Cleaning up cluttered files (was Re: macros)

[Eric Van Tassel 101233.342@xxxxxxxx]

On 25-1-99, Rene von Rentzell wrote (in part)
>... to clean up html files,
>why not use a wildcard? Typing cia /// at the command line shouldd
>get rid of most of the html tags, except for the very long ones. No?

Yes. And it can be incorporated into a simple (but deadly if misused!)
macro. When I put out my bimonthly parish magazine I use a scanner as a
shortcut to input all sorts of District Council press releases etc., and
they arrive in XyWrite cluttered beyond belief.

(In the following examples, ≪...≫ = guillemets; {...} = curly brackets;
[W], [S] and [L] = wildcards, respectively for "string", "separator" and
"letter")

I have two variants: one just strips out all strings between guillemets:
    cia /≪[W]≫//
   
The other -- used if I think scanned-in *mode* commands (i.e. italic,
underline etc.) are going to remain valid in my final copy and so are worth
saving -- first "immunizes" such commands:
    cia /≪MD[S][L][L]≫/{MD[S][L][L]}/
then strips out everything else:
    cia /≪[W]≫//
and then reinstates the mode commands:
    cia /{/≪/
    cia /}/≫/

Cheers
Eric Van Tassel