title: Pilish
text: # Pilish
  
  Pilish is a style of constrained writing in which the lengths of consecutive words or sentences match the digits of the number π (pi). The shortest example is any three-letter word, such as "pie", but many longer examples have been constructed, including sentences, poems, and stories.
  
  ## Examples
  
  The following sentence is an example which matches the first fifteen digits of π:
  
     How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics!
  
  The following Pilish poem (written by Joseph Shipley) matches the first 31 digits of π:
  
      But a time I spent wandering in bloomy night;
      Yon tower, tinkling chimewise, loftily opportune.
      Out, up, and together came sudden to Sunday rite,
      The one solemnly off to correct plenilune.
  
  A full-length Pilish novel has been published, which currently holds the record of the longest Pilish text with 10,000 digits.
  
  ## Rule sets
  
  In order to deal with occurrences of the digit zero, the following rule set was introduced (referred to as Basic Pilish):
  
      In Basic Pilish, each word of n letters represents
         (1) The digit n if n < 10
         (2) The digit 0 if n = 10
  
  Since long runs of small non-zero digits are difficult to deal with naturally (such as 1121 or 1111211), another rule set called Standard Pilish was introduced:
  
      In Standard Pilish, each word of n letters represents
         (1) The digit n if n < 10
         (2) The digit 0 if n = 10
         (3) Two consecutive digits if n > 10
            (for example, a 12-letter word, such as "sleepwalking," represents the digits 1,2)
  