| 1 | # @(#)Notes 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Warning: |
| 4 | The fortunes contained in the fortune database have been collected |
| 5 | haphazardly from a cacophony of sources, in number so huge it |
| 6 | boggles the mind. It is impossible to do any meaningful quality |
| 7 | control on attributions, or lack thereof, or exactness of the quote. |
| 8 | Since this database is not used for profit, and since entire works |
| 9 | are not published, it falls under fair use, as we understand it. |
| 10 | However, if any half-assed idiot decides to make a profit off of |
| 11 | this, they will need to double check it all, and nobody not involved |
| 12 | of such an effort makes any warranty that anything in the database |
| 13 | bears any relation to the real world of literature, law, or other |
| 14 | bizzarrity. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ==> GENERAL INFORMATION |
| 17 | By default, fortune retrieves its fortune files from the directory |
| 18 | /usr/share/games/fortune. A fortune file has two parts: the source file |
| 19 | (which contains the fortunes themselves) and the data file which describes |
| 20 | the fortunes. The data file always has the same name as the fortune file |
| 21 | with the string ".dat" concatenated, i.e. "fortunes" is the standard fortune |
| 22 | database, and "fortunes.dat" is the data file which describes it. See |
| 23 | strfile(8) for more information on creating the data files. |
| 24 | Fortunes are split into potentially offensive and not potentially |
| 25 | offensive parts. The offensive version of a file has the same name as the |
| 26 | non-offensive version with "-o" concatenated, i.e. "fortunes" is the standard |
| 27 | fortune database, and "fortunes-o" is the standard offensive database. The |
| 28 | fortune program automatically assumes that any file with a name ending in |
| 29 | "-o" is potentially offensive, and should therefore only be displayed if |
| 30 | explicitly requested, either with the -o option or by specifying a file name |
| 31 | on the command line. |
| 32 | Potentially offensive fortune files should NEVER be maintained in |
| 33 | clear text on the system. They are rotated (see caesar(6)) 13 positions. |
| 34 | To create a new, potentially offensive database, use caesar to rotate it, |
| 35 | and then create its data file with the -x option to strfile(8). The fortune |
| 36 | program automatically decrypts the text when it prints entries from such |
| 37 | databases. |
| 38 | Anything which would not make it onto network prime time programming |
| 39 | (or which would only be broadcast if some discredited kind of guy said it) |
| 40 | MUST be in the potentially offensive database. Fortunes containing any |
| 41 | explicit language (see George Carlin's recent updated list) MUST be in the |
| 42 | potentially offensive database. Political and religious opinions are often |
| 43 | sequestered in the potentially offensive section as well. Anything which |
| 44 | assumes as a world view blatantly racist, misogynist (sexist), or homophobic |
| 45 | ideas should not be in either, since they are not really funny unless *you* |
| 46 | are racist, misogynist, or homophobic. |
| 47 | The point of this is that people should have a reasonable |
| 48 | expectation that, should they just run "fortune", they will not be offended. |
| 49 | We know that some people take offense at anything, but normal people do have |
| 50 | opinions, too, and have a right not to have their sensibilities offended by |
| 51 | a program which is supposed to be entertaining. People who run "fortune |
| 52 | -o" or "fortune -a" are saying, in effect, that they are willing to have |
| 53 | their sensibilities tweaked. However, they should not have their personal |
| 54 | worth seriously (i.e., not in jest) assaulted. Jokes which depend for their |
| 55 | humor on racist, misogynist, or homophobic stereotypes *do* seriously |
| 56 | assault individual personal worth, and in a general entertainment medium |
| 57 | we should be able to get by without it. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | ==> FORMATTING |
| 60 | This file describes the format for fortunes in the database. This |
| 61 | is done in detail to make it easier to keep track of things. Any rule given |
| 62 | here may be broken to make a better joke. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | [All examples are indented by one tab stop -- KCRCA] |
| 65 | |
| 66 | Numbers should be given in parentheses, e.g., |
| 67 | |
| 68 | (1) Everything depends. |
| 69 | (2) Nothing is always. |
| 70 | (3) Everything is sometimes. |
| 71 | |
| 72 | Attributions are two tab stops, followed by two hyphens, followed by a |
| 73 | space, followed by the attribution, and are *not* preceded by blank |
| 74 | lines. Book, journal, movie, and all other titles are in quotes, e.g., |
| 75 | |
| 76 | $100 invested at 7% interest for 100 years will become $100,000, at |
| 77 | which time it will be worth absolutely nothing. |
| 78 | -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love" |
| 79 | |
