`mkv-this` is a little script that outputs a bunch of bot-like sentences based on a bank of text that you feed it. the results are saved to a text file. if you run it again with the same output file, the new results are appended after the old ones.
`mkv-this` simply makes some of the features of the excellent `markovify` python module available as a command line tool. it was written by a total novice, so you probably shouldn’t download it. i only learned about `argparser` yesterday, and pypi.org today, no matter what day it is. tomorrow i might learn about `os` and `sys`. and then maybe even `cookiecutter`!
install it with `pip`, the python package manager:
`python3 -m pip install mkv-this`
or
`pip install mkv-this`
to do this you need `python3` and `pip`. if you don't have them, install them through your system's package manager. on debian (+ derivatives), for example, you'd run:
`sudo apt install python3 python3-pip`
`markovify` is also a dependency, but it should install along with `mkv-this`.
you may already have python installed. if not, you first need to install [homebrew](https://brew.sh/#install), edit your PATH so that it works, then install `python3` with `brew install python3`. if you are already running an old version of `homebrew` you might need to run `brew install python3 && brew postinstall python3` to get `python3` and `pip` running right.
`mkv-this` can only take two files as input material each time. if you want to input a stack of files, use `mkv-this-dir`. it allows you to specify a directory and all text files in it will be used as input material.
if for some reason you want to get a similar funtionality with `mkv-this`, you can easily concatenate some files yourself in bash, then process them:
* copy all your text files into a directory
* cd into the directory
* run `cat * > outputfile.txt`
* run mkv-this on your newly created file: `mkv-this outputfile.txt`
you need to input plain text files. currently accepted file extensions are `.txt`, `.org` and `.md`. it is trivial to add others, so if you want one included just ask.
feed `mkv-this` large-ish amounts of well punctuated text. it works best if you bulk replace/remove as much mess as possible (URLs, metadata, stars, bullets, etc.), unless you want mashed versions of those things in your output.
if your input text doesn’t use full-stops to mark the ends of sentences, try putting each 'sentence' on a newline, and then write to the maintainer of this package to complain about how that option isn't yet implemented. then the parser wont read your entire file as one big sentence and output nothing.
you’ll probably want to edit the output. it is very much supposed to be a kind of raw material rather than print-ready boilerplate bosh, although many bots are happily publishing such output directly. you might find that it prompts you to edit it like a bot yourself.
for a few further tips, see https://github.com/jsvine/markovify#basic-usage.
