Common LISP, 670 characters
I'm a LISP newbie, and this is an attempt using an hash table for counting (so probably not the most compact method).
(flet((r()(let((x(read-char t nil)))(and x(char-downcase x)))))(do((c(
make-hash-table :test 'equal))(w NIL)(x(r)(r))y)((not x)(maphash(lambda
(k v)(if(not(find k '("""the""and""of""to""a""i""it""in""or""is"):test
'equal))(push(cons k v)y)))c)(setf y(sort y #'> :key #'cdr))(setf y
(subseq y 0(min(length y)22)))(let((f(apply #'min(mapcar(lambda(x)(/(-
76.0(length(car x)))(cdr x)))y))))(flet((o(n)(dotimes(i(floor(* n f)))
(write-char #\_))))(write-char #\Space)(o(cdar y))(write-char #\Newline)
(dolist(x y)(write-char #\|)(o(cdr x))(format t "| ~a~%"(car x))))))
(cond((char<= #\a x #\z)(push x w))(t(incf(gethash(concatenate 'string(
reverse w))c 0))(setf w nil)))))
can be run on for example with
cat alice.txt | clisp -C golf.lisp.
In readable form is
(flet ((r () (let ((x (read-char t nil)))
(and x (char-downcase x)))))
(do ((c (make-hash-table :test 'equal)) ; the word count map
w y ; current word and final word list
(x (r) (r))) ; iteration over all chars
((not x)
; make a list with (word . count) pairs removing stopwords
(maphash (lambda (k v)
(if (not (find k '("" "the" "and" "of" "to"
"a" "i" "it" "in" "or" "is")
:test 'equal))
(push (cons k v) y)))
c)
; sort and truncate the list
(setf y (sort y #'> :key #'cdr))
(setf y (subseq y 0 (min (length y) 22)))
; find the scaling factor
(let ((f (apply #'min
(mapcar (lambda (x) (/ (- 76.0 (length (car x)))
(cdr x)))
y))))
; output
(flet ((outx (n) (dotimes (i (floor (* n f))) (write-char #\_))))
(write-char #\Space)
(outx (cdar y))
(write-char #\Newline)
(dolist (x y)
(write-char #\|)
(outx (cdr x))
(format t "| ~a~%" (car x))))))
; add alphabetic to current word, and bump word counter
; on non-alphabetic
(cond
((char<= #\a x #\z)
(push x w))
(t
(incf (gethash (concatenate 'string (reverse w)) c 0))
(setf w nil)))))
