TextPression Interface
Why the alternative to text
based scripting?
The combination of the command line
and text-based scripting can be a powerful combination in
experienced hands, but can be overkill for those simply looking to
achieve a task quickly and easily.
Whether you use a GUI tool such as
TextPression or a scripting language like PERL you are obviously
going to need to define the text you want matched and possibly the
text you want it replaced with.
Simply matching a string of text and
replacing a string of text with another string of text are trivial
tasks, you simply need to type out one or, if you are also
replacing, two strings. Things become more complex however when you
need to describe in abstract terms what makes up a match. With
text-based text processing languages this is usually done using
Regular Expressions.
The problem with Regular Expressions
though, is that they can contain a lot of information that is
difficult to represent using text. Take for example, a Word Boundary
( word boundaries can be used to represent the start or end of an word ); the
standard signifier with Regular Expressions is '/b' (without the
quotes) and the opposite (i.e. a position that is not at a boundary
with a word ) is '/B' (again without the quotes). Regular
Expressions use a substantial number of these so-called
meta-characters and their meaning is not usually deducible through visual
inspection.
With TextPression you use intuitive
visual components and on-screen selections in order define text you
want to match and replace.
More coming soon...
Right now TextPression's user
interface is reaching the final stages of it development, we'll have
some screenshots and more detailed explanation over the next few
weeks. If you'd like to be kept in touch, please sign up for the
newsletter on the Contact Information
page.
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