Giving a slug a new coat of slime

The gastropod 🐌 script is nearly 2 years old!

Unfortunately in this time not much has changed with the project. Originally written for usage on my personal webzone. As well as a test of my Pythonic writing skills. It’s seen little attention since it’s initial development.

However I’m pleased to annouce gastropod 🐌 version 2 is here! aka the script has been rewritten to be more efficient/clearer/overall betterer.

First, lets take a look at the original script:

#!/bin/env python3

import json
import random

def load_words():
    with open('words_dict.json') as f:
        data = json.load(f)
    return data

def randomWordFromFile(wordbank):
    r = random.choice(list(wordbank.items()))
    key, value = r
    return key


if __name__ == '__main__':
    english_words = load_words()
    slug = ""
    for i in range(0, 3):
        word = (randomWordFromFile(english_words))
        slug = slug + (word + ".") if not i == 2 else slug + word

    print(slug) 

Not pretty…but it works. Let’s break it down.

import json

This module had to be used. Because of how the data was structured. Why I didn’t restructure the data myself? I’m not sure.

def load_words():
    with open('words_dict.json') as f:
        data = json.load(f)
    return data

The case could be made for a dictionary being used here is more memory efficient than a list. Something to test perhaps. But importing a module and then reading in a seperate file. Just adds complexity where it’s not needed. KISS!

def randomWordFromFile(wordbank):
    r = random.choice(list(wordbank.items()))
    key, value = r
    return key

Convert a dictionary to a list then pluck out the required value. Galaxy brain coding here.

if __name__ == '__main__':
    english_words = load_words()
    slug = ""
    for i in range(0, 3):
        word = (randomWordFromFile(english_words))
        slug = slug + (word + ".") if not i == 2 else slug + word

Messy and gross. Kinda like a slug.

As you can see something needs to change and change it has. Welcome gastropod 🐌 version 2:

#!/bin/env python3

import random

gastropod_word_list = [
    'hospital', 'tradition' ... , 'consultancy']
    # Full list condensed for brevity

# randomly select 3 words from the list
selection = [random.choice(gastropod_word_list) for _ in range(3)]

# join the selected words with a period separator
result = '.'.join(selection)

# print the result
print(result)

Speaks for itself really. Compared to the original someone without coding experience (or the comments) could read the script and understand what it does. Now show the original script and let the same person try to decipher that. Good luck.

A major change here is the data used. Firstly, the word list has changed from the popular_words.json file to google-10000-english word list. Specifically the version which contains no swear words.

The word list is a txt file with each word on a newline. This is fine but without repeating the sins of the forefathers I didn’t want to import this as is. Especially given that words less than three (3) characters just aren’t that useful for this context.

To tidy this list for usage in gastropod the following process was used:

1. Fetch the txt file from the google-10000-english repository.

curl -O "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/first20hours/google-10000-english/master/google-10000-english-no-swears.txt"

2. Convert that file to a Python list.

with open('google-10000-english-no-swears.txt', 'r') as file:
    data = file.readlines()
    result = []
    for line in data:
        result.append(line.strip())

print(result)

3. Remove words which are 3 characters or less

gastropod_word_list = []
for s in googlenoswears:
    if len(s) > 3:
        gastropod_word_list.append(s)

4. Shuffle the new list (I believe the original list is sorted by most frequently used words first.)

random.shuffle(gastropod_word_list)

The rest of the script just reads much better. The complexity has been stripped out to be replaced with (in my opinion) a much more eloquent solution.

As for the future of gastropod 🐌. I’m really not sure what more is needed for this little slug. For now I’m happy with how this script is working after the re-write.

-Joseph