🚀 go-pugleaf

J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The
> one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>
> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)

I would put your list of quotes as individual entries in a simple database
like SQLite and then run this SQL statement:

SELECT * FROM my_quotes ORDER BY RANDOM() LIMIT 1;

Completely portable.

On 18/06/2025 at 11:43, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The
> one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>
> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)

https://www.bgreco.net/fortune

--
Chris Elvidge, England
GRAMMAR IS NOT A TIME OF WASTE

On 2025/6/18 13:51:49, Chris wrote:
> J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
>> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
>> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The
>> one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>>
>> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)
> 
> I would put your list of quotes as individual entries in a simple database

That sounds like a lot of work …

> like SQLite and then run this SQL statement:
> 
> SELECT * FROM my_quotes ORDER BY RANDOM() LIMIT 1;

… but that is a very elegant solution, and I appreciate your skill with 
the language involved. (I'll have a look at Chris Elvidge's solution 
first.)>
> Completely portable.
> 
Assuming you have a machine with an interpreter/compiler for whatever 
language that line is written in.
-- 
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf


On 2025/6/18 12:53:46, Chris Elvidge wrote:
> On 18/06/2025 at 11:43, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
>> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a 
>> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change 
>> easily enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit 
>> OS? The one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>>
>> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)
> 
> https://www.bgreco.net/fortune
> 
Thanks for that.

Looks a bit complicated for me. If I implemented it, and wanted to just 
get a random quote, would I have to invoke powershell with it as a 
parameter  - something like "powershell <fortune>"? (And could I direct 
its output to a file, ideally with ">>" so it could _append_ to such a 
file)?

I see the supplied fortune.txt has fortunes separated by "%" lines. Mine 
has "%%" lines. Could I just change

	-split "`n%`n"

with

	-split "`n%%`n"

in the two methods shown, or would it just be easier/safer to do a 
global change in my quotes file?
-- 
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf


On Wed, 6/18/2025 6:43 AM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>
> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)

One way of doing it, is to put all materials into just one file,
compile, and now the EXE has all resources needed.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <Windows.h>

/* gcc -o randstmt.exe randstmt.c */
/* mingw32 installation... */

/* Some strings strng[0], strng[1], strng[2], plus an end marker as strng[3] */
/* Add statements and recompile */

/* To be triggered manually by the user.
   These are not really random numbers, but want to avoid linking in ugly DLLs */

int main() {  /* The first chunk here, is your collection of thoughtful observations */

   char *strng[] = {
     "To air is human.\n To dust, divine.\n",
     "When life gives you lemons\n open a used car lot\n",
     "A transcendental plan \n is better than no dental plan at all.\n",
     "End"
   };

   int i = 0;
   int j = 0;
   __int64 now;

   QueryPerformanceCounter((LARGE_INTEGER *) &now); /* vaguely related to RDTSC ? */
   printf("0x%I64X \n", now); /* Debug the range of the random numbers -- remove after testing */

   while (strcmp(strng[i], "End") != 0) { /* This measures the number of statements in names[] */
      i++ ;
   }   /* statements mod i */

   j = now % i ;
   printf("%d\n", j);  /* Debug the range of the random numbers -- remove after testing */

   printf( strng[ j ] );  /* Use printf punctuation, such as \n , for crude formatting */
   exit(0);
}

J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> On 2025/6/18 13:51:49, Chris wrote:
>> J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>>> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
>>> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
>>> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The
>>> one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>>>
>>> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)
>>
>> I would put your list of quotes as individual entries in a simple database
>
> That sounds like a lot of work …

It's actually not. It may take a day or two understand the principles of an
SQL database. After that it's not scary at all.

>> like SQLite and then run this SQL statement:
>>
>> SELECT * FROM my_quotes ORDER BY RANDOM() LIMIT 1;
>
> … but that is a very elegant solution, and I appreciate your skill with
> the language involved. (I'll have a look at Chris Elvidge's solution
> first.)>
>> Completely portable.
>>
> Assuming you have a machine with an interpreter/compiler for whatever
> language that line is written in.

SQL is very, very common and SQLite exists for pretty much any platform.
It's completely free - I found out this week that it is fact public domain
software - and extremely lightweight.

