Re: Finding & replacing text with Applescript

[Christopher Stone]

On 05/24/2021, at 21:44, Rich Siegel mailto:sie...@barebones.com>> wrote:
> his is a good script. Some feedback: as a matter of best practices and future 
> proofing, avoid targeting windows (or elements of them).


Hey Rich,

Thanks for the feedback.

Actually I often use this sort of construct:


tell application "BBEdit"
activate
set myDoc to make new text document with properties {text:"some text"}
return myDoc
end tell

--> text document 1 of application "BBEdit"


What I don't like about it is the reference it creates – it will break if you 
change the window index in the script and then refer to the reference again.


Getting a reference to any document besides document 1 produces a more sturdy 
reference:

tell application "BBEdit"
set docRef to document 2
end tell

--> project document "untitled project 45" of application "BBEdit"


If I need the reference to be more robust I have to do something like this:

tell application "BBEdit"
activate

set docID to ID of (make new document with properties {text:"some text"})

tell document id docID
set after its text to linefeed & "some more text" & linefeed
select insertion point after its text
end tell

end tell

Most of the time working with the front document is perfectly adequate – but 
not always.


--
Take Care,
Chris

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Re: Finding & replacing text with Applescript

[Rich Siegel]

On 24 May 2021, at 22:37, Christopher Stone wrote:

On 05/24/2021, at 19:11, Duncan Thorne > wrote:
I'm pretty clueless with Applescript so please bear with me. I want 
to copy text from a Safari table, paste it into a new BBEdit window 
and do some text manipulation, mostly finding and replacing.



Hey Duncan,

This task is pretty simple if you know how, and a real head-scratcher 
if you don't.


It's great to be able to record AppleScript, but it often produces 
semi-useless results – unless you savvy AppleScript enough to be 
able to rewrite the recording and pick out the good bits.


I almost never use it, BUT it sometimes comes in really handy when I 
just can't figure out the syntax for something.


Appended is a script that will:

- Copy the selected text in Safari.
- Create a new BBEdit document with said text.
- Reset the size and position of the new document.
- Do one regex-based find/replace on the document.
- You can add more replace statements as needed.


This is a good script. Some feedback: as a matter of best practices and 
future proofing, avoid targeting windows (or elements of them).


"make new text document" will return a reference to the document just 
created.


The "text" property of a document provides access to the text without 
going through the windowing system. It's also faster and avoids 
complications that can arise when the 1:1 relationship between documents 
and windows is not in effect (as has been the case since BBEdit started 
supporting multiple documents per window, back whenever that was).


Thus:

   set myDoc to make new text document with properties { text: 
tableContent }


followed by

   tell text of myDoc
   -- do the replace in here
   end tell

is recommended.

R.

--
Rich Siegel Bare Bones Software, Inc.
  

Someday I'll look back on all this and laugh... until they sedate me.

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Re: Finding & replacing text with Applescript

[Christopher Stone]

On 05/24/2021, at 19:11, Duncan Thorne mailto:duncan...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> I'm pretty clueless with Applescript so please bear with me. I want to copy 
> text from a Safari table, paste it into a new BBEdit window and do some text 
> manipulation, mostly finding and replacing.


Hey Duncan,

This task is pretty simple if you know how, and a real head-scratcher if you 
don't.

It's great to be able to record AppleScript, but it often produces semi-useless 
results – unless you savvy AppleScript enough to be able to rewrite the 
recording and pick out the good bits.

I almost never use it, BUT it sometimes comes in really handy when I just can't 
figure out the syntax for something.

Appended is a script that will:

- Copy the selected text in Safari.
- Create a new BBEdit document with said text.
- Reset the size and position of the new document.
- Do one regex-based find/replace on the document.
- You can add more replace statements as needed.

Enjoy.

--
Best Regards,
Chris


# Auth: Christopher Stone
# dCre: 2021/05/24 21:24
# dMod: 2021/05/24 21:29
# Appl: BBEdit
# Task: Copy Safari Table to New BBEdit Document and Find-Replace.
# Libs: None
# Osax: None
# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @BBEdit, @Table, @RegEx, @Massage, @Data


set jsCmdStr to "

(() => {
return window.getSelection().toString()
})();

"
set tableContent to doJavaScriptInSafari(jsCmdStr)

tell application "BBEdit"

activate

make new text document with properties {text:tableContent}

# Resize and reposition the new document.
# {x1, y1, x2, y2} Upper-Left-Corner, Lower-Right-Corner.
set bounds of front window to {0, 45, 1314, 1196}

tell front text window's text
replace "Carbon|Helium" using "••" options {search 
mode:grep, case sensitive:false, starting at top:true}
end tell

end tell


--» HANDLERS

on doJavaScriptInSafari(jsCmdStr)
try
tell application "Safari" to do JavaScript jsCmdStr in front 
document
on error e
error "Error in handler doJavaScriptInSafari() of library NLb!" 
& return & return & e
end try
end doJavaScriptInSafari


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Finding & replacing text with Applescript

[Duncan Thorne]

I'm pretty clueless with Applescript so please bear with me. I want to copy 
text from a Safari table, paste it into a new BBEdit window and do some 
text manipulation, mostly finding and replacing.
I managed this with the old Tex-Edit Plus (not TextEdit) which is 
unfortunately 32-bit. With T-E+ I would paste the text from the clipboard 
with the commands make "new window", "paste", "select window 1" and then 
use a "replace window 1 looking for..." command.
When I try recording something in BBE I get the line
replace "[original text]" using "[replacement text]" searching in text 1 of 
text document "*untitled text ##*" ...
— i.e. a named doc as opposed to simply the front doc. Not a surprise, but 
what do I replace "untitled text ##" with?

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Re: Grep find/replace numbers

[Christopher Stone]

On 05/22/2021, at 19:22, severdia mailto:sever...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> Yes, you're right. I got it working, but for future reference here's what I 
> was trying to do...I have many of these elements:
> 
> Macbeth5.15.1.64
> 
> Both  and  contain act/scene/line number info and either one other 
> the other is incomplete (the one with two numbers) and I want to keep the one 
> that's complete (with three numbers). My objective was to delete either  
> or  if it had only two numbers in it.


Hey Ron,

Explaining your actual task is quite helpful – but I always want to see 
examples of the start condition and the desired outcome in black and white.  

Like so:

Data Sample 01:

Macbeth5.15.1.64

Desired Outcome 01:

Macbeth5.1.64

You wouldn't believe how often people leave out or otherwise mangle 
instructions.  The "A picture is worth a thousand words." rule is highly 
relevant with this sort of task.

Here's what I would do:

Find:

\d+\.\d+

Replace with nothing.

With  I'm finding a digit that may ore may not exist and I'm using 
that capture in the closing tag .  This covers any loc tag from 0-9.

This is a trifle simpler and more direct (if there are only  and  
tags).

\d+\.\d+

While we're on the topic of data massage with regex, let me recommend this site 
to you:

https://regex101.com/r/WtIAmE/3  (This link 
contains your example problem.)

When I'm working on complex regular expressions I always start with BBEdit, but 
if I have substantial problems I have some regex visualizer apps (RegExRx 
 in particular) and 
RegEx101.com  to fall back on.

I can't use BBEdit 13's new Pattern Playground on my main Mac, because Sierra 
isn't supported.

One reason to look forward to getting new hardware...

--
Best Regards,
Chris

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