= Lorem Ipsum Generator =

Lorem Ipsum Generator provides a GTK+ graphical user interface, and a
Python module, that generates random "lorem ipsum" text. The Lorem Ipsum
Generator can produce a given quantity of paragraphs or sentences of "lorem
ipsum" text.

A screenshot of the Lorem Ipsum Generator 0.1 running on Ubuntu 7.10, with
Python 2.5.1 and PyGTK 2.12.0.

== About "lorem ipsum" text ==

"Lorem ipsum" text is jumbled, latin text, conventionally used as dummy
text to test the appearance of designs that incorporate large amounts of
text. Examples include books, magazines and web pages.

The motivation is that meaningful, English text is distracting when testing
designs. By using latin, this distraction is eliminated (for people who
don't know latin) and designers can focus on the appearance of the design
as a whole, and on the typography that is used in the page.

"Lorem ipsum" text also has the advantage that it has a similar word
distribution to regular English text. This means that, when looking at the
design as a whole, it will look similar to how it would if actual content
were used. The text does not produce distracting patterns in white-space,
as would be produced if repeating text such as "test test test" were used.

Using generated, random "lorem ipsum" text reinforces the last mentioned
benefit. As the generated text is random, it allows for an arbitrary amount
of text to be produced without relying on repetition.

== How the program generates random "lorem ipsum" text ==

The Lorem Ipsum Generator produces its text based on the analysis of a
sample file.

Markov chains are used to generate sentences with a word length
distribution similar to the sample file.

A Markov chain is a process where the next decision to be made is based
solely on the result of the last decision. In the Lorem Ipsum Generator,
sentences are built word at a time, and this can be interpreted as a series
of decisions (which word to choose). Words are chosen based on their length
only, and which word is chosen depends on the last two words chosen.

The decision is based on probability. The probability that a word of a
certain length is chosen, given the length of the last two words chosen, is
equal to the probability that a word of the same length appears in the
sample text, given that the two words before it are the same length as the
last two words chosen in the Markov chain process.

The Lorem Ipsum Generator chooses latin words from a separate dictionary
file, and substitutes in these words based on their lengths, and the
lengths chosen as part of the Markov chain. The Lorem Ipsum Generator also
takes note of periods, question marks, exclamation marks and commas in the
sample text, inserting these as part of the Markov Chain algorithm.

The use of Markov chains in the Lorem Ipsum Generator was inspired by the
Mark V. Shaney program. This program produces seemingly grammatically
correct sentences, based on a sample file.

To generate sentences and paragraphs of "lorem ipsum" text, the Lorem Ipsum
Generator uses normally distributed random variables to limit the lengths
of sentences and paragraphs. The distribution of these variables depends on
the mean and standard deviation of the sentence and paragraph lengths in
the sample text (where sentence length is defined as the number of words in
a sentence, and paragraph length as the number of sentences in a
paragraph).

== How to run the Lorem Ipsum Generator ==

 # Ensure that you have installed recent versions of [http://www.python.org
   Python], [http://www.gtk.org GTK+] and [http://www.pygtk.org PyGTK+]
 # Download and extract one of the latest Lorem Ipsum Generator archives
 # Run the "main.py" file from the archive, using Python

Desktop or application menu shortcuts can be created to start the
application using Python more easily.

More usable versions are in the works.

== Alternative tools ==

If you are unlikely to require "lorem ipsum" text very frequently, you may
find it more convenient to use the online service provided by lipsum.com
<http://www.lipsum.com>.