SPUG: Software to expand contractions?

[Cantrall, Christopher W]

And you can build a list of the contration-like words in your book automatically.

#!/usr/bin/perl -wln
/\b(\w+[']\w+)\b/;
print "$1" if $1;

It'll print all of the words which contain apostrophes, so you'll get more than just contractions, but it's quick.  

...

BTW, for some reason I can't seem to get this to work as a one-liner, but I think that's because my shell-fu is weak.  If you're morbidly curious:

cwc9144 at esg2776:<45> perl -wln -e'/\b(\w+\'\w+)\b/; print "$1" if $1;' file
/usr/bin/ksh: 0403-057 Syntax error: `)' is not expected.


__________________________________________
Christopher Cantrall
Structural Engineer, 777 Body Join
phone: 425-266-2936
Christopher.W.Cantrall at Boeing.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cantrall, Christopher W 
> Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 8:39 AM
> To: Tim Maher; spug-list at pm.org
> Cc: Damian Conway
> Subject: RE: SPUG: Software to expand contractions?
> 
> 
> You could use a dispatch table of sorts.  This let's you take 
> care of the easy substitutions and worry about the 
> is/has/possesive hard ones later.  
> 
> %substitutions{
> can't     => can not,
> won't     => will not,
> isn't     => is not,
> shouldn't => should not,
> wouldn't  => would not,
> wasn't    => was not,
> they're   => they are,
> we're     => we are,
> I'm       => I am,
> I'll      => I will,
> };
> 
> Of course, these will need to be properly quoted, and the 
> apostrophes properly escaped, but it's Monday morning and I 
> know I'll foul that up if I try before my first coffee.  
> 
> Good luck, I love the book so far.
> 
> ____________________________________________
> Chris Cantrall
>   Structural Engineer, 777 Fuselage, Boeing
>     Christopher.W.Cantrall at Boeing.com
>   chris at cantrall.org
>     http://perlmonks.org/index.pl?node=Louis_Wu
>     http://spugwiki.perlocity.org/index.cgi?LouisWu
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Tim Maher [mailto:tim at consultix-inc.com]
> > Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2003 10:43 AM
> > To: spug-list at pm.org
> > Cc: Damian Conway
> > Subject: SPUG: Software to expand contractions?
> > 
> > 
> > Dudes,
> > 
> > I'm getting complaints from some early reviewers of my book
> > about all the "contractions" I'm using in my writing!
> > So last night I set out to write a Perl script to make changes
> > like the following:
> > 
> > 	That's => That is
> > 	He's => He is
> > 	They're => They are
> > 	We're => We are
> > 
> > Then I realized that the 's ending usually needs replacement by
> > "is", so I tried
> > 
> > 	"'s" => ' is'
> > which doesn't quite work, because of the undesirability of changing
> > 
> > 	Larry's hat  => Larry is hat
> > 
> > After making an exception for that case, I found other 
> complications,
> > such as
> > 
> > 	wouldn't => would not
> > 	can't => can not
> > 
> > These follow different rules, because the 'wouldn' loses its 
> > 'n', but the
> > 'can' doesn't!
> > 
> > So at that point I realized that this is a bigger problem 
> than I first
> > thought, and decided to look for a solution on CPAN.  Searching for
> > "contractions" didn't turn up anything relevant, so now I'm 
> > wondering if
> > anybody knows of a module that will do this job -- convert a 
> > standard set of English
> > contractions into their expanded forms.  
> > 
> > Can't y'all gimme the help I'm searchin' for?
> >  
> > -Tim
> > *------------------------------------------------------------*
> > | Tim Maher (206) 781-UNIX  (866) DOC-PERL  (866) DOC-UNIX   |
> > | tim(AT)Consultix-Inc.Com  TeachMeUnix.Com  TeachMePerl.Com |
> > *+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-*
> > |  UNIX Fundamentals Class: 11/10-13   Perl Class: 12/01-05  |
> > |  Watch for my Book: "Minimal Perl for Shell Programmers"   |
> > *------------------------------------------------------------*
> > _____________________________________________________________
> > Seattle Perl Users Group Mailing List  
> > POST TO: spug-list at mail.pm.org  http://spugwiki.perlocity.org
> > ACCOUNT CONFIG: http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/spug-list
> > MEETINGS: 3rd Tuesdays, U-District, Seattle WA
> > WEB PAGE: http://www.seattleperl.org
> > 
> > 
> _____________________________________________________________
> Seattle Perl Users Group Mailing List  
> POST TO: spug-list at mail.pm.org  http://spugwiki.perlocity.org
> ACCOUNT CONFIG: http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/spug-list
> MEETINGS: 3rd Tuesdays, U-District, Seattle WA
> WEB PAGE: http://www.seattleperl.org
> 
>