[MWForum]Madlibs......

Tue, 05 Aug 2003 20:53:42 -0700

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Marsha,
This is a wonderful project, especially as conceived with user input from 
the children. I want to creatively visualize some of the challenges in 
grounding such a project in actual code. I'll postpone sharing the literal 
programming code for a short while, but attempt to touch down on the 
sequence of chores and adventures in such a way as puts spin and leaven on 
the enterprise, and yet reveals some of the logo commands necessary to put 
the project together.

To do Madlibs justice, on the level of allowing children to feed the 
program with original contributions, one first envisions an archive of 
stories, named in 'hybrid_titled" files, files that could be stored and 
retrieved utilizing "loadtext <author_storytitle> . Using the files 
command, an inventory of current offerings in a single directory, can first 
present to the user choices. You could author a 'splash' page, in which 
these files could be turned into the titles of buttons, which when clicked 
would summon the file onscreen.

You'll name a textbox to receive, that is, to display whatever textfile is 
chosen, perhaps something named "Storyline"; you'll be feeding the 
user-selected <author_title> into Storyline. Which may be showing or 
hidden. The story has to be typed in such a way that it's possible to 
distinguish which words to retrieve, that is, words "earmarked" for user 
input. A decision might be made to embed those words formatted in a say to 
distinguish them from the inert components of the tale. for example, I have 
fooled around with this:

In a <SEASON> of the year a <PROFESSION> set off with <NAME>, his trusty 
sidekick <PET>.

The words in blue are, as Tolkein might say, "destined to become, each and 
every one, the sprawling title of a noble textbox" to accept user-input. 
One wants to automate this with loops, which creates epic challenges to new 
programmers. So a description of how this comes about in English is 
valuable to confronting and comprehending the mechanics at a later time.

So there follows developing routines to scan the "Storyline" textbox, and 
'tweeze out' those <words>. One of the very interesting and sophisticated 
features of Microworlds, is that analyzing the "lines" in a textbox 
requires knowledge of applying commands and reporters like TEXTITEM and 
TEXTCOUNT, commands peculiar to dealing only with the contents of 
a textbox. Each textitem, referred to in MW code as as TEXTITEM 1 
"storyline, TEXTITEM 2 "storyline, etc, is a collection of one or more 
sentences which seem glued together and which end when a carraige return 
(the Enter Key) is encountered. Carraige returns separate these typically 
multi-sentence lines which keep their identity as part of a single textitem 
even when a textbox window is resized. Magically convenient from a graphics 
standpoint.

But we have to find a way to take our mental scalpel and slicing textitems 
apart, be able to look at individual words embedded within a textitem; here 
is where you encounter the PARSE command, which, (when you're dealing with 
texts - it has other uses also), chops a textitem into a list of component 
words. This is an essential tool. So first you must convert textitems into 
lists, (for now, consider them collections of words), lists which are 
manipulated through the use of commands like COUNT and ITEM 1, ITEM 2, 
FIRST, LAST, etc.

So, this is gear-shifting, a bit tedious, but essential, and it is the 
PARSE command which bridges us across the gulf of how textfiles are 
organized and analyzed, into lists. Now you get to continue the exciting 
adventure.

But first!
INTERMISSION: Peanuts, Popcorn, Ice-cream, Sprint no more, kneel and 
Exhale. Think velour, rotating snowflakes, rainbow zebras, zephyrs, 
awestruck, motionless hummingbirds, the original biological hovercrafts, 
and seagulls, balsa-less gliders that silently float at two miles an hour 
while meditating.

So? Where were we?
You determine how many pieces of information are in that parsed textitem 
utilizing the COUNT reporter, and with bravura, you sweep (looping commands 
like: REPEAT, DOTIMES, DOLIST), soaring elegantly through every word in 
each list that was once a textitem of a file, asking each word, as it were: 
"Are you one of those guys like <SEASON>, <PROFESSION> and <PET> ?, 
delimited by "< and >" If so, you get to have your own textbox, named 
exactly like the word, and of perfect size for entering the user input.

Now, to make life more challenging, If you're asking the madlib player to 
enter parts of speech, it is almost entirely impossible that the input 
textbox titles will not require duplication. This MW won't let you do at 
least on the same page, so then you have to learn to "Weld" numbers like 
"01, "02, etc off the end of the part of speech, ending up with input text 
boxes which look like VERB_01, VERB_02. This is a matter that would take us 
a little far afield for today. Not having a life, this is what people like 
me love to do. :-)

Next task: Once you've identified the names for the collection of 
user-input textboxes that you're going to let your programming skill spawn 
for you using the "NEWTEXT" command inside a loop, you need a game plan to 
spray the boxes out on the screen. So you creatively visualize how many 
textboxes would be a maximum, and call up your CRT Visual Handyman or Feng 
Shui consultant to landscape your monitor in symmetrical, uncluttered ways.

Do you want the original story, with the <CREATIVEWORDS> replaced by 
underscores "______". Do you even want it to be visible while the end-user 
is busy spicing it up?

