Random Zen Koan Generator

Projects Portfolio Project: Mixed Messages
1

A simple script to generate a random ‘Zen Koan’ phrase.

Did not add anything above guidelines, returns random phrase when function is called.
Initially I wanted to create a document scraper function to pull structural words from an external document and format them into arrays, so that the random message was less “pre-determined” but decided to save something like that for when I have more knowledge.

REPO

Feel free to give input or ideas for modifications in the future.

Thanks!

2

I’m amused that random phrases can be attributed to random Zen masters.

Given what you have:

const returnZenFirst = () => {
    return zenFirst[Math.floor(Math.random() *9)];
};
const returnZenMiddle = () => {
    return zenMiddle[Math.floor(Math.random() *9)];
};

I don’t like the magic number 9 here. It’s also prone to failure if your array is a different length than you’ve statically assigned. It would be better to ask the array it’s length.

If you have a helper function like:

const randPick = xs => xs[Math.floor(Math.random() * xs.length)];

Then the rest of your functions that use such logic can leverage it:

const returnZenFirst = () => randPick(zenFirst);
const returnZenMiddle = () => randPick(zenMiddle);

If you find yourself writing the same thing more than once, consider a function that might shorten that process and centralize the logic. Then, if there’s an error in that logic, you need only fix it in one place.

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