interpreting ^Hs in text files

interpreting ^Hs in text files

[Maciej Kalisiak]

Text files occasionally use double-striking using ^H to create effects such as
bold and underlined lettering.  How do I make Emacs parse and interpret the
text file according to this convention?

-- 
Maciej Kalisiak | <mac at dgp.toronto.edu> | http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~mac
PGP->finger|www; (0x39AC36F5) 9F BB 9E 11 F0 1E 5D 20  0B 31 3D 37 47 D0 67 C7

Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files

[David Kastrup]

mac@die.spammer.die.dgp.toronto.edu (Maciej Kalisiak) writes:

> Text files occasionally use double-striking using ^H to create
> effects such as bold and underlined lettering.  How do I make Emacs
> parse and interpret the text file according to this convention?

Take a look at

(defun Man-cleanup-manpage ()
  "Remove overstriking and underlining from the current buffer."

in man.el

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files

[Dan Kalikow]

In <slrnb2djh3.9kl.mac@mac.dgp.toronto.edu> Maciej Kalisiak wrote:
> Text files occasionally use double-striking using ^H to create effects 
> such as bold and underlined lettering.  How do I make Emacs parse and 
> interpret the text file according to this convention?

FWIW Maciej, I believe that such uses of ^H mostly occur these days as 
jokes.  In the old days indeed ^H would execute a physical backspace of 
"the print-head" thus permitting it to over-strike a previously-typed 
letter.  A common use of this was to underscore such a previously-
printed letter.  E.g., to print and underscore the word "the" the 
sequence of characters transmitted would be 
the^H^H^H___ 
where ^H was ctrl-H.  It could also be used to strike through or 
obliterate a previously-typed letter.  It survived in that mode for 
awhile as "glass TTYs" supplanted paper terminals, but gradually fell 
into disuse in that mode.  Nowadays, I normally see such ^H stuff used 
as a "figure of net-speech" like this -- 
=====
Microsoft Windows is the most excellent^H^H^H^H^H^Hinsidious operating 
system known to exist today.
=====
HTH^H^H^HI don't care if this helps or not to tell you the truth :-)

/Dan

Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files

[Kai Großjohann]

mac@die.spammer.die.dgp.toronto.edu (Maciej Kalisiak) writes:

> Text files occasionally use double-striking using ^H to create effects such as
> bold and underlined lettering.  How do I make Emacs parse and interpret the
> text file according to this convention?

Hm.  Gnus has code to do that, and Emacs can do it for man pages,
too.  So you might be able to find some code there.  I'd start with
M-x apropos RET, then specify regular expressions such as the
following:

gnus.*bold
article.*bold
treat.*bold
bold.*treat

Hm.  There is the function Man-cleanup-manpage.  It's also a command.
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!

Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files

[Maciej Kalisiak]

* David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>:
>  Take a look at
>  
>  (defun Man-cleanup-manpage ()
>    "Remove overstriking and underlining from the current buffer."
>  
>  in man.el

Thanks, that will do nicely (viewing mutt's manual.txt in Emacs).  Although if
anybody knows of a package function that actually interprets these and sets the
faces appropriately, that would be even better.

-- 
Maciej Kalisiak | <mac@dgp.toronto.edu> | http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~mac [McQ]
PGP->finger|www; (0x39AC36F5) 9F BB 9E 11 F0 1E 5D 20  0B 31 3D 37 47 D0 67 C7
GE/CS d- s++:+ a- C++(+++) ULAI++ P+++ L+++ E+++ W++ N- o? K? !w--- O- M- V--
PS PE+ Y+ PGP+ t+ 5 !X-- R+ tv-- b+>++++ DI+ G+ e>+++>++++(*) h--- r+++ y? 

Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files

[Alan Shutko]

Maciej Kalisiak <mac@die.spammer.die.dgp.toronto.edu> writes:

> Although if anybody knows of a package function that actually
> interprets these and sets the faces appropriately, that would be
> even better.

Man-fontify-manpage

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
Yo mama so ugly she'd scare a buzzard off a gut wagon.

Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files

[Henrik Enberg]

Maciej Kalisiak <mac@die.spammer.die.dgp.toronto.edu> writes:

> Thanks, that will do nicely (viewing mutt's manual.txt in Emacs).
> Although if anybody knows of a package function that actually
> interprets these and sets the faces appropriately, that would be even
> better.

woman.el, which is part of Emacs 21.

Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files

[Lee Sau Dan]

>>>>> "Kai" == Kai Großjohann <kai.grossjohann@uni-duisburg.de> writes:

    Kai> mac@die.spammer.die.dgp.toronto.edu (Maciej Kalisiak) writes:
    >> Text files occasionally use double-striking using ^H to create
    >> effects such as bold and underlined lettering.  How do I make
    >> Emacs parse and interpret the text file according to this
    >> convention?

    Kai> Hm.  Gnus has code to do that, and Emacs can do it for man
    Kai> pages, too.  

Gnus even does _underline_ and *bold*.  :D



-- 
Lee Sau Dan                     李守敦(Big5)                    ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ) 

E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee

Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files

[Lee Sau Dan]

>>>>> "Dan" == Dan Kalikow <DrDan@Kalikow.com> writes:

    Dan> E.g., to print and underscore the word "the" the sequence of
    Dan> characters transmitted would be the^H^H^H___ where ^H was
    Dan> ctrl-H.

This would result  in "___" being displayed on  a dumber CRT terminal.
So, most people would rather  do it with "___^H^H^Hthe", which is more
fault-proof.  :)


    Dan>   It could also be used to strike through or
    Dan> obliterate a previously-typed letter.  It survived in that
    Dan> mode for awhile as "glass TTYs" supplanted paper terminals,
    Dan> but gradually fell into disuse in that mode.  

And some smarter CRT terminals actually emulated those effects to some
extent.


    Dan> Nowadays, I normally see such ^H stuff used as a "figure of
    Dan> net-speech" like this -- ===== Microsoft Windows is the most
    Dan> excellent^H^H^H^H^H^Hinsidious operating system known to
    Dan> exist today.  ===== HTH^H^H^HI don't care if this helps or
    Dan> not to tell you the truth :-)

But that's not a real Control-H.  It's 2 characters: ^ and H.  Anyway,
that's  the   convention  to   represent  a  Control-H   with  visible
characters.  How many people can  still appreciate those uses of ^ and
H?



-- 
Lee Sau Dan                     李守敦(Big5)                    ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ) 

E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee