1# $OpenBSD: Notes,v 1.6 2024/08/26 20:10:53 jmc Exp $ 2# $NetBSD: Notes,v 1.2 1995/03/23 08:28:26 cgd Exp $ 3# @(#)Notes 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 4 5Warning: 6 The fortunes contained in the fortune database have been collected 7 haphazardly from a cacophony of sources, in number so huge it 8 boggles the mind. It is impossible to do any meaningful quality 9 control on attributions, or lack thereof, or exactness of the quote. 10 Since this database is not used for profit, and since entire works 11 are not published, it falls under fair use, as we understand it. 12 However, if any half-assed idiot decides to make a profit off of 13 this, they will need to double check it all, and nobody not involved 14 of such an effort makes any warranty that anything in the database 15 bears any relation to the real world of literature, law, or other 16 bizzarrity. 17 18==> GENERAL INFORMATION 19 By default, fortune retrieves its fortune files from the directory 20/usr/share/games/fortune. A fortune file has two parts: the source file 21(which contains the fortunes themselves) and the data file which describes 22the fortunes. The data file always has the same name as the fortune file 23with the string ".dat" concatenated, i.e. "fort" is the standard fortune 24database, and "fort.dat" is the data file which describes it. See 25strfile(8) for more information on creating the data files. 26 Fortunes are split into potentially offensive and not potentially 27offensive parts. The offensive version of a file has the same name as the 28non-offensive version with "-o" concatenated, i.e. "fortune" is the standard 29fortune database, and "fortune-o" is the standard offensive database. The 30fortune program automatically assumes that any file with a name ending in 31"-o" is potentially offensive, and should therefore only be displayed if 32explicitly requested, either with the -o option or by specifying a file name 33on the command line. 34 Potentially offensive fortune files are maintained in 35clear text on the system. If this is a concern, they can be rotated 3613 positions: to create a new, rotated database, use a utility such 37as rot13(6) or tr(1) to rotate it, and then create its data file 38with the -x option to strfile(8). The fortune program automatically 39decrypts the text when it prints entries from such databases. 40 Anything which would not make it onto network prime time programming 41(or which would only be broadcast if some discredited kind of guy said it) 42MUST be in the potentially offensive database. Fortunes containing any 43explicit language (see George Carlin's recent updated list) MUST be in the 44potentially offensive database. Political and religious opinions are often 45sequestered in the potentially offensive section as well. Anything which 46assumes as a world view blatantly racist, mysogynist (sexist), or homophobic 47ideas should not be in either, since they are not really funny unless *you* 48are racist, mysogynist, or homophobic. 49 The point of this is that people have should have a reasonable 50expectation that, should they just run "fortune", they will not be offended. 51We know that some people take offense at anything, but normal people do have 52opinions, too, and have a right not to have their sensibilities offended by 53a program which is supposed to be entertaining. People who run "fortune 54-o" or "fortune -a" are saying, in effect, that they are willing to have 55their sensibilities tweaked. However, they should not have their personal 56worth seriously (i.e., not in jest) assaulted. Jokes which depend for their 57humor on racist, mysogynist, or homophobic stereotypes *do* seriously 58assault individual personal worth, and in an general entertainment medium 59we should be able to get by without it. 60 61==> FORMATTING 62 This file describes the format for fortunes in the database. This 63is done in detail to make it easier to keep track of things. Any rule given 64here may be broken to make a better joke. 65 66[All examples are indented by one tab stop -- KCRCA] 67 68Numbers should be given in parentheses, e.g., 69 70 (1) Everything depends. 71 (2) Nothing is always. 72 (3) Everything is sometimes. 73 74Attributions are two tab stops, followed by two hyphens, followed by a 75space, followed by the attribution, and are *not* preceded by blank 76lines. Book, journal, movie, and all other titles are in quotes, e.g., 77 78 $100 invested at 7% interest for 100 years will become $100,000, at 79 which time it will be worth absolutely nothing. 80 -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love" 81 82Attributions which do not fit on one (72 char) line should be continued 83on a line which lines up below the first text of the attribution, e.g., 84 85 -- A very long attribution which might not fit on one 86 line, "Ken Arnold's Stupid Sayings" 87 88Single paragraph fortunes are in left justified (non-indented) paragraphs 89unless they fall into another category listed below (see example above). 90Longer fortunes should also be in left justified paragraphs, but if this 91makes it too long, try indented paragraphs, with indentations of either one 92tab stop or 5 chars. Indentations of less than 5 are too hard to read. 93 94Laws have the title left justified and capitalized, followed by a colon, 95with all the text of the law itself indented one tab stop, initially 96capitalized, e.g., 97 98 A Law of Computer Programming: 99 Make it possible for programmers to write in English and 100 you will find the programmers cannot write in English. 101 102Limericks are indented as follows, all lines capitalized: 103 104 A computer, to print out a fact, 105 Will divide, multiply, and subtract. 106 But this output can be 107 No more than debris, 108 If the input was short of exact. 109 110Underlining is done on a word-by-word basis, with the underlines 111preceding the word, e.g., "__^H^Hhi _____^H^H^H^H^Hthere". 112 113No fortune should run beyond 72 characters on a single line without good 114justification (er, no pun intended). And no right margin justification, 115either. Sorry. For BSD people, there is a program called "fmt" which can 116make this kind of formatting easier. 117 118Definitions are given with the word or phrase left justified, followed by 119the part of speech (if appropriate) and a colon. The definition starts 120indented by one tab stop, with subsequent lines left justified, e.g., 121 122 Afternoon, n.: 123 That part of the day we spend worrying about how we wasted 124 the morning. 125 126Quotes are sometimes put around statements which are funnier or make more 127sense if they are understood as being spoken, rather than written, 128communication, e.g., 129 130 "All my friends and I are crazy. That's the only thing that 131 keeps us sane." 132 133Ellipses are always surrounded by spaces, except when next to punctuation, 134and are three dots long. 135 136 "... all the modern inconveniences ..." 137 -- Mark Twain 138 139Human initials always have spaces after the periods, e.g, "P. T. Barnum", 140not "P.T. Barnum". However, "P.T.A.", not "P. T. A.". 141 142All fortunes should be attributed, but if and only if they are original with 143somebody. Many people have said things that are folk sayings (i.e., are 144common among the folk (i.e., us common slobs)). There is nothing wrong with 145this, of course, but such statements should not be attributed to individuals 146who did not invent them. 147 148Horoscopes should have the sign indented by one tab stop, followed by the 149dates of the sign, with the text left justified below it, e.g., 150 151 AQUARIUS (Jan 20 - Feb 18) 152 You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You 153 lie a great deal. On the other hand, you are inclined to be 154 careless and impractical, causing you to make the same mistakes over 155 and over again. People think you are stupid. 156 157Single quotes should not be used except as quotes within quotes. Not even 158single quotes masquerading as double quotes are to be used, e.g., don't say 159``hi there'' or `hi there' or 'hi there', but "hi there". However, you 160*can* say "I said, `hi there'". 161 162A long poem or song can be ordered as follows in order to make it fit on a 163screen (fortunes should be 19 lines or less if at all possible) (numbers 164here are stanza numbers): 165 166 11111111111111111111 167 11111111111111111111 168 11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222 169 11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222 170 22222222222222222222 171 33333333333333333333 22222222222222222222 172 33333333333333333333 173 33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444 174 33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444 175 44444444444444444444 176 44444444444444444444 177 178 179