Podcasting Hacks

Make a Quick-and-Dirty Prompter

Use Perl CGI scripts to create a prompter that makes it easy to read from a script.

A prompter is a program that puts up the text of a script in large type and scrolls it on a timer. This makes it easy to concentrate on reading the script, instead of scrolling through pages of small type. In this hack I’ll explain how to create a prompter that makes it easy to read from a script.

The Code

Save this code as prompter.pl:

	#!/usr/bin/perl
	use FileHandle;
	use CGI;
use strict;
	
	my $q = new CGI();

	my $text = $q->param( "text" );

	print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

	if ( $text )
	{
		my $template = "";
		my $fh = new FileHandle( "prompter.html" );
		while( <$fh> ) { $template .= $_; }
		$fh->close();

		my @textitems = split /[\n+]/, $text;

		my $jsarray = join( ",", map { s/\n|\r//g; "\"$_\"" } @textitems );
		$template =~ s/\%\%lines\%\%/$jsarray/;

		print $template;
	}
	else
	{

		my $fh = new FileHandle( "prompter_form.html" );
		while( <$fh> ) { print; }
		$fh->close();
	}

Save this code as prompter.html:

	<html>
	<head><title>Podcast Prompter</title>
	<script language="Javascript">
	var lines = [
	%%lines%%
	];
	</script>
	<script language="JavaScript">
	var wordDelay = 300; // The average time per word in milliseconds function getwordcount( str ) { words = str.split( /\s+/ ); return words.length; } var currentPrompt = 0; var timeoutId = 0; function prompt( index ) { if ( index >= lines.length ) index = lines.length - 1; currentPrompt = index; if ( index > 0 ) line0.innerHTML = lines[ index ...