In this chapter, we’ll write a program called mad.py that will read a file given as a positional argument and find all the placeholders in angle brackets, like <verb> or <adjective>. For each placeholder, we’ll prompt the user for the part of speech being requested, like “Give me a verb” and “Give me an adjective.” (Notice that you’ll need to use the correct article, just as in chapter 2.) Each value from the user will then replace the placeholder in the text, so if the user says “drive” for the verb, then <verb> in the text will be replaced with drive. When all the placeholders have been replaced with inputs from the user, we’ll print out the new text.
There is a 17_mad_libs/inputs directory with some sample files you can use, but I also encourage you to create your own. For instance, here is a version of the “fox” text:
$ cd 17_mad_libs $ cat inputs/fox.txt The quick <adjective> <noun> jumps <preposition> the lazy <noun>.