12490Sjkh# @(#)Notes 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 2108470Sschweikh# $FreeBSD$ 32490Sjkh 42490SjkhWarning: 52490Sjkh The fortunes contained in the fortune database have been collected 62490Sjkh haphazardly from a cacophony of sources, in number so huge it 72490Sjkh boggles the mind. It is impossible to do any meaningful quality 82490Sjkh control on attributions, or lack thereof, or exactness of the quote. 92490Sjkh Since this database is not used for profit, and since entire works 102490Sjkh are not published, it falls under fair use, as we understand it. 112490Sjkh However, if any half-assed idiot decides to make a profit off of 122490Sjkh this, they will need to double check it all, and nobody not involved 132490Sjkh of such an effort makes any warranty that anything in the database 142490Sjkh bears any relation to the real world of literature, law, or other 152490Sjkh bizzarrity. 162490Sjkh 172490Sjkh==> GENERAL INFORMATION 182490Sjkh By default, fortune retrieves its fortune files from the directory 192490Sjkh/usr/share/games/fortune. A fortune file has two parts: the source file 202490Sjkh(which contains the fortunes themselves) and the data file which describes 21111016Sschweikhthe fortunes. The data file always has the same name as the fortune file 22205995Suqswith the string ".dat" concatenated, i.e. "fortunes" is the standard fortune 23205995Suqsdatabase, and "fortunes.dat" is the data file which describes it. See 242490Sjkhstrfile(8) for more information on creating the data files. 252490Sjkh Fortunes are split into potentially offensive and not potentially 262490Sjkhoffensive parts. The offensive version of a file has the same name as the 27205995Suqsnon-offensive version with "-o" concatenated, i.e. "fortunes" is the standard 28205995Suqsfortune database, and "fortunes-o" is the standard offensive database. The 292490Sjkhfortune program automatically assumes that any file with a name ending in 302490Sjkh"-o" is potentially offensive, and should therefore only be displayed if 312490Sjkhexplicitly requested, either with the -o option or by specifying a file name 322490Sjkhon the command line. 332490Sjkh Potentially offensive fortune files should NEVER be maintained in 342490Sjkhclear text on the system. They are rotated (see caesar(6)) 13 positions. 352490SjkhTo create a new, potentially offensive database, use caesar to rotate it, 362490Sjkhand then create its data file with the -x option to strfile(8). The fortune 372490Sjkhprogram automatically decrypts the text when it prints entries from such 382490Sjkhdatabases. 392490Sjkh Anything which would not make it onto network prime time programming 402490Sjkh(or which would only be broadcast if some discredited kind of guy said it) 412490SjkhMUST be in the potentially offensive database. Fortunes containing any 422490Sjkhexplicit language (see George Carlin's recent updated list) MUST be in the 432490Sjkhpotentially offensive database. Political and religious opinions are often 442490Sjkhsequestered in the potentially offensive section as well. Anything which 45205995Suqsassumes as a world view blatantly racist, misogynist (sexist), or homophobic 462490Sjkhideas should not be in either, since they are not really funny unless *you* 47205995Suqsare racist, misogynist, or homophobic. 48205995Suqs The point of this is that people should have a reasonable 492490Sjkhexpectation that, should they just run "fortune", they will not be offended. 502490SjkhWe know that some people take offense at anything, but normal people do have 512490Sjkhopinions, too, and have a right not to have their sensibilities offended by 522490Sjkha program which is supposed to be entertaining. People who run "fortune 532490Sjkh-o" or "fortune -a" are saying, in effect, that they are willing to have 542490Sjkhtheir sensibilities tweaked. However, they should not have their personal 552490Sjkhworth seriously (i.e., not in jest) assaulted. Jokes which depend for their 56205995Suqshumor on racist, misogynist, or homophobic stereotypes *do* seriously 57108470Sschweikhassault individual personal worth, and in a general entertainment medium 582490Sjkhwe should be able to get by without it. 592490Sjkh 602490Sjkh==> FORMATTING 612490Sjkh This file describes the format for fortunes in the database. This 622490Sjkhis done in detail to make it easier to keep track of things. Any rule given 632490Sjkhhere may be broken to make a better joke. 642490Sjkh 652490Sjkh[All examples are indented by one tab stop -- KCRCA] 662490Sjkh 672490SjkhNumbers should be given in parentheses, e.g., 682490Sjkh 692490Sjkh (1) Everything depends. 702490Sjkh (2) Nothing is always. 712490Sjkh (3) Everything is sometimes. 722490Sjkh 732490SjkhAttributions are two tab stops, followed by two hyphens, followed by a 742490Sjkhspace, followed by the attribution, and are *not* preceded by blank 752490Sjkhlines. Book, journal, movie, and all other titles are in quotes, e.g., 762490Sjkh 772490Sjkh $100 invested at 7% interest for 100 years will become $100,000, at 782490Sjkh which time it will be worth absolutely nothing. 