SODA WORKS 2011

To this end, further interaction with this experiment may be possible through further development
of the KSSSQG code in two ways.
1) Build a simple interface for directly editing the handle, verb and subject sets. This would
allow for users to generate their own lists of divergent questions. Users would be required
to “split” their own questions, following the example question parts or the generator may
not produce meaningful output.
2) Build a more complex, smarter interface that takes a list of user input questions and
attempts to “split” the questions in code. However, then the generator will no longer be
simple or slightly stupid. This option is outside of the scope of the experiment. For now.
Appendix 1: Programming code. Code is written in PHP. Pretty simple
programming code. Comments are in green.
//initialise the word sets of handles, verbs and subjects
$handles = array(„How can I „, „What is it to „, „How can the audience „ . . . );
$verbs = array(„specify „, „use divergent thinking as „, „be „ . . .);
$subjects = array(„myself“, „the work“, „in performance“ . . .);
//etc. etc.
for ($i = 0; $i < 20; $i ++){
//generate 20 questions at a time
$question = $handles[ array_rand($handles) ] // pick a random handle
. $verbs[ array_rand($verbs) ] // add a random verb
. $subjects[ array_rand($subjects) ] // add a random subject
. „?“; // it ain‘t a question without a question mark.
print($question); //display the question
print(„“); //new line. To keep the list a bit neat.
}
The script is available to run at:
http://www.kidsthesedays.com.au/soda/question-generator.php
Keith Lim
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