Notes revision 1.1.1.2
1 # @(#)Notes 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 2 3 Warning: 4 The fortunes contained in the fortune database have been collected 5 haphazardly from a cacophony of sources, in number so huge it 6 boggles the mind. It is impossible to do any meaningful quality 7 control on attributions, or lack thereof, or exactness of the quote. 8 Since this database is not used for profit, and since entire works 9 are not published, it falls under fair use, as we understand it. 10 However, if any half-assed idiot decides to make a profit off of 11 this, they will need to double check it all, and nobody not involved 12 of such an effort makes any warranty that anything in the database 13 bears any relation to the real world of literature, law, or other 14 bizzarrity. 15 16 ==> GENERAL INFORMATION 17 By default, fortune retrieves its fortune files from the directory 18 /usr/share/games/fortune. A fortune file has two parts: the source file 19 (which contains the fortunes themselves) and the data file which describes 20 the fortunes. The data fil always has the same name as the fortune file 21 with the string ".dat" concatenated, i.e. "fort" is the standard fortune 22 database, and "fort.dat" is the data file which describes it. See 23 strfile(8) for more information on creating the data files. 24 Fortunes are split into potentially offensive and not potentially 25 offensive parts. The offensive version of a file has the same name as the 26 non-offensive version with "-o" concatenated, i.e. "fort" is the standard 27 fortune database, and "fort-o" is the standard offensive database. The 28 fortune program automatically assumes that any file with a name ending in 29 "-o" is potentially offensive, and should therefore only be displayed if 30 explicitly requested, either with the -o option or by specifying a file name 31 on the command line. 32 Potentially offensive fortune files should NEVER be maintained in 33 clear text on the system. They are rotated (see caesar(6)) 13 positions. 34 To create a new, potentially offensive database, use caesar to rotate it, 35 and then create its data file with the -x option to strfile(8). The fortune 36 program automatically decrypts the text when it prints entries from such 37 databases. 38 Anything which would not make it onto network prime time programming 39 (or which would only be broadcast if some discredited kind of guy said it) 40 MUST be in the potentially offensive database. Fortunes containing any 41 explicit language (see George Carlin's recent updated list) MUST be in the 42 potentially offensive database. Political and religious opinions are often 43 sequestered in the potentially offensive section as well. Anything which 44 assumes as a world view blatantly racist, mysogynist (sexist), or homophobic 45 ideas should not be in either, since they are not really funny unless *you* 46 are racist, mysogynist, or homophobic. 47 The point of this is that people have should have a reasonable 48 expectation that, should they just run "fortune", they will not be offended. 49 We know that some people take offense at anything, but normal people do have 50 opinions, too, and have a right not to have their sensibilities offended by 51 a program which is supposed to be entertaining. People who run "fortune 52 -o" or "fortune -a" are saying, in effect, that they are willing to have 53 their sensibilities tweaked. However, they should not have their personal 54 worth seriously (i.e., not in jest) assaulted. Jokes which depend for their 55 humor on racist, mysogynist, or homophobic stereotypes *do* seriously 56 assault individual personal worth, and in an general entertainment medium 57 we should be able to get by without it. 58 59 ==> FORMATTING 60 This file describes the format for fortunes in the database. This 61 is done in detail to make it easier to keep track of things. Any rule given 62 here may be broken to make a better joke. 63 64 [All examples are indented by one tab stop -- KCRCA] 65 66 Numbers should be given in parentheses, e.g., 67 68 (1) Everything depends. 69 (2) Nothing is always. 70 (3) Everything is sometimes. 71 72 Attributions are two tab stops, followed by two hyphens, followed by a 73 space, followed by the attribution, and are *not* preceded by blank 74 lines. Book, journal, movie, and all other titles are in quotes, e.g., 75 76 $100 invested at 7% interest for 100 years will become $100,000, at 77 which time it will be worth absolutely nothing. 78 -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love" 79 80 Attributions which do not fit on one (72 char) line should be continued 81 on a line which lines up below the first text of the attribution, e.g., 82 83 -- A very long attribution which might not fit on one 84 line, "Ken Arnold's Stupid Sayings" 85 86 Single paragraph fortunes are in left justified (non-indented) paragraphs 87 unless they fall into another category listed below (see example above). 88 Longer fortunes should also be in left justified paragraphs, but if this 89 makes it too long, try indented paragraphs, with indentations of either one 90 tab stop or 5 chars. Indentations of less than 5 are too hard to read. 91 92 Laws have the title left justified and capitalized, followed by a colon, 93 with all the text of the law itself indented one tab stop, initially 94 capitalized, e.g., 95 96 A Law of Computer Programming: 97 Make it possible for programmers to write in English and 98 you will find the programmers cannot write in English. 99 100 Limericks are indented as follows, all lines capitalized: 101 102 A computer, to print out a fact, 103 Will divide, multiply, and subtract. 104 But this output can be 105 No more than debris, 106 If the input was short of exact. 107 108 Accents precede the letter they are over, e.g., "`^He" for e with a grave 109 accent. Underlining is done on a word-by-word basis, with the underlines 110 preceding the word, e.g., "__^H^Hhi ____^H^H^H^Hthere". 111 112 No fortune should run beyond 72 characters on a single line without good 113 justification (er, no pun intended). And no right margin justification, 114 either. Sorry. For BSD people, there is a program called "fmt" which can 115 make this kind of formatting easier. 116 117 Definitions are given with the word or phrase left justified, followed by 118 the part of speech (if appropriate) and a colon. The definition starts 119 indented by one tab stop, with subsequent lines left justified, e.g., 120 121 Afternoon, n.: 122 That part of the day we spend worrying about how we wasted 123 the morning. 124 125 Quotes are sometimes put around statements which are funnier or make more 126 sense if they are understood as being spoken, rather than written, 127 communication, e.g., 128 129 "All my friends and I are crazy. That's the only thing that 130 keeps us sane." 131 132 Ellipses are always surrounded by spaces, except when next to punctuation, 133 and are three dots long. 134 135 "... all the modern inconveniences ..." 136 -- Mark Twain 137 138 Human initials always have spaces after the periods, e.g, "P. T. Barnum", 139 not "P.T. Barnum". However, "P.T.A.", not "P. T. A.". 140 141 All fortunes should be attributed, but if and only if they are original with 142 somebody. Many people have said things that are folk sayings (i.e., are 143 common among the folk (i.e., us common slobs)). There is nothing wrong with 144 this, of course, but such statements should not be attributed to individuals 145 who did not invent them. 146 147 Horoscopes should have the sign indented by one tab stop, followed by the 148 dates of the sign, with the text left justified below it, e.g., 149 150 AQUARIUS (Jan 20 - Feb 18) 151 You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You 152 lie a great deal. On the other hand, you are inclined to be 153 careless and impractical, causing you to make the same mistakes over 154 and over again. People think you are stupid. 155 156 Single quotes should not be used except as quotes within quotes. Not even 157 single quotes masquerading as double quotes are to be used, e.g., don't say 158 ``hi there'' or `hi there' or 'hi there', but "hi there". However, you 159 *can* say "I said, `hi there'". 160 161 A long poem or song can be ordered as follows in order to make it fit on a 162 screen (fortunes should be 19 lines or less if at all possible) (numbers 163 here are stanza numbers): 164 165 11111111111111111111 166 11111111111111111111 167 11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222 168 11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222 169 22222222222222222222 170 33333333333333333333 22222222222222222222 171 33333333333333333333 172 33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444 173 33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444 174 44444444444444444444 175 44444444444444444444 176 177 178
Indexes created Sat Oct 25 01:09:55 GMT 2025