Search/Replace capabilities of KATE 22.12.3

[Richard Owlett]

On 2/4/25 4:34 AM, Rens Oliemans wrote:
> Hi Richard,
> 
> Richard Owlett <rowlett at access.net> writes:
> 
>>     2. Is there documentation (preferably a tutorial) for this?
> 
> You already linked to the relevant documentation: The KatePart Handbook. The
> relevant section is "Appendix A. Regular Expressions":
> 
>      https://docs.kde.org/stable5/en/kate/katepart/regular-expressions.html
> 
> Check especially the page on Patterns [0] and the "Capturing matching text (back
> references)" paragraph: that paragraph is quoted in your stack overflow link.

I think that is the key/solution to my problem.
You've given me a homework assignment.
Though I worked in Power Supply Engineering in the 70's, I was 
surrounded by TECO fanatics. I suspect KATE is as powerful/flexible.


> It's rather concise for an examples/tutorial, but I'll an example below.
> 
>> I wish to write macros using ERE's[1] to make my project feasible.
> 
> This is not possible:

Clarification:
I'm unsure of explicitly "This" refers to.
I've extremely little formal computer background -- a 1 semester "intro 
to programming" as a freshman engineering student >60 years ago.
I've been a computer _user_ since the days of 12AX7 based CPU's, 
Hollerith cards, and network connection via acoustic couplers ;}

I was referring to the general concept of an ERE, not an implementation.

> 
>      [The Appendix] documents regular expressions in the form available within
>      KatePart, which is not compatible with the regular expressions of perl, nor
>      with those of for example grep.
> 
>      -- https://docs.kde.org/stable5/en/kate/katepart/regular-expressions.html
> 
> However, I believe that the syntax exposed is very similar and powerful enough.
> 
>>     1. Does that discussion apply to Kate 22.12.3?
> 
> Unfortunately I cannot check this definitively since I don't have that version,
> but the Kate Handbook is written for Version 22.08, so it should.
> 
> For an example of a regex replacement, I assume some basic knowledge about regex
> expressions (documentation can be found in the KatePart or elsewhere for similar
> regex syntaxes). If things are unclear, feel free to ask.
> 
> Replacing the footnotes with uglier but easier clickable items. They were HTML
> <sup>[n]</sup> items, but the superscript makes them difficult to click on small
> screens. My goal:
> 
> Convert
>    'Then the suitors came in and took their places on the benches and seats.<a href="#linknote-3" id="linknoteref-3" class="pginternal"><sup>[3]</sup></a> Forthwith men'
> with
>    'Then the suitors came in and took their places on the benches and seats.<a href="#linknote-3" id="linknoteref-3" class="pginternal">[3]</a> Forthwith men'
> 
> Kate Replace:
>    <sup>(\[\d+\])</sup> → \1
> 
> Explanation: we find all <sup>...</sup> tags, and group the inner contents
> with a sub expression. Our replacement text is simply \1, which a reference to
> the first sub expression.
>    
> 
> [0] https://docs.kde.org/stable5/en/kate/katepart/regex-patterns.html
> [1] https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1727
        ^
        +--- *????* my post was:
        https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/html_node/ERE-syntax.html
>