Dwarves Days

Dwarves Days is a simple package for creating random sets of seven items taken from other sets. It is inspired by the xkcd comic "Seven".

A demonstration site is available.

The source code is organized into two directories:

• core: The package itself
• site: The demonstration site

Installation

Node

The package is published on the npm registry as dwarves-days:

npm install --save dwarves-days

Browser

A UMD file (dwarves-days.umd.js) is provided in the package that can be used directly in the browser. This can be installed using a CDN such as jsDelivr: https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dwarves-days.umd.js

This file will export the module as CommonJS, AMD, or a dwarvesDays global variable.

(Note: Unbundled and unminified UMD modules [for CommonJS and AMD] are provided under the umd directory in the published package. These are deprecated in favor of the single UMD file mentioned previously.)

Usage

Simple example:

const dwarvesDays = require('dwarves-days');
console.log(dwarvesDays.getItems(dwarvesDays.SETS));

The getItems method takes an array of sets of seven and returns a random set of seven with items from different sets. The SETS variable is an array of sets based on the original comic, as analyzed by explain xkcd.

The input sets are represented as objects with a name and items. In TypeScript this is represented using the Set interface. For example:

import { Set } from 'dwarves-days';
const daysOfWeek: Set = {
	name: 'days of the week',
	items: [
		'Monday',
		'Tuesday',
		'Wednesday',
		'Thursday',
		'Friday',
		'Saturday',
		'Sunday',
	]
};

The result set is an array of objects each containing a setName and an itemName. In TypeScript each item is represented using the ResultItem interface. For example:

import { ResultItem } from 'dwarves-days';
const randomSet: ResultItem[] = [
	{ setName: 'Seven Seas', itemName: 'Gulf of Mexico' },
	{ setName: 'colors of the rainbow', itemName: 'green' },
	{ setName: 'seven seals', itemName: 'fifth seal' },
	{ setName: 'Seven Sisters', itemName: 'Barnard' },
	{ setName: 'days of the week', itemName: 'Sunday' },
	{ setName: 'layers of the OSI model', itemName: 'physical' },
	{ setName: 'Seven Wonders of the Ancient World', itemName: 'Lighthouse of Alexandria' },
];

To express this in the format of the original comic, one may use the first (actual) set as the prompt:

Can you name the Seven Seas?

Sure, there's...Gulf of Mexico, green, fifth seal, Barnard, Sunday, physical, Lighthouse of Alexandria.

License

The package and site are available under the MIT License. Refer to LICENSE.txt for details.