Python Cowsay

A rewrite of cowsay in python. Allows for parsing of existing .cow files.

Install

pip install python-cowsay

Usage

The classic cowsay can be generated by the cowsay or cowthink functions:

from cowsay import cowsay

message = """
The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served
the family nothing but leftovers.  The original meal has never been found.
		-- Calvin Trillin
""".strip()
print(cowsay(message))

Will yield:

 __________________________________________ 
/ The most remarkable thing about my       \
| mother is that for thirty years she      |
| served the family nothing but leftovers. |
| The original meal has never been found.  |
|                                          |
\ -- Calvin Trillin                        /
 ------------------------------------------ 
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

The parameters for these functions are:

• message – a string to wrap in the text bubble
• cow='default' – the name of the cow (valid names from list_cows)
• preset=None – the original cowsay presets: -bggpstwy
• eyes=Option.eyes – A custom eye string
• tongue=Option.tongue – A custom tongue string
• width=40 – The width of the text bubble
• wrap_text=True – Whether text should be wrapped in the bubble
• cowfile=None – A custom string representing a cow

Other Functions

The available builtin cows can be found with list_cows. A cow can be chosen randomly from this list with get_random_cow.

Using Your Own Cows

A custom .cow file can be parsed using the read_dot_cow function which takes a TextIO stream. I.e., You can either create a TextIO from a string or read a file.

The read_dot_cow will look for the first heredoc in the steam and extract the heredoc contents. If no heredoc exists, the whole stream is used instead. Escape characters are then escaped. The default escape characters can be changed by passing in an optional escape dictionary parameter mapping escape codes to their chars.

For example:

from io import StringIO

from cowsay import read_dot_cow, cowthink

cow = read_dot_cow(StringIO("""
$the_cow = <<EOC;
         $thoughts
          $thoughts
           ___
          (o o)
         (  V  )
        /--m-m-
EOC
"""))
message = """
Nothing is illegal if one hundred businessmen decide to do it.
        -- Andrew Young
""".strip()
print(cowthink(message, cowfile=cow))

Will yield:

 ___________________________________ 
( Nothing is illegal if one hundred )
( businessmen decide to do it.      )
(                                   )
( -- Andrew Young                   )
 ----------------------------------- 
         o
          o
           ___
          (o o)
         (  V  )
        /--m-m-