Yesterday I posted a little script for randomizing WinAmp playlists, Playlist Randomization. I ended the post with an interest in writing the same thing in Ruby. I was able to do it in about ten minutes.

# rand_playlist.rb
lines = []
File.open("#{ARGV[0]}","r") do |file|
    while(line = file.gets)
        unless line[0..0] == '#' 
            lines << line
        end
    end
end

lines.sort! { rand(3) - 1 }

out_file = File.new("random_#{ARGV[0]}","w");
lines.each do |line|
    out_file.puts line
end

You run this one the same as the last, except using ruby:

ruby rand_playlist.rb rock_n_roll.m3u

I wonder if there are other languages I should try implementing this in.