On 18/06/2025 11:43, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The
> one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>
> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)

If the old 16 bit program does all you want there is a good chance it
will work in Windows 10 or 11 with a utility called otvdm
https://mendelson.org/otvdm.html
It is trivial to install and your program will then simply run. It is
based on Wine but nothing like running a VM and I have used it for years
without problems.

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Mw0K

On Wed, 6/18/2025 11:53 AM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
> On 2025/6/18 13:51:49, Chris wrote:
>> J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>>> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
>>> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
>>> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The
>>> one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>>>
>>> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)
>>
>> I would put your list of quotes as individual entries in a simple database
>
> That sounds like a lot of work …
>
>> like SQLite and then run this SQL statement:
>>
>> SELECT * FROM my_quotes ORDER BY RANDOM() LIMIT 1;
>
> … but that is a very elegant solution, and I appreciate your skill with the language involved. (I'll have a look at Chris Elvidge's solution first.)>
>> Completely portable.
>>
> Assuming you have a machine with an interpreter/compiler for whatever language that line is written in.

This is the current site.

https://sqlite.org/download.html

   sqlite-tools-win-x64-3500100.zip  (6.13 MiB)

   A bundle of command-line tools for managing SQLite database files, including
   (1) the command-line shell    <=== sqlite3.exe or similar...  That's what I would look for.
   (2) sqldiff.exe
   (3) sqlite3_analyzer.exe
   (4) sqlite3_rsync.exe 64-bit

Mine is 3.39.4.0   2022-09-29 (3.39.4)   This is a 32 bit version, suited to some situations.

https://web.archive.org/web/20221012234637/https://sqlite.org/download.html

   sqlite-tools-win32-x86-3390400.zip   (1.88 MiB)

   A bundle of command-line tools for managing SQLite database files, including
   command-line shell program    <=== sqlite3.exe or similar...
   sqldiff.exe program,
   sqlite3_analyzer.exe program.

First, prepare the file that will create the database. I don't know
a thing about this topic, but I have done .dump on Firefox sqlite3 files
before, so I knew where to go to find a copy/paste example :-) The
only thing I forgot on my first try, is I forgot the COMMIT line :-)
No guarantees what I've done is "right", it's just a pale imitation
of a file.

***** fortune.sql *****
PRAGMA foreign_keys=OFF;
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
CREATE TABLE fortunes ( id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, fortune LONGVARCHAR );
INSERT INTO fortunes VALUES( 1,'I was working on the railroad, the live long day.');
INSERT INTO fortunes VALUES( 2,'Pack my jug with five dozen boxes.');
INSERT INTO fortunes VALUES( 3,'Mary had lamb chops, as white as snow.');
INSERT INTO fortunes VALUES( 4,'My hovercraft is full of spineless invertebrates');
COMMIT;
***** fortune.sql *****

echo .read fortune.sql | sqlite3 fortunes.sqlite3      # Loaded

sqlite3 fortunes.sqlite3                               # Interactive

sqlite> SELECT * FROM fortunes ORDER BY RANDOM() LIMIT 1;
4|My hovercraft is full of spineless invertebrates
sqlite> .exit

Still work to do, you need to clean up some details
to make this fit for purpose. But at least I was able
to extract a line.

The first thing I notice, is I suspect it's using RAND() to
generate the numbers, and in my C code, I had to stop doing
that because I was tapping the same sequence each time. Not good.
Still some research to do, on a better seed and generator, as
even when I seeded my RAND() I wasn't happy with what I was
seeing from session to session.

It's not getting a text line that is tough, it's nailing
the randomness that is hard.

My CPU has a feature (Zen3) where it can generate 500 million bytes
of random numbers per second, using a metastability based generator
of some sort. This is a non-cryptographic source of random numbers.
Nobody on the OS sides would touch that with a barge pole, but
it neatly avoids seed and sequence issues. The solution is not
all that portable, as the generators in hardware vary from
none at all, to lousy-implementation, to so-so implementation
with post-whitener to make it minty fresh. Anything that produces
random numbers that quickly, can't be good :-)

Name: rdrand.bin                       # The file on my S: drive from some experiment.
Size: 1073741824 bytes (1024 MiB)      # No idea what code I was using.

Anyway, randomness is the challenge. Not the storing them in
a table part.

   Paul

On 18.06.2025 12:43, J. P. Gilliver wrote:

> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The
> one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.

The following batch will convert the "quotes.txt" input file
to a batch file (q.bat). When you execute q.bat, a random
quote is displayed. But to use batch control characters (like ^ & %)
in the text, you have to escape them (^^ ^& %%).