| 80 | Attributions which do not fit on one (72 char) line should be continued |
| 81 | on a line which lines up below the first text of the attribution, e.g., |
| 82 | |
| 83 | -- A very long attribution which might not fit on one |
| 84 | line, "Ken Arnold's Stupid Sayings" |
| 85 | |
| 86 | Single paragraph fortunes are in left justified (non-indented) paragraphs |
| 87 | unless they fall into another category listed below (see example above). |
| 88 | Longer fortunes should also be in left justified paragraphs, but if this |
| 89 | makes it too long, try indented paragraphs, with indentations of either one |
| 90 | tab stop or 5 chars. Indentations of less than 5 are too hard to read. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | Laws have the title left justified and capitalized, followed by a colon, |
| 93 | with all the text of the law itself indented one tab stop, initially |
| 94 | capitalized, e.g., |
| 95 | |
| 96 | A Law of Computer Programming: |
| 97 | Make it possible for programmers to write in English and |
| 98 | you will find the programmers cannot write in English. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | Limericks are indented as follows, all lines capitalized: |
| 101 | |
| 102 | A computer, to print out a fact, |
| 103 | Will divide, multiply, and subtract. |
| 104 | But this output can be |
| 105 | No more than debris, |
| 106 | If the input was short of exact. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | Accents precede the letter they are over, e.g., "`^He" for e with a grave |
| 109 | accent. Underlining is done on a word-by-word basis, with the underlines |
| 110 | preceding the word, e.g., "__^H^Hhi ____^H^H^H^Hthere". |
| 111 | |
| 112 | No fortune should run beyond 72 characters on a single line without good |
| 113 | justification (er, no pun intended). And no right margin justification, |
| 114 | either. Sorry. For BSD people, there is a program called "fmt" which can |
| 115 | make this kind of formatting easier. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | Definitions are given with the word or phrase left justified, followed by |
| 118 | the part of speech (if appropriate) and a colon. The definition starts |
| 119 | indented by one tab stop, with subsequent lines left justified, e.g., |
| 120 | |
| 121 | Afternoon, n.: |
| 122 | That part of the day we spend worrying about how we wasted |
| 123 | the morning. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | Quotes are sometimes put around statements which are funnier or make more |
| 126 | sense if they are understood as being spoken, rather than written, |
| 127 | communication, e.g., |
| 128 | |
| 129 | "All my friends and I are crazy. That's the only thing that |
| 130 | keeps us sane." |
| 131 | |
| 132 | Ellipses are always surrounded by spaces, except when next to punctuation, |
| 133 | and are three dots long. |
| 134 | |
| 135 | "... all the modern inconveniences ..." |
| 136 | -- Mark Twain |
| 137 | |
| 138 | Human initials always have spaces after the periods, e.g, "P. T. Barnum", |
| 139 | not "P.T. Barnum". However, "P.T.A.", not "P. T. A.". |
| 140 | |
| 141 | All fortunes should be attributed, but if and only if they are original with |
| 142 | somebody. Many people have said things that are folk sayings (i.e., are |
| 143 | common among the folk (i.e., us common slobs)). There is nothing wrong with |
| 144 | this, of course, but such statements should not be attributed to individuals |
| 145 | who did not invent them. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | Horoscopes should have the sign indented by one tab stop, followed by the |
| 148 | dates of the sign, with the text left justified below it, e.g., |
| 149 | |
| 150 | AQUARIUS (Jan 20 - Feb 18) |
| 151 | You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You |
| 152 | lie a great deal. On the other hand, you are inclined to be |
| 153 | careless and impractical, causing you to make the same mistakes over |
| 154 | and over again. People think you are stupid. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | Single quotes should not be used except as quotes within quotes. Not even |
| 157 | single quotes masquerading as double quotes are to be used, e.g., don't say |
| 158 | ``hi there'' or `hi there' or 'hi there', but "hi there". However, you |
| 159 | *can* say "I said, `hi there'". |
| 160 | |
| 161 | A long poem or song can be ordered as follows in order to make it fit on a |
| 162 | screen (fortunes should be 19 lines or less if at all possible) (numbers |
| 163 | here are stanza numbers): |
| 164 | |
| 165 | 11111111111111111111 |
| 166 | 11111111111111111111 |
| 167 | 11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222 |
| 168 | 11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222 |
| 169 | 22222222222222222222 |
| 170 | 33333333333333333333 22222222222222222222 |
| 171 | 33333333333333333333 |
| 172 | 33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444 |
| 173 | 33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444 |
| 174 | 44444444444444444444 |
| 175 | 44444444444444444444 |
| 176 | |
| 177 | |