Bushel conversion should depend on keyword.

[cannawen]

metric_units is a sassy reddit bot that finds imperial units, and replies with a metric conversion.

Current behaviour: The bot converts bushels to ~32 lbs Enhancement request: The unit "bushel" should change depending on the commodity.

metric_units bot should search for keywords to figure out what kind of bushel it is translating, based on this link For example:

• if it finds the word "oats" in the comment, it should convert it to a 32-lb bushel.

• if it finds "soybeans" it should convert to a 60-lb bushel.

  If it does not find any keywords, it should not translate the bushel.

See this file to get started. Hint: it may help to have a "preprocess" step that searches for the unit "bushel" and replaces it with "bushel60" or "bushel32" depending on what kind of bushel it is.

Recommended skills: Javascript & regular expressions Estimated time: 1-2 hours

Comment below if you would like to take on this task!

[MFogleman]

I created this beast.

The problem with the 'Bushel' is that it is completely not defined. A bushel of oats is a different weight than a bushel of wheat. The weight of a bushel of wheat is also going to vary depending on where you are. I found This site, which has some state standards that recognize some federal standards.

You also have to consider that the bushels weight assumes a specific moisture and other states of the product in certain products.

From https://www.thebalance.com/how-much-is-a-bushel-1389308

A bushel of tomatoes, for example, is supposed to weigh 56 pounds, as is a bushel of shelled corn. But if the corn is still in ears, a bushel is supposed to weigh a whopping 70 pounds. Leaves and greens take up more space with less weight, so a bushel of spinach need only be 20 pounds.

So you are looking at close to 100 usage cases for a bushel. This list would still be inaccurate in certain scenarios due to variances of the definition of a bushel of that product, and also not inclusive of all use cases.

Other options include

a measure of capacity equal to 64 US pints (equivalent to 35.2 liters), used for dry goods. and convert it to kilograms. Or pick a common agricultural bushel, and add a disclaimer (maybe links to other bushel definitions).

I think no matter what, a disclaimer of how vague a 'bushel' is, should probably be included.

[cannawen]

Yeah... I didn't realize how many kinds of bushels there were until all the farmers were upset in my reddit feedback thread, haha! I asked them if a volumetric conversion would be better, and they said no.

I feel like some simple keyword matching would help a lot, like if a post said "1 bushel of tomatoes" then we would use tomato-bushels.

Code-wise it might not be so bad if we made a object like

[
  {
    regex: /tomato(?:es)?/,
    lbs: 56
  },
  {
    regex: /spinach/,
    lbs: 20
  },
  {
    regex: function(inputString) {
      return inputString.match("ear") && inputString.match("corn");
    },
    lbs: 70
  }
  ...
]

But yes, it might be a fair bit of work to take into account ALL the bushel types... hmm. Maybe we can just start with a few, and then expand our bushel-recognition slowly? Is this a task you would like to continue, or are you sick of dealing with bushels? :o)

[MFogleman]

I'd like to give it a shot, but don't know how much time I'll have to devote to it. If anyone else wants to as well (It is hacktoberfest), I won't be offended. I think there is enough work and edge cases to keep multiple contributors busy.

[cannawen]

@MFogleman Maybe you can do 2-3 bushel numbers to get the ball rolling, and I can make issues afterwards for other people to add more bushel types? If you get too busy just give me a shout here and I can try to find someone else to do it. Thank you!! :)

[cannawen]

Hey @MFogleman, we have just added a CONTRIBUTING.md doc, please check it out when you have time! Sections "Etiquette", "Work on an issue" and "Make a PR" are most important

[cannawen]

I'm going to temporarily remove bushels from all conversions to solve this issue for now, an issue can be opened later on to fix it "properly," taking into account keywords :)