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

@echo off
echo @echo off>q.bat
echo echo.>>q.bat
echo goto :start>>q.bat
echo :l0>>q.bat
set /a n=1

for /f "tokens=*" %%i in (quotes.txt) do (
   if "%%i"=="%%%%" (
      echo echo.>>q.bat
      echo goto :eof>>q.bat
      call echo :l%%n%%>>q.bat
      set /a n=n+1) else (
      echo echo %%i>>q.bat)
    )
echo echo.>>q.bat
echo goto :eof>>q.bat
echo :start>>q.bat

echo set /a m=%%random%%>>q.bat
echo set /a m=%%random%%%%%%%n%>>q.bat
echo goto :l%%m%%>>q.bat

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

For the input file quotes.txt:

Life isn't about getting and having, it's about giving and being.
Kevin Kruse
%%
Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
Napoleon Hill
%%
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
Albert Einstein
%%
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled
by, And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
%%
I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.
Florence Nightingale
%%
You miss 100%% of the shots you don't take.
Wayne Gretzky
%%
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost
300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot
and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

the following q.bat is generated:

@echo off
echo.
goto :start
:l0
echo Life isn't about getting and having, it's about giving and being.
echo Kevin Kruse
echo.
goto :eof
:l1
echo Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
echo Napoleon Hill
echo.
goto :eof
:l2
echo Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
echo Albert Einstein
echo.
goto :eof
:l3
echo Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled
echo by, And that has made all the difference.
echo Robert Frost
echo.
goto :eof
:l4
echo I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.
echo Florence Nightingale
echo.
goto :eof
:l5
echo You miss 100%% of the shots you don't take.
echo Wayne Gretzky
echo.
goto :eof
:l6
echo I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost
echo 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot
echo and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life.
echo And that is why I succeed.
echo Michael Jordan
echo.
goto :eof
:start
set /a m=%random%
set /a m=%random%%%7
goto :l%m%

J. P. Gilliver wrote:
> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS?

Is this related to Mozilla Thunderbird (the topic of *this* newsgroup)?
If not, please stop cross posting.

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Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
> On Wed, 6/18/2025 11:53 AM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
>> On 2025/6/18 13:51:49, Chris wrote:
>>> J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>>>> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
>>>> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
>>>> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The
>>>> one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>>>>
>>>> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)
>>>
>>> I would put your list of quotes as individual entries in a simple database
>>
>> That sounds like a lot of work …
>>
>>> like SQLite and then run this SQL statement:
>>>
>>> SELECT * FROM my_quotes ORDER BY RANDOM() LIMIT 1;
>>
>> … but that is a very elegant solution, and I appreciate your skill with
>> the language involved. (I'll have a look at Chris Elvidge's solution first.)>
>>> Completely portable.
>>>
>> Assuming you have a machine with an interpreter/compiler for whatever
>> language that line is written in.
>
> This is the current site.
>
> https://sqlite.org/download.html
>
>    sqlite-tools-win-x64-3500100.zip  (6.13 MiB)
>
>    A bundle of command-line tools for managing SQLite database files, including
>    (1) the command-line shell    <=== sqlite3.exe or similar...  That's
> what I would look for.
>    (2) sqldiff.exe
>    (3) sqlite3_analyzer.exe
>    (4) sqlite3_rsync.exe 64-bit
>
> Mine is 3.39.4.0   2022-09-29 (3.39.4)   This is a 32 bit version, suited
> to some situations.
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20221012234637/https://sqlite.org/download.html
>
>    sqlite-tools-win32-x86-3390400.zip   (1.88 MiB)
>
>    A bundle of command-line tools for managing SQLite database files, including
>    command-line shell program    <=== sqlite3.exe or similar...
>    sqldiff.exe program,
>    sqlite3_analyzer.exe program.
>
> First, prepare the file that will create the database. I don't know
> a thing about this topic, but I have done .dump on Firefox sqlite3 files
> before, so I knew where to go to find a copy/paste example :-) The
> only thing I forgot on my first try, is I forgot the COMMIT line :-)
> No guarantees what I've done is "right", it's just a pale imitation
> of a file.
>
> ***** fortune.sql *****
> PRAGMA foreign_keys=OFF;
> BEGIN TRANSACTION;
> CREATE TABLE fortunes ( id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, fortune LONGVARCHAR );
> INSERT INTO fortunes VALUES( 1,'I was working on the railroad, the live long day.');
> INSERT INTO fortunes VALUES( 2,'Pack my jug with five dozen boxes.');
> INSERT INTO fortunes VALUES( 3,'Mary had lamb chops, as white as snow.');
> INSERT INTO fortunes VALUES( 4,'My hovercraft is full of spineless invertebrates');
> COMMIT;
> ***** fortune.sql *****

If we're going into the details. For something simple like this a
transaction isn't required so remove the BEGIN TRANSACTION and COMMIT
lines. Every INSERT statement will be then committed automatically.

