OBSOLETE - SE Editor Toolkit

Question

Looking for Maintainer

I have not had the capacity to maintain this project in any meaningful way, but the source code is quite clear and reasonably well documented. If you would be interested to maintain this project, please apply on GitHub via an issue.

This project has currently fallen so behind Stack Exchange, that it currently doesn't do anything useful. Former description follows:

There's been an onslaught of rather difficult to read questions on SO lately. A lot of them are just plain close-fodder, but many are just from d ppl ,who spk teh internetz lingo and hence ~~make my eyes bleed~~ are pretty much incomprehensible without extensive parsing/editing. They also somehow do not manage to grasp basic markdown. Now manually editing all these answers can often be a massive pain, so I wrote this extension.

Screenshot

It adds a few more buttons to the SE edit pages (so no distractions when just posting) that aid in making these sites awesome.

Autocorrect

This is the main tool of the suite. It is in fact a huge collection of regexps that correct the most common mistakes people commonly make on SO. These include (see the source for full details):

correcting capitalization (how do i do jquery. help. => How do I do jQuery. Help.)
correcting use of apostrophes (im cant hasnt => I'm can't hasn't)
correcting basic punctuation (what ? how.does......this => What? How. Does... This)
deleting unnecessary greetings or signs of gratitude

Note: These are Regexps, not any smart NLP so check the post so that you don't screw anything up. For that it provides:

Realtime diff

There's a handy link provided that toggles between the realtime preview and a realtime diff of your changes and the original version. All of the automated functions also automatically display the diff after execution.

Lowercasing

Sometimes people JUST CAN'T HELP SHOUTING! There's a handy button that converts selected text to lowercase, or finds sequences of shouting and lowercases them automatically.

Search & Replace

Sometimes a simple regexp can fix a lot of problems instantaneously. Click on the search button and get the Search & Replace interface:

Screenshot of Search & Replace

JS regexp support. Did I mention insta-diffing?

Code-sane^tm

Sometimes people Copy-paste their code and it gets all messy. This replaces tabs with four spaces and realigns all code to the four space offset, making reformatting it a breeze. Also autoindents C-like languages to further ease the pain.

Where can I get it?

Note: I no longer have the resources to maintain the suite. I'm sure that making this a working user script would not take too much effort so pull requests with fixes are most welcome.

Download the Safari Extension.
~~Get the Userscript version (by George Edison, see below, now auto-built from the Safari source).~~ (No longer working, abandoned by Mr. Edison)
Fork the source on GitHub.
Issue tracker for bugs and suggestions.

Gotchas

Autocorrect and Lowercase ignore code so be sure to mark stuff as code before you apply them.
Autocorrect also applies to the title of the post, be sure to check that as well.
Filenames sometimes get autocorrected. Mark them as code or correct them back (some common extensions are checked for, but this is by no means comprehensive. If the post is full of filenames, consider not using Autocorrect).

Version History

1.1.0 released 16/3: Fixes a few bugs, adds support for C-like languages to Code-sane, adds quite a few product capitalizations and some determiner handling (an hash a apricot => a hash an apricot).

BTW does the auto-update system work?

*+1e100* Where should I send the cash (1/2 now, 1/2 when the userscript version is available)? ;) Seriously, this should be integrated into the site software. — Dennis Williamson, Mar 15 '11 at 17:25
@Dori Of course not! Post them either here or at https://github.com/gampleman/SE-Editor-Toolkit/issues. — Jakub Hampl, Mar 16 '11 at 00:21
I have converted this into a UserScript, which you can find in my answer below. — Nathan Osman, Mar 16 '11 at 01:24
@George Care to add it to the github repository? As the conversion looks more or less like a fairly straightforward (= automatable) process I could update both simultaneously. — Jakub Hampl, Mar 16 '11 at 01:25
@Jakub: Actually... it's not as easy as it looks. (I had to make quite a few subtle modifications.) But I'm thinking of setting something up on my server that automatically pulls the changes from GitHub and rebuilds the UserScript every so often. — Nathan Osman, Mar 16 '11 at 01:28
@Jakub: ...and done! Every 24 hours, this file will be generated from the GitHub repos. — Nathan Osman, Mar 16 '11 at 19:15
@George Awesome! I updated the link in the post. Also thanks to Hans for helping me optimize some stuff: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5324757/how-to-make-this-code-faster-a-question-about-regexp-performance/5325552#5325552 — Jakub Hampl, Mar 16 '11 at 22:01
+∞ :) The only bad thing about this is that people that uses this will stop editing questions :/ — Oscar Mederos, Apr 29 '11 at 15:09
@Truth I haven't done much maintenance on this script for a while. Are you using it as a plugin or as a UserScript? — Jakub Hampl, Dec 16 '11 at 22:15
FWIW There's a desktop port of it that I had initially developed and works well for me https://github.com/SathyaBhat/StackEd — Sathyajith Bhat, Dec 17 '11 at 18:53
Would really love a working userscript version, if anyone finds the time to make it :) — Emil, Feb 15 '13 at 13:27

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:25

27

Deprecated.