Do you need to have all the text windows present on screen, or do you want 
to present them in randomized debuts, one at a time?

When the story is done, do you want to print it?

Finally, the Madlibs has all the components for a fill in the blanks or a 
matching test. It would be possible to add programming code to grade 
performance, and store the grades in a teacher-accessible file. And for a 
variation, turtles might replace words, as visual clues. Multiple 
Intelligence is an inspiration.

I will leave these ideas with you all. I have already written the code 
which reads up the Storyline textbox (but not yet loaded it from an 
external file), and which can generate a textbox, appropriately named for 
every "< delimited word. But it does not yet work whan <two words> are 
presented, and it steals commas off the end of words. When these chores are 
solved, I'll share the project (in MW 2.05)

These are my own approaches to Madlib. Anyone who wants to take the vision 
in another direction, should describe the course of the game, and what will 
present itself on the screen. Then we can have ammo for collaboration, and 
may succeed at sharing and expanding, or downsizing an epic idea and so 
making doable, this, as a prelude for figuring out how we might be able to 
delegate the creation of and sharing of code in the future. But in the last 
analysis, the perfection of the brainstorming, and the focusing of it into 
the action sequences is everything. Next to that, writing code is truly 
almost trivial.

Best regards,
Harvey Bornfield
www.mythologics.org

At 07:32 AM 8/5/2003, you wrote:
>Wendy,                This question made me stop and think about how 
>students think about doing this.  And I guess when I think about how they 
>work with MadLibs I see them interacting in two different ways.  When they 
>are completing one, they use words one at a time.  That would seem like 
>text boxes tied to the part of speech....one for nouns, one for verbs, and 
>so on.
>
>But your question seemed to ask what if they wanted to enter their own 
>story.   Well, that seemed to be a different question.  In that case I 
>don't think they would look at it in such small parts.  I think they would 
>enter a whole story at once.  So, to me, that would be better handled by 
>asking them a question to which they could enter their story.
>
>I'm anxious to work with whomever is interested in this.  I don't know 
>that I can contribute much because I've only been introduced to MW about a 
>month ago.  But I'm more than willing to try and put forward my best 
>effort.  And I really appreciate your interest and hope that others will 
>also want to collaborate.
>
>marsha
>_______________________________________________
>MWForum mailing list
>MWForum@lists.mathcats.com
>http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum
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"Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge 
which comprehends mankind, but mankind cannot comprehend."
Ludwig van Beethoven

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Marsha, 
This is a wonderful project, especially as conceived with user input from
the children. I want to creatively visualize some of the challenges in
grounding such a project in actual code. I'll postpone sharing the
literal programming code for a short while, but attempt to touch down on
the sequence of chores and adventures in such a way as puts spin and
leaven on the enterprise, and yet reveals some of the logo commands
necessary to put the project together. 
To do Madlibs justice, on the level of allowing children to feed the
program with original contributions, one first envisions an archive of
stories, named in 'hybrid_titled&quot; files, files that could be stored
and retrieved utilizing &quot;loadtext&nbsp; &lt;author_storytitle&gt; .
Using the files command, an inventory of current offerings in a single
directory, can first present to the user choices. You could author a
'splash' page, in which these files could be turned into the titles of
buttons, which when clicked would summon the file onscreen. 
You'll name a textbox to receive, that is, to display whatever textfile
is chosen, perhaps something named &quot;Storyline&quot;; you'll be
feeding the user-selected &lt;author_title&gt; into Storyline. Which may
be showing or hidden. The story has to be typed in such a way that it's
possible to distinguish which words to retrieve, that is, words
&quot;earmarked&quot; for user input. A decision might be made to embed
those words formatted in a say to distinguish them from the inert
components of the tale. for example, I have fooled around with
this: 
In a &lt;SEASON&gt; of the year a
&lt;PROFESSION&gt; set off with
&lt;NAME&gt;, his trusty sidekick
&lt;PET&gt;. 
The words in blue are, as Tolkein might say, &quot;destined to become,
each and every one, the sprawling title of a noble textbox&quot; to
accept user-input. One wants to automate this with loops, which creates
epic challenges to new programmers. So a description of how this comes
about in English is valuable to confronting and comprehending the
mechanics at a later time. 
So there follows developing routines to scan the &quot;Storyline&quot;
textbox, and 'tweeze out' those
&lt;words&gt;. One of the very interesting
and sophisticated features of Microworlds, is that analyzing the
&quot;lines&quot; in a textbox requires knowledge of applying commands
and reporters like TEXTITEM and
TEXTCOUNT, commands peculiar to dealing only
with the contents of a&nbsp; textbox. Each textitem, referred to in MW
code as as TEXTITEM 1 &quot;storyline,
TEXTITEM 2 &quot;storyline, etc, is a
collection of one or more sentences which seem glued together and which
end when a carraige return (the Enter Key) is encountered. Carraige
returns separate these typically multi-sentence lines which keep their
identity as part of a single textitem even when a textbox window is
resized. Magically convenient from a graphics standpoint. 
But we have to find a way to take our mental scalpel and slicing
textitems apart, be able to look at individual words embedded within a
textitem; here is where you encounter the
PARSE command, which, (when you're dealing
with texts - it has other uses also), chops a textitem into a list of
component words. This is an essential tool. So first you must convert
textitems into lists, (for now, consider them collections of words),
lists which are manipulated through the use of commands like
COUNT and ITEM
1, ITEM 2, FIRST, LAST, etc.&nbsp; 
So, this is gear-shifting, a bit tedious, but essential, and it is the PARSE command which bridges us across the gulf of how textfiles are organized and analyzed, into lists. Now you get to continue the exciting adventure. 
But first! 
INTERMISSION: Peanuts, Popcorn, Ice-cream, Sprint no more, kneel and Exhale. Think velour, rotating snowflakes, rainbow zebras, zephyrs, awestruck, motionless hummingbirds, the original biological hovercrafts, and seagulls, balsa-less gliders that silently float at two miles an hour while meditating. 
 
