Twaddle offers a handful of functions. Most of these are related to behaviour in looping or branching and are described in more depth in the related documentation.
Twaddle functions are enclosed within square brackets. The square brackets contain the function name, then its arguments.
The function name is separated from any arguments by a colon. If the function accepts multiple arguments, they are separated from each other by a semicolon. So this:
[rand:0,10]
calls the rand function with two arguments: 0, and 10.
Some functions take effect wherever they are encountered in the Twaddle sentence, others are “block functions”. Block functions apply their effect to the next block encountered within the sentence.
See block functions for a fuller description.
Block functions are marked in the list below.
The rand function generates a random integer. It requires two arguments:
[rand:<min>;<max>]
min is the minimum value of the integer generated
max is the maximum value of the integer generated
The limits are inclusive.
The repeat function, rep, is a block function.
It repeats the block. See loops for a full description.
It requires one argument:
[rep:<n>]
n is the number of repetitions
The separator function, sep, is a block function.
It defines a separator between repetitions of a
block. See loops for a full description.
It requires one argument:
[sep:<text>]
text is the text to be inserted as a separator
The first function, first, is a block function.
It defines text to be inserted before the first
repetition of a block. See loops for a full description.
It requires one argument:
[first:<text>]
text is the text to be inserted before the first repetition### First
The last function, last, is a block function.
It defines text to be inserted before the last repetition of a block.
See loops for a full description.
It requires one argument:
[last:<text>]
text is the text to be inserted before the last repetition
The synchronizer function, sync, is a block function.
It defines a synchronizer. On first use it requires
two arguments:
[sync:<name>;<type>]
name is the name of the synchronizer
type is the type of synchronizer
On subsequent uses, it requires one argument:
[sync:<name>]
name is the name of the synchronizer.
For backwards-compatibility x is supported as a synonym of sync, with the
same syntax, but its use is not recommended except where saving characters is
a priority.
By default the output of Twaddle retains capitalization from the input and
in the case of lookups from dictionary entries. The case
function, case, changes this. It sets a
capitalization strategy. It requires one argument:
[case:<strategy>]
strategy is the capitalization strategy to use.
The capitalization strategy affects the entire sentence from the point
it is applied, it is not restricted by e.g. blocks. To
cancel the effect of a capitalization strategy, apply [case:none].
Regular expressions can be used to match and replace patterns within text.
The pattern takes the place of the function name, and is demarcated by a
double slash // at each end. Two arguments are accepted:
[//<regex>//:<text>;<replacement>]
regex is the regex to be run,
text is the text over which the regex should run
replacement is the text which should be used as a replacement for each regex match
See the regex documentation page for more details.
The match function can only be used within the replacement text argument a regex. It inserts the text matching the regex. It takes no arguments.
[match]
See the regex documentation page for more details.
The hide function is a block function.
It allows for a block to be processed but excluded from the output.
The clear function clears any defined labels and
synchronizers. It takes no arguments:
[clear]
This function is primarily useful in persistent mode,
although it can also be used within a Twaddle sentence if desired. When
used within a sentence, any labels and synchronizers defined before the
clear function is inserted will be reset from the point in the sentence
where the clear function is used. For example:
<noun::=a> <noun::=a> [clear]<noun::=a> <noun::=a>
May produce sentences like
raisin raisin shirt shirt
jug jug llama llama
robin robin market market