Re: The <word>.<word>.<word> rule

["François Pinard" <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca>]

Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@iskon.hr> writes:

> Miroslav Zubcic <miroslav.zubcic@zesoi.fer.hr> writes:

> > I found good string posted by
> > Per Abrahamsen <rj1z339a3z.fsf_-_@zuse.dina.kvl.dk> This string is
> > just fine, not too much, not too small. (Main problem was strings and
> > regexps, this `|\(%' are hardly readible to me).

> Sigh, a standard problem in languages that don't support a regexp syntax.

I did not follow this thread in detail, but let me add my grain of salt
nevertheless (or my grain of sand, depending on how you see it :-).

When I saw all this new highlighting, my first impression was positive,
as I like non-language to stand out in some way.  It was not perfect:
for example, the name part (before the `@') was forgotten, but overall,
it looked like a step in a good direction.

But when I realised that associated with the highlighting, was a button
invariably presuming, wrongly in most cases, that we were facing an HTTP
reference, my joy disappeared: this was far too dumb to be clever.

In a word, I like non-language to be highlighted.  However, button
association should be done _much_ more carefully.

I do not know if this might be useful, but here is some Python code I use to
highlight, then buttonize plain text while converting it into HTML pages.
The results are satisfying most of times, and maybe it could point towards
some compromise?  [Python regexps are Perlish more than Emacsish.]


def enhance(text, verbatim=0):
    text = string.replace(text, '&', '&amp;')
    text = string.replace(text, '<', '&lt;')
    text = string.replace(text, '>', '&gt;')
    text = string.replace(text, '\f', '')
    if verbatim:
        text = re.sub(r'((mailto:|http://|ftp://)[-_.@~/a-zA-Z0-9]+)',
                      r'<a href="\1">\1</a>', text)
    else:
        text = re.sub(r'((mailto:|http://|ftp://)([-_.@~/a-zA-Z0-9]+))',
                      r'<a href="\1">\3</a>', text)
    text = re.sub((r'(^|[^-_%+./a-zA-Z0-9:])'
                   r'([-_%+./a-zA-Z0-9]+@[-a-zA-Z0-9]+\.[-.a-zA-Z0-9]+)'),
                  r'\1<a href="mailto:\2">\2</a>', text)
    if verbatim:
        text = re.sub(r'_([-_@./a-zA-Z0-9]+)_', r'_<i>\1</i>_', text)
        text = re.sub(r'\*([-_@./a-zA-Z0-9]+)\*', r'*<b>\1</b>*', text)
        text = re.sub(r"`([-_@./a-zA-Z0-9]+)'", r"`<tt><b>\1</b></tt>'",
                      text)
    else:
        text = re.sub(r'_([-_@./a-zA-Z0-9]+)_', r'<i>\1</i>', text)
        text = re.sub(r'\*([-_@./a-zA-Z0-9]+)\*', r'<b>\1</b>', text)
        text = re.sub(r"`([-_@./a-zA-Z0-9]+)'", r'<tt><b>\1</b></tt>',
                      text)
    return text


P.S. - By the way, Lars, I would much like having a Python version of Gnus!
Would you add this to the Gnus TODO file? :-) :-) :-)

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard