It's a simple and lightweight python script that will give you a lorem ipsum text out of Xylander's famous Latin translation and copy it into your clipboard. Therefore you can easily include it into your project. You don't have to worry about copyright issues at all since this text is roughly 500 years old. ;-) I think that the biggest benefit of this script is that you can use a high quality and very educational Latin text for your design projects instead of using a standard nonsense lorem ipsum text which can be a pleasant surprise for those who actually understand Latin.
You will need to have python, pip and the pyperclip module installed. Don't worry. In case you don't have pyperclip installed the script will install it for you. If you are using Linux, please make sure that xclip is installed on your computer or the script won't be able to copy into your clipboard!
sudo apt-get install xclip
I made this script as easy to use as possible. In case you want a random excerpt from the Meditations, just run:
python3 stoicumipsum.py
If you want a particular number of words, use -w as an argument and your prefered word count:
python3 stoicumipsum.py -w 4
This would give you four words. For instance:
Eaedem sunt mundi vicissitudines
If you want a particular line then you should write it as an argument:
python3 stoicumipsum.py 3
It will output the third line and copy it into your clipboard instantly:
In matre exemplum habui, pietatis in Deos et liberalitatis; abstinentiae non solum a malo perpetrando, verum etiam cogitando; tum frugalitatis in victu, quae ab opulentorum vita et consuetudine longissime abeat.
Its that easy to use. You should be with the basic usage good to go. In case you want to do a bit more with the text generator, feel free to use the advanced commands!
I even included some advanced subcommands you can use from the command line.
If you want a random line with a particular minimum size, just use the -l command with your minimum character size.
python3 stoicumipsum.py -l 300
This will output a line with a minimum character size of 300.
By using "-m" you can merge all lines, which you give as arguments after that, to one final output.
python3 stoicumipsum.py -m 3 5 15 78
This will merge lines 3, 5, 15 and 78 into one output.
In case you want your output to have a minimum size, you can use -ls with a particular line to make sure that if your line is too small, the next line after will be added to it.
python3 stoicumipsum.py -ls 3
You can change the minimum character length in the #config section of the python script. This is also the only subcommand which will work flawlessly if you are not passing any arguments into it. It will just choose a random line number.
python3 stoicumipsum.py -ls
This command will give you a range of lines based of your arguments.
python3 stoicumipsum.py -r 3 5 6 10
This will output the lines from 3 to 5 and 6 to 10. Make sure that you use an even amount of arguments or you will get a syntax error.
You can easily include other inputfiles than the meditationes file. Just create an inputfile with no empty lines, move it to the same directory as stoicumipsum.py and make sure that you include it in the python script by changing the value of the inputfile variable to the name of your inputfile!