However, I would use the .import pragma to insert directly from a CSV file
instead. Much more practical with real data.
https://www.sqlitetutorial.net/sqlite-import-csv/

The OP's source data may need reformatting, but this is a one-off that can
be achieved easily enough in Notepad++ or similar.

> echo .read fortune.sql | sqlite3 fortunes.sqlite3      # Loaded
>
> sqlite3 fortunes.sqlite3                               # Interactive
>
> sqlite> SELECT * FROM fortunes ORDER BY RANDOM() LIMIT 1;
> 4|My hovercraft is full of spineless invertebrates
> sqlite> .exit
>
> Still work to do, you need to clean up some details
> to make this fit for purpose. But at least I was able
> to extract a line.
>
> The first thing I notice, is I suspect it's using RAND() to
> generate the numbers, and in my C code, I had to stop doing
> that because I was tapping the same sequence each time. Not good.
> Still some research to do, on a better seed and generator, as
> even when I seeded my RAND() I wasn't happy with what I was
> seeing from session to session.
>
> It's not getting a text line that is tough, it's nailing
> the randomness that is hard.

Well, yes. True randomness if effectively impossible on current technology.
qbit machines might be able to achieve it.

For the purposes of hobby exercises, tho, software randomness is fine.

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
> On Wed, 6/18/2025 6:43 AM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
>> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
>> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
>> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS? The
>> one I used to use [TomQuote] is I think 16 bit, and won't.
>>
>> (And no, I can't use a VM, for legal reasons.)
>
> One way of doing it, is to put all materials into just one file,
> compile, and now the EXE has all resources needed.
>
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <stdlib.h>
> #include <string.h>
> #include <Windows.h>
>
> /* gcc -o randstmt.exe randstmt.c */
> /* mingw32 installation... */
>
> /* Some strings strng[0], strng[1], strng[2], plus an end marker as strng[3] */
> /* Add statements and recompile */
>
> /* To be triggered manually by the user.
>    These are not really random numbers, but want to avoid linking in ugly DLLs */
>
> int main() {  /* The first chunk here, is your collection of thoughtful observations */
>
>    char *strng[] = {
>      "To air is human.\n To dust, divine.\n",
>      "When life gives you lemons\n open a used car lot\n",
>      "A transcendental plan \n is better than no dental plan at all.\n",
>      "End"
>    };

Down side is you need recompile whenever you add new quotes.

On Thu, 6/19/2025 5:10 AM, Chris wrote:

>
> Down side is you need recompile whenever you add new quotes.

Large collection, no rush, as low odds of new item appearing (randomly).
You could recompile your list once a month.

It you were willing to keep state info, you could sort the lines
randomly first, then serve like bog roll. That works better with
the easily-accessible (pseudo) random number generators.

   Paul

On Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:30:48 +0200, Frank Miller wrote:
> J. P. Gilliver wrote:
>
>> Anyone know of a utility that will extract a quote, at random, from a
>> file of quotes (separated by a given string, which I could change easily
>> enough - currently using "%%"), that will work under a 64-bit OS?
>
> Is this related to Mozilla Thunderbird (the topic of *this* newsgroup)?


Of course.  The random quotes are to be used in the sig line of
messages one sends from Thunderbird.

One can even automate the whole process, so a random quote is
automatically added without ongoing effort.

 1.  Configure Thunderbird in Account Settings to attach the
     sig from a text or HTML file.

 2.  Use a program such as Phranc's SigChanger [^1] to
     automatically update that text or HTML file without
     bothering you.


[^1] Phranc's SigChanger
<https://web.archive.org/web/20050305051404fw_/http://www.phranc.nl/index.html>


--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊️

“Fer from eȝe, fer from herte;” quoþ Hendyng.