From: Daniel Moore <yahivin@...>
Date: 2009-05-18T02:39:54+09:00
Subject: [QUIZ][SUMMARY] Big Words (#204)

This week's quiz was solved by Matthias Reitinger. Let's check out the solution:

    require 'rubygems'
    require 'text'

    def big_word(str, fontfile='banner.flf')
      font = Text::Figlet::Font.new(fontfile)
      figlet = Text::Figlet::Typesetter.new(font)
      figlet[str]
    end

Matthias uses the `Text` gem[1] to display fonts using the FIGlet[2]
format. The `big_word` method takes an optional font file parameter to
allow different styles. It operates by loading the file, creating a
FIGlet Typesetter from the font, and passing the input string to the
Typesetter. An easy to use and straightforward library.

There are a couple of prerequisites to use the program, though. You'll
need the `Text` gem and a font file[3]. I found that when installing
the gem, I needed to use the command `gem install Text`; the command
with lowercase `text` wouldn't work for me. Matthias also links to the
FIGlet font database[4] where there are some amazing fonts available.

In addition to FIGlet, the `Text` gem includes many other useful
libraries like Metaphone and Soundex. The Metaphone component of the
`Text` gem was used way back on Quiz #140[5] to sound out T-Shirts.

Thank you, Matthias, for sharing this useful library.

     ____            __                  _____
    /\  _`\         /\ \                /\  __`\          __
    \ \ \L\ \  __  __\ \ \____  __  __  \ \ \/\ \  __  __/\_\  ____
     \ \ ,  / /\ \/\ \ \ '__`\/\ \/\ \   \ \ \ \ \/\ \/\ \/\ \/\_ ,`\
      \ \ \\ \\ \ \_\ \ \ \L\ \ \ \_\ \   \ \ \\'\\ \ \_\ \ \ \/_/  /_
       \ \_\ \_\ \____/\ \_,__/\/`____ \   \ \___\_\ \____/\ \_\/\____\
        \/_/\/ /\/___/  \/___/  `/___/> \   \/__//_/\/___/  \/_/\/____/
                                   /\___/
                                   \/__/


[1]: http://text.rubyforge.org/
[2]: http://www.figlet.org/
[3]: http://www.figlet.org/fonts/banner.flf
[4]: http://www.figlet.org/fontdb.cgi
[5]: http://rubyquiz.com/quiz140.html