It's too dang hard to monkify my code before I post, so I built a system that I'd like to see here so every one can benifit from the time savings.

I built a small client side, javascript engine that will work on 3.0 browsers and up. It finds the special characters and converts them to the HTML Elements they deserve to be.

I know what you're thinking, 'I don't want my whole post to be Monkified, just the code and certain smiley faces.".

Taken care of my friends, just put the tags <monkify>and</monkify> around any text that you want 'interpreted'. Pretty neat huh?

I went with JavaScript becuase I figured the less trips to the server the better, especialy for just formating the message. And it's ease to add a new button to the posting sections. Here's a demo: 

    <FORM>
      <TEXTAREA name='node_doctext' cols=50 rows=15>
I like to smile... <tt><monkify>;-></monkify>
<br>
Here's some code
<pre><monkify>
my $value = [ qw/hey there/ ];
print $value->[1];
</monkify></pre>
</TEXTAREA>
      <P>
      <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
        <!-- // Activate cloak
          function monkify(node_doctext) {
            var monkified   = '';
            var can_monkify = false;
            for ( i = 0; i < node_doctext.value.length; i++ ) {
              if ( node_doctext.value.substring( i, i+9 ) == '<monkify
+>' ) {
                can_monkify = true;
                i += 9;
              } else if ( node_doctext.value.substring( i, i+10 ) == '
+</monkify>' ) {
                can_monkify = false;
                i += 10;
              }
              if ( can_monkify ) {
                if ( node_doctext.value.charAt( i ) == '[' ) {
                  monkified += '&#091;';
                } else if ( node_doctext.value.charAt( i ) == ']' ) {
                  monkified += '&#093;';
                } else if ( node_doctext.value.charAt( i ) == '<' ) {
                  monkified += '&lt;';
                } else if ( node_doctext.value.charAt( i ) == '>' ) {
                  monkified += '&gt;';
                } else {
                  monkified += node_doctext.value.charAt( i );
                }
              } else {
                monkified += node_doctext.value.charAt( i );
              }
            }
            node_doctext.value = monkified;
          } // monkify()
        // Deactivate cloak -->
      </SCRIPT>
      <INPUT Type=Button VALUE="Monkify" OnClick="monkify(this.form.no
+de_doctext);return true;">
    </FORM>

[download]
And if vroom doesn't add it, you can take it and benifit if you like. 
--
Casey

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
RE: Monkifying posts is too rough (solution, not rant :)
by vroom (His Eminence) on Jun 15, 2000 at 17:47 UTC
[reply]
      I guess it's not. I'll chalk that up to a lack of brain cells, but it was fun to write that code anyhow. It was fun while it lasted. Enjoy! 
      --
Casey
[reply]
RE: Monkifying posts is too rough (solution, not rant :)
by cwest (Friar) on Jun 14, 2000 at 04:33 UTC
    I seem to have mis guessed the monks parser with the example that I gave, but feel free to type your own in. ( that's why you see some 'interesting' Perl code there ;-) 
    --
Casey
[reply]
RE: Monkifying posts is too rough (solution, not rant :)
by Aighearach (Initiate) on Jun 15, 2000 at 00:09 UTC
    I would just like to point out that using apache mod_perl, trips to the server are cheap. And there is at least _one_ Monk that surfs without JavaScript: me.

    I love the idea, though, it should be added as a standard feature for us not-with-multimedia-revolution types.

    "Just the Data, please."

    Paris Sinclair    |    4a75737420416e6f74686572
pariss@efn.org    |    205065726c204861636b6572
I wear my Geek Code on my finger.
[reply]
RE: Monkifying posts is too rough (solution, not rant :)
by mcwee (Pilgrim) on Jun 15, 2000 at 00:24 UTC
    Something (the Javascript, I assume) has broken my ability to vote on the posts to this node while browsing using Netscape under Win95. Damn shame, too.

    Wait, I can vote using IE. It's a wierd, wonderful world children

    Hold up, I take that back-- I can't vote using IE, either (although it LOOKS like I can vote. How Microsofty.)

    The Autonomic Pilot; it's FunkyTown, babe.

[reply]
RE: Monkifying posts is too rough (solution, not rant :)
by merlyn (Sage) on Jun 17, 2000 at 02:31 UTC
    I think it's a bad UI decision to usurp both angle brackets and square brackets. Why not let angle brackets do double duty: 
      This is a link to <link to="merlyn">. --- like [merlyn]
  This is a link to <link to="merlyn" text="merlyn's home page"> --- l
+ike [merlyn|merlyn's home page]

    [download]
    I really hate having to remember to type special chars for brackets.

    -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[reply]
[d/l]

      Uhoh - you propose a change down in the guts of the Everything engine :). While it would surely be the Right Thing, I guess that won't happen, because many things in the Everything engine are hardcoded to use [ and ] for evaluation. I also think that non-HTML-knowing people find it easier to put a link into square brackets instead of learning HTML syntax (though it would maybe be a good thing to force HTML syntax unto the people :)).

      I think you will be welcome to submit patches to the engine that parse <LINK ...> tags in a special way, but I don't see that square-bracket-linking will go away soon ...

[reply]
RE: Monkifying posts is too rough (solution, not rant :)
by Jonathan (Curate) on Jun 14, 2000 at 17:51 UTC
    JavaScript? Who let that in? :-)

    Hang your head in shame...
[reply]
      Do you prefer something like this? I don't care really, just as long as it get's easier to post... this is a programmatic situation, and can be handled programmaticaly. 
      my $text = q{
I like to <tt><monkify>smile ;-></monkify></tt>
<br>
some code:
<pre><monkify>
my $value = [ qw/one two/ ];
print $value->[1];
</monkify></pre>
};

sub fix {
  my $text = shift;

  my $good = {
              '[' => '&#091;',
              ']' => '&#093;',
              '<' => '&lt;',
              '>' => '&gt;',
             };
  my $bad  = join '', map { "\\$_" } keys %{$good};

  $text =~ s/([$bad])/$good->{$1}/g;

  return $text;

}

$text =~ s/<monkify>(.+?)<\/monkify>/fix($1)/ges;

print $text;
      PS: I hope I got this post right for the parser ;-) 
      --
Casey
[reply]
RE: Monkifying posts is too rough (solution, not rant :)
by btrott (Parson) on Jun 14, 2000 at 04:37 UTC
    This is quite clever.

    Unfortunately, the node parsing code has also destroyed some of your Javascript; it's translated the ] and ^ substitutions into bastardized links. :) But we get the point, anyway.

[reply]
      I shall never give up! a working version: <FORM> <TEXTAREA name='node_doctext' cols=50 rows=15> I like to smile... <monkify>;-></monkify>
      Here's some code 
      <monkify>
my $value = [ qw/hey there/ ];
print $value->[1];
</monkify>
      </TEXTAREA>

      <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> </SCRIPT> <INPUT Type=Button VALUE="Monkify" OnClick="monkify(this.form.node_doctext);return true;"> </FORM> 

      --
Casey
[reply]
        Well... I lost that battle, I'm sure you all get the idea, and understand the functional improvement thereof. 
        --
Casey
[reply]

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