# IBM Poem Generator, complete version, nm, 4 April 2008

# This version is a complete model of Emmett William's process in
# generating "The IBM Poem," as I understand it, except that, being a
# console program, it does not increase the size of the type as words
# are re-used.
# That could be done, too - for instance, if the output were in HTML 
# with CSS.

vocab = [''] * 26

def expand(word):
  # A general method to expand a sequence of letters into words
  expanded = []
  for letter in word:
    expanded.append(vocab[ord(letter) - 97])
  return expanded

print "Provide a word (a sequence of letters) for each letter from a to z."

# Get a vocabulary word (the user types one "at random") for each letter a-z
for i in range(26):
  anyword = ''
  while anyword == '' or not anyword.isalpha():
    anyword = raw_input(chr(97+i) + '=')
  vocab[i] = anyword.lower()

# Ask for "IBM" or another three-letter word or acronym
tlw = ''
while len(tlw) <> 3 and not tlw.isalpha():
  tlw = raw_input('Provide a 3 letter word or phrase: ')
  tlw = tlw.lower()
seed = [tlw]
print

# Expand three times, printing along the way:
# 0. Three-letter word into title
# 1. Title into three lines
# 2. Each of the three lines into as many lines as there are words
newseed = []
for i in range(3):
  for word in seed:
    words = expand(word)
    line = ' '.join(words)
    print line
    if i == 0:
      print
    newseed += words
  seed = newseed
  newseed = []