step03_write_scratchpad.py

import os

# Define the path to the directory containing the text files
folder_path = "summaries"

# Create a list to store the contents of each file
file_contents = []

# Loop through each file in the directory
for filename in os.listdir(folder_path):
    if filename.endswith(".txt"):
        # Open the file and read its contents as UTF-8, ignoring errors
        with open(os.path.join(folder_path, filename), "r", encoding="utf-8", errors="ignore") as f:
            file_contents.append(f.read())

# Merge the contents of all files with a double newline between each chunk
merged_contents = "\n\n\n".join(file_contents)

# Write the merged contents to a new file called "scratchpad.txt" as UTF-8, ignoring errors
with open("scratchpad.txt", "w", encoding="utf-8", errors="ignore") as f:
    f.write(merged_contents)