An MS Word-like AutoCorrect feature implementation.
Here is a story you don't hear every day. You know that AutoCorrect feature in MS Word? You type 'tihs' and Word replaces it with 'this'. I really love that feature. Not so much to correct my typos, but as a shorthand tool. I type 'ill go,w or wo u' and it automatically expands to 'I'll go, with or without you'. The part of the story that you don't hear every day is that I am so addicted to it and have used it for so long that I've built up a 10,000-entry list. Writing in Word, I shorthand all the time.
So I tried to implement it in a Tk app. I load the entire list from a SQLite database into a Tcl array at startup, and every time I hit space or punctuation, the app searches for the last "word" just typed in the array, deletes that word and prints its counterpart.
I still need to implement automatic capital letter in the beginning of sentences and some method to undo the auto correction. Ctrl+Z will not yield the expected(?) result. Apart from that, it is a perfect Auto Correct feature, ready to be implemented in any Tcl/Tk-based text editor.
Note: this looks messy online, but should look perfect if you paste it in your favorite text editor.
Thanks to Michael A. Cleverly for very useful hints.
# First, you must have this text widget: $w.textframe.texto1
# Now, the binding. We want to launch 'AutoCorrect' every time we hit the space
# and/or punctuation keys. These four lines will launch the function whenever
# the last key pressed (%K) is found in the 'myACkeys' list:
set myACkeys {space period comma colon semicolon question exclam slash backslash less greater equal asterisk plus minus parenleft parenright bracketleft bracketright braceleft braceright quotedbl quoteright}
foreach key $myACkeys {
bind $w.textframe.texto1 <$key> { autocorrect }
}
# Note: these bindings were obtained in Windows. They may vary in other platforms.
# I have a database with two columns: 'type' and 'replace'. Let's load them into
# an array called 'myAClist'
set myQuery {select type,replace from autocorrect}
sq eval $myQuery {} { array set myAClist [ list $type $replace ] }
# Now the autocorrect proc
proc autocorrect {} {
global w myAClist
# get the 40 last characters every time you type, like a "trail"
# 40 is, of course, an arbitrary limit
set myTrail [ $w.textframe.texto1 get "insert -40c" insert ]
# myTypeString is a regular expression to get the last word
# its value may change along the script
set myTypeString {[^,.;: ]+}
# The loop. Here is what this loop does:
# Get the last word in the "trail". If the last word ('type' string) is found,
# replace it with the 'replace' counterpart. If it is not found, get the TWO
# last words and search for the two-word string in the array. If it is not found,
# get the THREE last words and search again. It can go on forever, but I
# set the limit to 10 words. More than that is very little likely to be used and
# might make everything run too slow. My actual application uses only 7.
# If it is not clear, the purpose of having multi-word 'type' strings it to
# type, say "south america" and have it corrected to "South America".
for { set myIteration 1 } { $myIteration <= 10 } { incr myIteration } {
regexp -line "($myTypeString)\$" $myTrail => myLastWord
set myLastWordWipeSize [ string length $myLastWord ]
# Note that at this time, the RE $myTypeString is [^,.;: ]+
if { [ array get myAClist $myLastWord ] != "" } {
$w.textframe.texto1 delete "insert -$myLastWordWipeSize c" insert
$w.textframe.texto1 insert insert "$myAClist($myLastWord)"
# If the 'type' string is found, that's enough, so break the loop
break
}
# What if what I just typed is a 'type' string, but I typed it in CAPITALS? It won't
# be found in the array. Not unless we repeat the previous operation, but slightly
# different:
if { [ array get myAClist [ string tolower $myLastWord ] ] != "" } {
$w.textframe.texto1 delete "insert -$myLastWordWipeSize c" insert
$w.textframe.texto1 insert insert [ string toupper $myAClist([ string tolower $myLastWord ]) ]
break
}
# Good. Now, if we type 'TIHS', it will be replaced with 'THIS'.
# Our single-word 'type' string is not found in the array. Now what? The loop
# will be run again, of course. This time, let's look for [^,.;: ]+ [^,.;: ]+
# i.e. the last two words. If it's not found either, the next iteration will look for
# [^,.;: ]+ [^,.;: ]+ [^,.;: ]+ etc.
set myTypeString "$myTypeString $myTypeString"
}
}
# if the 10 last words don't match anything, we stop searching, of course
One final comment: isn't it great to read a script whose variables' names make it dead clear what they represent, instead of foreach i $a { set c "[ lindex z end ] is not $i, but could be $b" }
In case you're wondering, the 'my' prefix gives the variables the right color in my syntax highlighting scheme, even if they do not have $