurveyFactory - Create and publish online web surveys
 Matt's Script Archive: Random TextVersion: 1.0 - Released: July 13, 1996
 
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Overview
Random Text is a program which takes a plain text file, which contains a series of phrases, quotes, lines of text, html tags, etc... and a delimiter (the character(s) which separate each entry) and will randomly choose one of the phrases and display it on your web page. This scripts does require the use of Server Side Includes. There are several downloading options available below and more information on this script can be found in the Readme file.
Readme
The Readme files at Matt's Script Archive contain detailed installation, configuration and usage instructions that will take you step by step from putting the scripts on your system to using them in your web pages. You should read these through and keep them by you when setting up or installing any MSA script. It is probably not a bad idea to print them out. Each compressed script package contains a plain text version of the Readme file, however the links below will take you to their HTML counterparts.

      Readme Files: Random Text:
            - Copyright and Header
            - Overview
            - rand_text.pl
            - How To Implement This On Your Web Page
            - History
Download
Random Text can be downloaded in several different formats, or you can even have it mailed to you as a uuencoded file. Click on one of the links below to the appropriately compressed file and download options will appear.
Random Text file format: .zip (3.4kb), .tar.gz (4.1kb), .tar (20.5kb) 
The above distributions contain the following files you may wish to view:

      rand_text.pl - The perl script which randomly displays a section of the file.
      README - Includes installation instructions and a detailed description of use.
Working Demo
Several scripts at Matt's Script Archive lend themselves well to local working demonstrations. Random Text is one of these and the working demo is shown below.
If you want to program in C, program in C. It's a nice language. I use it occasionally... :-)
--Larry Wall in <7577@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
(Reload for a new quote from Larry Wall, Creator of Perl!)
Frequently Asked Questions
The Frequently Asked Questions Archive at MSA is the easiest and fastest way to get help. It contains a list of the most commonly asked questions as well as their answers. Check these out before you seek other means of help, as your question may be answered here already.

      Frequently Asked Questions: Random Text:
            1. How should I format the random text database?
nms Random Text
The following is a drop-in replacement for Random Text that has been developed by a project called nms. We have also supplied info about their goals and modifications.
nms Random Text file format: .zip (4.9kb), .tar.gz (3.7kb) 

 

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