792490Sjkh -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love" 802490Sjkh 812490SjkhAttributions which do not fit on one (72 char) line should be continued 822490Sjkhon a line which lines up below the first text of the attribution, e.g., 832490Sjkh 842490Sjkh -- A very long attribution which might not fit on one 852490Sjkh line, "Ken Arnold's Stupid Sayings" 862490Sjkh 872490SjkhSingle paragraph fortunes are in left justified (non-indented) paragraphs 882490Sjkhunless they fall into another category listed below (see example above). 892490SjkhLonger fortunes should also be in left justified paragraphs, but if this 902490Sjkhmakes it too long, try indented paragraphs, with indentations of either one 912490Sjkhtab stop or 5 chars. Indentations of less than 5 are too hard to read. 922490Sjkh 932490SjkhLaws have the title left justified and capitalized, followed by a colon, 942490Sjkhwith all the text of the law itself indented one tab stop, initially 952490Sjkhcapitalized, e.g., 962490Sjkh 972490Sjkh A Law of Computer Programming: 982490Sjkh Make it possible for programmers to write in English and 992490Sjkh you will find the programmers cannot write in English. 1002490Sjkh 1012490SjkhLimericks are indented as follows, all lines capitalized: 1022490Sjkh 1032490Sjkh A computer, to print out a fact, 1042490Sjkh Will divide, multiply, and subtract. 1052490Sjkh But this output can be 1062490Sjkh No more than debris, 1072490Sjkh If the input was short of exact. 1082490Sjkh 1092490SjkhAccents precede the letter they are over, e.g., "`^He" for e with a grave 1102490Sjkhaccent. Underlining is done on a word-by-word basis, with the underlines 1112490Sjkhpreceding the word, e.g., "__^H^Hhi ____^H^H^H^Hthere". 1122490Sjkh 1132490SjkhNo fortune should run beyond 72 characters on a single line without good 1142490Sjkhjustification (er, no pun intended). And no right margin justification, 1152490Sjkheither. Sorry. For BSD people, there is a program called "fmt" which can 1162490Sjkhmake this kind of formatting easier. 1172490Sjkh 1182490SjkhDefinitions are given with the word or phrase left justified, followed by 1192490Sjkhthe part of speech (if appropriate) and a colon. The definition starts 1202490Sjkhindented by one tab stop, with subsequent lines left justified, e.g., 1212490Sjkh 1222490Sjkh Afternoon, n.: 1232490Sjkh That part of the day we spend worrying about how we wasted 1242490Sjkh the morning. 1252490Sjkh 1262490SjkhQuotes are sometimes put around statements which are funnier or make more 1272490Sjkhsense if they are understood as being spoken, rather than written, 1282490Sjkhcommunication, e.g., 1292490Sjkh 1302490Sjkh "All my friends and I are crazy. That's the only thing that 1312490Sjkh keeps us sane." 1322490Sjkh 1332490SjkhEllipses are always surrounded by spaces, except when next to punctuation, 1342490Sjkhand are three dots long. 1352490Sjkh 1362490Sjkh "... all the modern inconveniences ..." 1372490Sjkh -- Mark Twain 1382490Sjkh 1392490SjkhHuman initials always have spaces after the periods, e.g, "P. T. Barnum", 1402490Sjkhnot "P.T. Barnum". However, "P.T.A.", not "P. T. A.". 1412490Sjkh 1422490SjkhAll fortunes should be attributed, but if and only if they are original with 1432490Sjkhsomebody. Many people have said things that are folk sayings (i.e., are 1442490Sjkhcommon among the folk (i.e., us common slobs)). There is nothing wrong with 1452490Sjkhthis, of course, but such statements should not be attributed to individuals 1462490Sjkhwho did not invent them. 1472490Sjkh 1482490SjkhHoroscopes should have the sign indented by one tab stop, followed by the 1492490Sjkhdates of the sign, with the text left justified below it, e.g., 1502490Sjkh 1512490Sjkh AQUARIUS (Jan 20 - Feb 18) 1522490Sjkh You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You 1532490Sjkh lie a great deal. On the other hand, you are inclined to be 1542490Sjkh careless and impractical, causing you to make the same mistakes over 1552490Sjkh and over again. People think you are stupid. 1562490Sjkh 1572490SjkhSingle quotes should not be used except as quotes within quotes. Not even 1582490Sjkhsingle quotes masquerading as double quotes are to be used, e.g., don't say 1592490Sjkh``hi there'' or `hi there' or 'hi there', but "hi there". However, you 1602490Sjkh*can* say "I said, `hi there'". 1612490Sjkh 1622490SjkhA long poem or song can be ordered as follows in order to make it fit on a 1632490Sjkhscreen (fortunes should be 19 lines or less if at all possible) (numbers 1642490Sjkhhere are stanza numbers): 1652490Sjkh 1662490Sjkh 11111111111111111111 1672490Sjkh 11111111111111111111 1682490Sjkh 11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222 1692490Sjkh 11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222 1702490Sjkh 22222222222222222222 1712490Sjkh 33333333333333333333 22222222222222222222 1722490Sjkh 33333333333333333333 1732490Sjkh 33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444 1742490Sjkh 33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444 1752490Sjkh 44444444444444444444 1762490Sjkh 44444444444444444444 1772490Sjkh 1782490Sjkh 179