I'm afraid I've sort of abandoned my UserScript conversion of this extension. It was quite buggy and extremely difficult to debug. It would take less effort to write a UserScript version from scratch. – George Edison♦ Dec 20 '11 at 0:51

See new script here Stack Exchange Post Editor - Performing Basic Corrections on Posts Automatically

I quickly adapted this into a UserScript which you can get here:

http://files.quickmediasolutions.com/userscripts/edit_tools.user.js

An automated build can be obtained here:

http://quickmediasolutions.com/repos/output.user.js

The above script is automatically generated every 24 hours from the GitHub repo.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:25

Community

1

answered Mar 16 '11 at 01:24

Nathan Osman

23,286
11
60
107

+1e100 I see you went after the other half of the cash! See my "answer" for a bug report. I don't know if it's specific to your version or also applies to the original. – Dennis Williamson Mar 16 '11 at 01:34
1

@Dennis: Please take a look at the note I added to this post. – Nathan Osman Mar 16 '11 at 19:16
In his updated original post, Jakub asks "BTW does the auto-update system work?" Is this functional in your build for the end user (e.g. me)? – Dennis Williamson Mar 20 '11 at 20:07
@Dennis: It should be. I just checked and it seems like the build script is functioning as expected. – Nathan Osman Mar 20 '11 at 20:33
So I don't need to manually update? – Dennis Williamson Mar 20 '11 at 20:37
@Dennis: Sorry, yes - you do need to update. What is meant by 'auto-update' is that the script you update from is itself updated daily directly from the source code on GitHub. – Nathan Osman Mar 20 '11 at 21:00
OK, since Jakub didn't qualify his question I though he meant that code had been added to auto-update the end-users installed copy. Sorry for the confusion. – Dennis Williamson Mar 20 '11 at 21:12
@Dennis: No problem. I understand the confusion - although an auto-update for the installed copy would be nice! – Nathan Osman Mar 20 '11 at 21:18
@Dennis the autoupdating I had in mind is a Safari feature that should automatically update the extension based on this file http://gampleman.github.com/SE-Editor-Toolkit/updates.plist – Jakub Hampl Mar 22 '11 at 16:34
The userscript doesn't seem to work - have tried in Firefox 3.6 and 4.0... – studiohack Mar 26 '11 at 06:52
@studiohack: What errors do you get when running the script? – Nathan Osman Mar 26 '11 at 19:34
@GeorgeEdison: I don't get anything, nothing shows up at all...I've seen screenshots of what it is supposed to look like, but nothing seems to appear...I've had several other users (on SU) also say the same thing... – studiohack Mar 26 '11 at 19:41
@studiohack: It currently only works on Meta.SO. – Nathan Osman Mar 26 '11 at 20:26
oh okay @GeorgeEdison - thanks for the clarification! – studiohack Mar 26 '11 at 20:48
@George why's that? – Jakub Hampl Mar 27 '11 at 00:55
1

@Jakub: I haven't had time to set that up yet. But it's planned. – Nathan Osman Mar 27 '11 at 16:43
@studio: It's working now. – Nathan Osman Apr 06 '11 at 22:43
@GeorgeEdison: doesn't seem to work...should it work on SU with FF 4? (not getting anything new in my editing interface)... – studiohack Apr 06 '11 at 23:19
@studio: Hmmm... I thought I fixed it. Give me a chance to try it on FF4 and see if I can reproduce. – Nathan Osman Apr 06 '11 at 23:23
@GeorgeEdison: take your time, no worries. Greasemonkey is somewhat buggy in FF4, my other scripts work most of the time, but not all the time..For what it's worth, I also have Ad-block installed... – studiohack Apr 06 '11 at 23:27
@studio: You are right. I can't get anything to show up in FF4 at all so it looks like it's time to do some debugging. – Nathan Osman Apr 06 '11 at 23:42
@George, @Dennis. Basic auto-update script here. I use it in the pro-forma comments script. – Benjol May 05 '11 at 09:22
2