So? Where were we? 
You determine how many pieces of information are in that parsed textitem utilizing the COUNT reporter, and with bravura, you sweep (looping commands like: REPEAT, DOTIMES, DOLIST), soaring elegantly through every word in each list that was once a textitem of a file, asking each word, as it were: &quot;Are you one of those guys like &lt;SEASON&gt;, &lt;PROFESSION&gt; and &lt;PET&gt; ?, delimited by &quot;&lt; and &gt;&quot;&nbsp; If so, you get to have your own textbox, named exactly like the word, and of perfect size for entering the user input. 
Now, to make life more challenging, If you're asking the madlib player to enter parts of speech, it is almost entirely impossible that the input textbox titles will not require duplication. This MW won't let you do at least on the same page, so then you have to learn to &quot;Weld&quot; numbers like &quot;01, &quot;02, etc off the end of the part of speech, ending up with input text boxes which look like VERB_01, VERB_02. This is a matter that would take us a little far afield for today. Not having a life, this is what people like me love to do. :-) 
Next task: Once you've identified the names for the collection of user-input textboxes that you're going to let your programming skill spawn for you using the &quot;NEWTEXT&quot; command inside a loop, you need a game plan to spray the boxes out on the screen. So you creatively visualize how many textboxes would be a maximum, and call up your CRT Visual Handyman or Feng Shui consultant to landscape your monitor in symmetrical, uncluttered ways. 
Do you want the original story, with the &lt;CREATIVEWORDS&gt; replaced by underscores &quot;______&quot;. Do you even want it to be visible while the end-user is busy spicing it up? 
Do you need to have all the text windows present on screen, or do you want to present them in randomized debuts, one at a time? 
When the story is done, do you want to print it? 
Finally, the Madlibs has all the components for a fill in the blanks or a matching test. It would be possible to add programming code to grade performance, and store the grades in a teacher-accessible file. And for a variation, turtles might replace words, as visual clues. Multiple Intelligence is an inspiration. 
I will leave these ideas with you all. I have already written the code which reads up the Storyline textbox (but not yet loaded it from an external file), and which can generate a textbox, appropriately named for every &quot;&lt; delimited word. But it does not yet work whan &lt;two words&gt; are presented, and it steals commas off the end of words. When these chores are solved, I'll share the project (in MW 2.05) 
These are my own approaches to Madlib. Anyone who wants to take the vision in another direction, should describe the course of the game, and what will present itself on the screen. Then we can have ammo for collaboration, and may succeed at sharing and expanding, or downsizing an epic idea and so making doable, this, as a prelude for figuring out how we might be able to delegate the creation of and sharing of code in the future. But in the last analysis, the perfection of the brainstorming, and the focusing of it into the action sequences is everything. Next to that, writing code is truly almost trivial. 
Best regards, 
Harvey Bornfield 
<a href="http://www.mythologics.org/" eudora="autourl">www.mythologics.org</a> 
At 07:32 AM 8/5/2003, you wrote: 
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Wendy,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This question made me stop and think about how students think about doing this.&nbsp; And I guess when I think about how they work with MadLibs I see them interacting in two different ways.&nbsp; When they are completing one, they use words one at a time.&nbsp; That would seem like text boxes tied to the part of speech....one for nouns, one for verbs, and so on. 
But your question seemed to ask what if they wanted to enter their own story.&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, that seemed to be a different question.&nbsp; In that case I don't think they would look at it in such small parts.&nbsp; I think they would enter a whole story at once.&nbsp; So, to me, that would be better handled by asking them a question to which they could enter their story.&nbsp; 
I'm anxious to work with whomever is interested in this.&nbsp; I don't know that I can contribute much because I've only been introduced to MW about a month ago.&nbsp; But I'm more than willing to try and put forward my best effort.&nbsp; And I really appreciate your interest and hope that others will also want to collaborate. 
marsha 
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&quot;Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind, but mankind cannot comprehend.&quot; 
Ludwig van Beethoven 
 
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