# IBM Poem Generator, nm, 4 April 2008

vocab = ['...'] * 26
# Get a vocabulary word (the user types one "at random") for each letter a-z
for i in range(26):
  anyword = raw_input(chr(97+i) + '=')
  vocab[i] = anyword.lower()
  # No error checking yet! Type something with numerals or punctuation and
  # all bets are off...
tlw = '...'
# Ask for "IBM" or another three-letter word or acronym
while not tlw.isalpha():
  tlw = raw_input('Provide a 3 letter word or phrase: ')
  tlw = tlw.lower()
# The while condition and lower() should ensure only a-z occurs
# Less than three letters ... should crash the program!
# More than three letters can be typed in, and the first three will be used.
title = vocab[ord(tlw[0]) - 97] + ' ' + vocab[ord(tlw[1]) - 97] + \
  ' ' + vocab[ord(tlw[2]) - 97]
print title
# The title was obtained by looking up three words corresponding to the three
# letters just typed in.
firstthree = [''] * 3
for i in range(3):
  for c in vocab[ord(tlw[i]) - 97]:
     firstthree[i] += vocab[ord(c) - 97] + ' '
  print firstthree[i]
# This basically repeats the process, running over the title itself rather
# than the three-letter word.

# Generation of the remaining lines is left as an exercise. There is one
# more step of running over lines 1-3 and generating a line for each word.

# In fact, you can generalize the producedure to avoid the code duplication
# that I've started, if you like.