Gregg's Nearly Interminable Adventures in Linux Land

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by conan50

I really like Ubuntu, but prefer Debian or Linux Mint (LTS). What I don't like about Ubuntu is it pushes through lots of updates, including Kernel updates that break things. After losing my wireless firmware after an Ubuntu update I moved all my machines to Linux Mint (17 the current LTS). Mint does not push through Kernel updates, but allows the user to select them if they wish, unlike Ubuntu.

I tried Mint. I liked that it had a ton of accessories (I use Xubuntu) but things didn't work as well there as they did in Xubuntu. (Like for some things I had to do ctrl-c and ctrl-v for copying and pasting, instead of write clicking and doing it that way.) You do get the kernel updates in Xubuntu but I learned how to get rid of the old ones pretty easily. Never had anything break (that I know of).

[Gregg Bell]

I realized Libreoffice didn't flag double words. So I Googled and found a Regex solution that works fine. I'm pretty intimidated by Regex though. Somebody once gave me a Regex command and yeah, it worked great but it also added some stuff. Freaked me out.

Anyway, now that I found this nifty double word thing, I checked out the Regex commands for LO. I write novels and I'd be interested in finding missing periods, or missing quotation marks, that sort of thing.

I have a friend that does that for me in Sigil but I'm tempted to try my luck with it in LO. Should I? Are there commands for the sort of things I want to do? Or am I asking for trouble? (Esp. since my friend will do it later in Sigil.)

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

I have a friend that does that for me in Sigil but I'm tempted to try my luck with it in LO. Should I? Are there commands for the sort of things I want to do? Or am I asking for trouble? (Esp. since my friend will do it later in Sigil.)

I wrote a guest post for a friend that shows some regular expressions that can be used in LibreOffice, including one to find double words:
http://andrewknighton.com/?p=1460

I only included the expressions for search, not for replacement. I strongly suggest that replacements are done manually. There are always exceptions that shouldn't be replaced.

[eschwartz]

Yes, there are commands to do that. Fundamentally, regex is a language for describing word and character patterns.




Try a few regexes, check that they did what you want before continuing, and gradually you will get a feel for them.
And you will find even the regex gurus strongly advocate double-checking all replacements.

It's not critical, but it's a nice skill to have.
I found the following site very helpful and easy to follow -- it taught me most of what I know about regex: http://www.regular-expressions.info

[avantman42]

Another useful site is https://regex101.com/ It allows you to try regular expression patterns, with highlighting and explanations.

[eschwartz]

Hey, they've got unittests. I've always wanted to use unittests for my regexes...

[conan50]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I find using the command-line backends for things is much easier.
Most package managers, I think, allow you to hold a package in the configuration file. apt has apt-mark which can mark a package to be held.

Right. Mint just makes it easier by default through not automatically adding kernel updates when you update. Especially useful for newbies to Linux.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I wrote a guest post for a friend that shows some regular expressions that can be used in LibreOffice, including one to find double words:
http://andrewknighton.com/?p=1460

I only included the expressions for search, not for replacement. I strongly suggest that replacements are done manually. There are always exceptions that shouldn't be replaced.

Thanks Russell. And I never thought of making the replacements manually. (I did the double word replace automatically.) That's a great suggestion. And thanks for the link. Looks good (and interestingly one of my books will be in British English).

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Yes, there are commands to do that. Fundamentally, regex is a language for describing word and character patterns.




Try a few regexes, check that they did what you want before continuing, and gradually you will get a feel for them.
And you will find even the regex gurus strongly advocate double-checking all replacements.

It's not critical, but it's a nice skill to have.
I found the following site very helpful and easy to follow -- it taught me most of what I know about regex: http://www.regular-expressions.info

Thanks eschwartz. Yeah, I'll be double probably triple checking any regex stuff for a while. Hey, that link. Do I have to buy Regex Buddy to use that link?

My bad. I looked a little deeper and can see that I don't have to.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by avantman42

Another useful site is https://regex101.com/ It allows you to try regular expression patterns, with highlighting and explanations.

Wow. What a cool site. Thanks. I don't know how to use it. LOL But I'll figure it out eventually.

[Gregg Bell]

Okay, I've been playing around with it and already found one error in a manuscript using:

a [aeiou]

But

“[.,]

which is supposed to be Expression to find commas and full stops outside quotation marks (use this if you write in US English):

only led to ellipses as in

"...

So, not wanting to spend a ton of time on this, does anybody have a link to really common regex commands that would benefit a writer. Like one quotation mark missing from the pair. Like no punctuation within a closed set of exclamation marks. Like missing punctuation. Like (above) finding commas and periods outside of quotation marks.

Thanks

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

So, not wanting to spend a ton of time on this, does anybody have a link to really common regex commands that would benefit a writer.

All the ones I use are in the article. I think the reason it isn't working for you is that the web page has opening quotation marks - you'll need to use closing quotation marks.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Thanks Russell. And I never thought of making the replacements manually. (I did the double word replace automatically.) That's a great suggestion. And thanks for the link. Looks good (and interestingly one of my books will be in British English).

Well, you'd never think that that would be a problem, but sometimes you really do want a double word. I just used one. See? Your automatic replace probably took that out. I hope maybe you have a previous version, and can go back and do a manual replace instead!

[avantman42]

That's exactly why I do manual replacements in a manuscript. I frequently use RegExp replacements in code, but never in English. There are just too many edge cases and exceptions to rules.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by avantman42

That's exactly why I do manual replacements in a manuscript. I frequently use RegExp replacements in code, but never in English. There are just too many edge cases and exceptions to rules.

And, if I had had a better idea, I would have said so earlier. (Ok, I don't really mean that, but that's another perfectly find example of requiring a double word.)