Package: mkv-this
disclaimermkv-thismakes some of the features of the excellentmarkovifymodule available as a command line tool. i started on it because i wanted to process my own offline files the same wayfedibooksprocesses mastodon toots. then i published it to share with friends. i'm a novice coder, so you are a programmer and felt like picking it up and improving on it, then by all means!the rest of these notes are for end users.mkv-thismkv-thisis a script that outputs a bunch of bot-like sentences based on a bank of text that you feed it, either from a local text file, a directory of text files, or a URL, and saves the results to another text file. if you run it again with the same output file, new results are appended after old ones.both commands allow you to add a second file or URL to the input, so you can combine your secret diary with some vile shit from the webz.installinginstall it withpip, the python package manager:python3 -m pip install mkv-thisorpip install mkv-thisto do this you needpython3andpip. install them through your system's package manager. on debian (+ derivatives), for example, you'd run:sudo apt install python3 python3-pipmarkovifyis a dependency, but should install along withmkv-this.if you get sth likeModuleNotFound error: No module named '$modulename', just runpip install $modulenameto get the missing module.optionsthe script implements a number of the basicmarkovifyoptions, so you can specify:how many sentences to output (default = 5; NB: if your input does not use initial capitals, each 'sentence' will be more like a paragraph).the state size, i.e. the number of preceding words to be used in calculating the choice of the next word (default = 2).a maximum sentence length, in characters.the amount of (verbatim) overlap allowed between input and output.if your text's sentences end with newlines rather than full-stops. handy for inputting poetry.an additional file or URL to use for text input.the relative weight to give to the second file/URL if used.runmkv-this -hto see how to use all the options.directoriesmkv-thisaccepts a directory as input if you pass it the-dflag. it will read all text files found in it (including in all subdirectories) and use them as input.if for some reason you want to concatenate some files yourself, you can easily do so from the command line, then process the resulting file:copy all your text files into a directorycd into the directoryruncat * > outputfile.txtrun mkv-this on the file:mkv-this outputfile.txtpdfssince  0.2.3,mkv-thiscan take pdfs as input. but to do this you first need to downloadpdfminer.sixwithpip. because of its size,pdfmineris not installed by default withmkv-this. converting pdfs like this is not fast, andmkv-thismust convert the pdf each time. so if you envisage using a large pdf many times, you would be better off converting it to plain text yourself.file typesfor directories of text files, the currently accepted file extensions are.txt,.organd.md. it is trivial to add others, so if you want one included just ask.if you don't have text files, but odt files, use a tool likeodt2txtorunoconvto convert them to text en masse. both are available in the repos.for best resultsfeedmkv-thislarge-ish amounts of well punctuated text. it works best if you bulk replace/remove as much mess as possible (code, timestamps, HTML, links, metadata, stars, bullets, lines, tables, etc.), unless you want mashed versions of those things in your output. (no need to clean up the webpages you input though!)you’ll probably want to edit or select things from the output. it doesn't rly output print-ready boilerplate bosh, although many bots are happily publishing its output directly.for a few further tips, seehttps://github.com/jsvine/markovify#basic-usage.happy zaning.macositseemsto run on macos.you may already have python installed. if not, installhomebrew, edit your PATH so that it works, then installpython3withbrew install python3. if you are already running an old version ofhomebrewyou might need to runbrew install python3 && brew postinstall python3to getpython3andpiprunning right.i know nothing about macs so if you ask me for help i'll just send you random copypasta from the interwebs.todohook it up to a web-scraper.option to also append input model to a saved JSON file. (i.e.text_model.to_json(),markovify.Text.from_json()). that way you could build up a bank over time.learn how to programme.