Cryptozoologist Build Status

Cryptozoologist generates random strings from animal, clothing item, and color pairings, as well as lorem ipsum style sentences.

You could get something like "orange-clownfish-turtleneck" or "magenta-three-toed-sloth-shoe-horn". It's fun and silly, because why not? The gem can be configured to use a custom delimiter, exclude dictionaries, or add in speciality dictionaries.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'cryptozoologist'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install cryptozoologist

Usage

Cryptozoologist provides two main functions:

  • Cryptozoologist.random: returns a string separated by a delimiter (Note: aliased as Cryptozoologist.generate for backwards compatibility with anything below version 3)
  • Cryptozoologist.lorem(sentence_count): returns sentence_count number of sentences, separated by punctuation randomly selected from ["!", ".", "?"]
  • Cryptozoologist.street_address: returns a string formatted to US street address standards (house number and street name) using the animal dictionaries (Note: ignores animal subdictionary exclusions)

Each method will respect your configuration settings where applicable.

See below for more detailed usage on each method.

Secret usage

If you just want a word list, you can tap directly into the dictionaries. Each dictionary returns an array of strings, allowing you to use the Ruby enumerators that you want on your word list.

The complete list of dictionaries includes:

  • Cryptozoologist::Dictionary.animals
  • Cryptozoologist::Dictionary.clothing
  • Cryptozoologist::Dictionary.colors
  • Cryptozoologist::Dictionary.quantity
  • Cryptozoologist::Dictionary.filler ("a", "the", etc)
  • Cryptozoologist::Dictionary.punctuation
  • Cryptozoologist::Dictionary.addresses ("Lane", "Street", etc - I don't know what this part of an address is called!)

Cryptozoologist.random

The Cryptozoologist.random method will return a string separated by - (or your custom delimiter) containing: a color, an animal, and an item of clothing.

Example:

Cryptozoologist.random # => 'steel-blue-tang-flak-jacket'
Cryptozoologist.random # => 'blanched-almond-mandrill-headscarf'
Cryptozoologist.random # => 'frozen-in-time-cockroach-bracelet'
Cryptozoologist.random # => 'medium-sea-green-lobster-coat'
Cryptozoologist.random # => 'blue-flying-squirrel-trench-coat'
Cryptozoologist.random # => 'thistle-toucan-formal-wear'
Cryptozoologist.random # => 'aquamarine-lemming-white-tie'
Cryptozoologist.random # => 'tomato-cerberus-sweatshirt'
Cryptozoologist.random # => 'forest-green-wasp-getup'

If your config includes the Quantity dictionary, it will be prepended to your string.

Cryptozoologist.lorem(sentence_count)

Cryptozoologist.lorem(sentence_count) will return a string consisting of the number of sentences you request. It will use every dictionary available based on your config.

Example:

Cryptozoologist.lorem(3) # => 'Black rhinoceros and it hundreds at flamingo dream oodles acres gear it plum serval shrug phoenix blazer washed khaki! Phantom mist the gazillions hem alicorn light golden rod yellow leopard cat troop and galoshes a be. Are there stellers sea cow billions be plum indri dodger blue shift to t shirt cheetah tiara tons sky blue miles?'

Cryptozoologist.lorem(1) # => 'And headscarf to potentially purple pygmy puff chocolate wide tights yak bundles the be?'

Cryptozoologist.street_address

Haven't you always wanted a cool address like 12 Pygmy Puff Court? Me, too. 

Cryptozoologist.street_address # => 2295 Red Panda Avenue
Cryptozoologist.street_address # => 947 Valkyrie Way
Cryptozoologist.street_address # => 2415 Goblin Street
Cryptozoologist.street_address # => 2558 Sea Dragon Court

This only uses the Animal dictionaries and will ignore your configuration to exclude subdictionaries.

Configuration

Configuration blocks take the following options:

  Cryptozoologist.configure do |config|
    config.exclude = []
    config.include = []
    config.order = []
    config.delimiter = ''
  end
  • exclude (array of symbols) allows you to exclude dictionary subtypes; defaults to no exclusions
  • include (array of symbols) allows you to include optional dictionaries; defaults to no inclusions
  • order (array of symbols) allows you to change the word order; defaults to animal-color-clothing
  • delimiter (string) allows you to specify a delimiter; defaults to -

Configuration options

Include (config.include, []):

  • if you include quantity, it will be added to the front of your generated string
  • options: :quantity

Exclude (config.exclude, []):

4 options are available for this, but you can only use 2 at a time (one from each category):

  • animals (1 of 2 allowed):
    • :common, :mythical
  • colors (1 of 2 allowed):
    • :paint, :web

Order (config.order, []):

  • must provide all 3 keys as an array in the order in which you want words to appear
  • [:animals, :colors, :clothing]

delimiter (config.delimiter, ''):

  • defaults to '-'
  • any string is valid

Example with all possible settings

  Cryptozoologist.configure do |config|
    config.exclude = [:common, :paint]
    config.include = [:quantity]
    config.order = [:colors, :animals, :clothing]
    config.delimiter = '_'
  end

  Cryptozoologist.random # => 'masses_yellow_zombie_shrug'
  Cryptozoologist.random # => 'gazillions_purple_goblin_umbrella'
  Cryptozoologist.random # => 'wide_orange_cynocephalus_helmet'
  Cryptozoologist.random # => 'some_light_pink_moke_fedora'