Back when I was using 'banner', I was a newcomer to Perl. And one of the things I did to amuse myself as an exercise was to write my own versions of banner. This one I found particularly edifying. I hope you will, too.

Rob

Update: I added in mappings for /SH/ /NG/ /NK/ /MP/ /MB/. Please note that the numbering 'system' used is actually Mayan-derived (though it's not base 20). 

   (    /       ^        /    (
  ____   __   '_ _ _____/ __ ____ '
\)|_)_)\)| )  |(_(_|/   \)| )| ) )|
(_|    (_|         |\_/   |


-- 
#!/usr/local/bin/perl

###########################################################
#
#         /       ^
#     __ _ _ _ _      __ ____
#     | )(_(_|(_)\) : |_)/
#     |   ___|   (_   |  \_-
#
#
###########################################################

%letter = (
'0' =>   "  \n".
         "/\\\n".
         "\\/\n".
         "  \n",

'1' =>   " \n".
         "o\n".
         " \n".
         " \n",

'2' =>   " \n".
         "o\n".
         "o\n".
         " \n",

'3' =>   " \n".
         "o\n".
         "o\n".
         "o\n",

'4' =>   "o\n".
         "o\n".
         "o\n".
         "o\n",

'5' =>   "|\n".
         "|\n".
         "|\n".
         "|\n",

'6' =>   " |\n".
         "o|\n".
         " |\n".
         " |\n",

'7' =>   " |\n".
         "o|\n".
         "o|\n".
         " |\n",

'8' =>   " |\n".
         "o|\n".
         "o|\n".
         "o|\n",

'9' =>   "o|\n".
         "o|\n".
         "o|\n".
         "o|\n",

'!' =>   "  \n".
         "  \n".
         "::\n".
         "  \n",

"\"" =>  "``\n".
         "  \n".
         "  \n".
         "  \n",

'.' =>   "   \n".
         "   \n".
         " : \n".
         "   \n",

'-' =>   " \n".
         "-\n".
         "-\n".
         " \n",

' ' =>   "  \n".
         "  \n".
         "  \n".
         "  \n",

'A' =>   " \n".
         "^\n".
         "|\n".
         " \n",     

'B' =>   "     \n".
         "____ \n" .
         "|_)_)\n".
         "|    \n",

'C' =>   "   \n".
         "_ _\n".
         "(_|\n".
         "  |\n",

'CH' =>  "  |\n".
         "_ |\n".
         "(_|\n".
         "   \n",
         
'D' =>   "     \n".
         "____ \n".
         "| ) )\n".
         "|    \n",

'DH' =>  "|    \n".
         "|___ \n".
         "| ) )\n".
         "     \n",

'THE' => "|    \n".
         "|___ \n".
         "| ) )\n".
         "|    \n",

'E' =>   " \n".
         "'\n".
         "|\n".
         " \n",

'F' =>   "|  \n".
         "|_ \n".
         "|_)\n".
         "   \n",

'OF' =>  "|  \n".
         "|_ \n".  
         "|_)\n".
         "|  \n",

'G' =>   "     \n".
         "_ _ _\n".
         "(_(_|\n".
         "    |\n",

'H' =>   "   \n".
         "(\\ \n".
         " /)\n".
         "   \n",

'I' =>   " \n".
         ".\n".
         "|\n".
         " \n",

'J' =>   "    |\n".
         "_ _ |\n".
         "(_(_|\n".
         "     \n",

'K' =>   "   \n".
         "_ _\n".
         "(_|\n".
         "  |\n",

'L' =>   "    \n".
         "____\n".   
         "/   \n".
         "\\_/ \n",

'M' =>   "     \n".
         "____ \n".
         "|_)_)\n".
         "     \n",


'MP' =>  "   \n".
         "__ \n".
