[Numpy-discussion] oblique text

[Alexandre Leray]

Dear all,

I'm trying to create oblique texts by reordering their letters. Here is 
an exemple to illustrate this (to be display in a monospaced font):

 >>> text = """\
... This
... is
... a
... test"""
 >>> print(make_oblique(text))
T
i h
a s i
t    s
   e
     s
       t


So far I have this:

def make_oblique(text):
     words = text.splitlines()
     matrix = [[" " for i in xrange(len(words) + len(max(words)))] \
             for j in xrange(len(words) + len(max(words)))]
     for i, word in enumerate(words):
         for j, letter in enumerate(word):
             matrix[j + i][j] = letter
     matrix = map(lambda x: "".join(x), matrix)
     return "\n".join(matrix)

But it is not very flexible. For instance, I'd like to control the "line 
spacing" (by adding extra spaces in between letters since it isn't real 
lines). I just found numpy and I have the intuition that it could do the 
job since it deals with matrices.

Am I right? If so how would you do such a thing?

Thanks!

Alex