The script (Perl or Python) create a tsv-file for automatized scheduling of tweets to run a bot like Semester Progress. Just adjust the beginning and end date of the semester (or any other period you want to display) in the script. In this version, the dates follow the so called Zeitregime of TU Dresden, Germany.
The script calculates the length of the period in seconds (!), divides it in 100 parts and creates a tweet with a progress bar for exactly the point in time at which a further percentage step is reached.
You can run the scripts from the command line:
perl semesterprogress.pl
python semesterprogress.py
The format of the ouput is compatible with autoChirp, a small and easy-to-use webapplication to ease the scheduled publication of the tweets. Just create a new twitter account, log in at autoChirp, upload the tsv-file and there you go.
As you can see, this bot is inspired by the wonderful Year Progress.
If you set up your own version of Semester Progress, I am happe to be informed via email: [email protected].