         "|_)\n".
         "|_ \n",

'MB' =>  "     \n".
         "____ \n".
         "|_)_)\n".
         "|___ \n",

'N' =>   "     \n".
         "____ \n".
         "| ) )\n".
         "     \n",

'NK' =>  "    \n".
         " _ _\n".
         " (_|\n".
         "  _|\n",
   
'NG' =>  "     \n".
         "_ _ _\n".
         "(_(_|\n".
         " ___|\n",

'O' =>   " _\n".
         "( \n".
         "| \n".
         "  \n",

'OU' =>  " _ \n".
         "( )\n".
         " / \n".
         " \\ \n",

'P' =>   "   \n".
         "__ \n". 
         "|_)\n".
         "|  \n",

'Q' =>   "   \n".
         "___\n". 
         "(_|\n".
         "  |\n",

'R' =>   "  \n".
         "  \n".
         "\\)\n".
         "(_\n",
 
'S' =>   " /\n".
         "/ \n".  
         "\\)\n".
         "  \n",

'SH' =>  "/ \n".
         "\\)\n".
         "\\)\n".
         "  \n",

'T' =>   "   \n".
         "__ \n".
         "| )\n".
         "|  \n",

'TH' =>  "|  \n".
         "|_ \n".
         "| )\n".
         "   \n",

'U' =>   "_ \n".
         " )\n".
         " |\n".
         "  \n",

'V' =>   "|    \n".
         "|___ \n".
         "|_)_)\n".
         "     \n",

'W' =>   "   \n".
         " _ \n".
         "(_)\n".
         "   \n",

'X' =>   "    \n".
         "_ _ \n".
         "(_| \n".
         "  |)\n",
 
'Y' =>   "  \n".
         "_ \n".
         "/)\n".
         "  \n",
 
'Z' =>   "  \n".
         "(\\\n".
         " /\n".
         "/ \n",
);

%vow = ( 'A', '^', 'E', '/', 'I', '.', 'O', '(', 'U', ')');

while($msg = shift)
{
   @out  = ();
   $msg  =~ tr/a-z/A-Z/;
   @msg  = split('', $msg);
   $msg  = join(':', @msg);
 
   #
   # do some grouping
   #
   $msg =~ s/O:U/OU/g;
   $msg =~ s/ :T:H:E: / :THE: /g;
   $msg =~ s/^T:H:E: /THE: /g;
   $msg =~ s/T:H/TH/g;
   $msg =~ s/D:H/DH/g;
   $msg =~ s/S:H/SH/g;
   $msg =~ s/C:H/CH/g;
   $msg =~ s/M:B/MB/g;
   $msg =~ s/M:P/MP/g;
   $msg =~ s/N:K/NK/g;
   $msg =~ s/N:G/NG/g;
   $msg =~ s/([AEIOU]):([BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXYZ])/$1$2/g;

   @msg  = split(':', $msg);

   $vowel = 0;
   foreach $dude (@msg)
   {
      if ($letter{$dude})    # it's in the database
      {
         @l = split("\n", $letter{$dude});

         for ($j = 0; $j < 4; $j++)
         {
            $out[$j] .= $l[$j];
         }
      }
      elsif ($dude =~ /([AEIOU])([BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXYZ]+)/) # got a v
+owel
      {
         @l = &vowelize($1, $2);
      
         for ($j = 0; $j < 4; $j++)
         {
            $out[$j] .= $l[$j];
         }
      }
   }
   print "\n";
   print join("\n", @out);
   print "\n";
}

#
# vowelize: superimpose a vowel mark over a consonant
#
sub vowelize
{
    local($vowel, $consonant) = @_;

   $line = 0;

   @consonant    = split("\n", $letter{$consonant});
   $vowelMark    = $vow{$vowel}; 

   @oldline      = split('', $consonant[$line]);
   splice(@oldline, 1, 1, $vowelMark);

   $consonant[$line] = join('', @oldline);

   return @consonant;
}

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In reply to Tengwar by rje

Title:
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