As per @Sathya's bug report below, is there any chance of fixing this for inline editing? Can't get it to work on Chrome Dev. – slhck Aug 25 '11 at 10:55
@slhck: I'm not sure. I'd have to look into that. – Nathan Osman Aug 25 '11 at 16:45

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 09:43

14

Bug report: Inline editing breaks this :-(

edited Mar 20 '17 at 09:43

Community

1

answered Jul 11 '11 at 04:48

Sathyajith Bhat

455
3
13

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 02 '11 at 22:36

8

Bug report:

Using George Edison's UserScript version. FF4.0 windows Vista - nothing shows up in the toolbar. The same installation on chrome (10.0l.648.204) is intermittent - sometimes the buttons show up and sometimes they don't.

answered Apr 02 '11 at 22:36

I can also confirm the lack of buttons using Firefox 4 on Vista. – Ben Pilbrow Apr 03 '11 at 18:47
1

@Iain, @Ben: I think I have fixed both of these problems now and the script should work now. – Nathan Osman Apr 06 '11 at 03:38
@GeorgeEdison: Thanks for looking at this. Unfortunately FF 4.0 still doesn't show any auto correct button. – Apr 06 '11 at 15:12
@Iain: Are any errors reported in the error console? – Nathan Osman Apr 06 '11 at 17:10
@GeorgeEdison: The only error I see is document.querySelector("#wmd-button-row") is null – Apr 06 '11 at 17:34
@Iain: Then it isn't an error with my packaging. – Nathan Osman Apr 06 '11 at 18:15
Same problem here, FF 4 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard – CharlesB Apr 13 '11 at 08:21
:-( @GeorgeEdison I can't get the userscript to work in Greasemonkey on FF4.0 either – Sathyajith Bhat Apr 29 '11 at 05:10
@Sathya: I know... it's quite a big disappointment. I really am having a terrible time debugging it just to find out what's going wrong. – Nathan Osman Apr 29 '11 at 05:15
@GeorgeEdison Okay :( – Sathyajith Bhat Apr 30 '11 at 06:34
@Sathya: Any help that anyone can provide in regards to making debugging easier would be appreciated, so hopefully someone will be able to figure out what's going on. – Nathan Osman Apr 30 '11 at 06:44
@Sathya: @GeorgeEdison: Today's 4.01 update to FF doesn't help either. – Apr 30 '11 at 06:49
@GeorgeEdison - I can try to help but don't know where to start :-s – Sathyajith Bhat Apr 30 '11 at 07:06
@GeorgeEdison Has any progress been made? Buttons still don't show up on Chrome version 16.0 – wizlog Dec 19 '11 at 22:18
1

@wizlog: I'm afraid I've sort of abandoned my UserScript conversion of this extension. It was quite buggy and extremely difficult to debug. It would take less effort to write a UserScript version from scratch. – Nathan Osman Dec 20 '11 at 00:51

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 19 '11 at 21:28

2

I just installed the latest userscript version and I don't get a toolbar for Super User or Stack Apps. Server Fault and Stack Overflow do work. I haven't tried any others.

answered Mar 19 '11 at 21:28

Dennis Williamson

896
1
5
11

I just installed the latest version and I can't reproduce. What browser / OS / etc. are you using? – Nathan Osman Mar 20 '11 at 05:32
@George: Chrome (Beta) on Vista. I just tried it on Photography and Game Development. In both cases, a toolbar appeared if I tried to edit a question, but not if I tried to edit an answer. – Dennis Williamson Mar 20 '11 at 10:33
Aha! I can reproduce the problem editing answers on Photo.SE. Looking into it... – Nathan Osman Mar 20 '11 at 19:35
Seems to be a problem with the script and not my packaging, so I'll let @Jakub look into it. – Nathan Osman Mar 20 '11 at 19:40
Should be fixed in the source now, coming to a release near you soon. – Jakub Hampl Mar 22 '11 at 16:35

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 16 '11 at 01:38

1

Feature request:

Make the case-change button do a three way toggle: lower, title and upper (probably in that order).

lower case
Title Case
UPPER CASE

There are occasionally legitimate needs for all caps.

answered Mar 16 '11 at 01:38

Dennis Williamson

896
1
5
11

Are there? Isn't usually bold face better? Also see https://github.com/gampleman/SE-Editor-Toolkit/issues#issue/1. – Jakub Hampl Mar 16 '11 at 02:05
@Jakub: Title case definitely has its uses. All caps is useful sometimes for input data or in source code. Let's see if my suggestion gets any upvotes. – Dennis Williamson Mar 16 '11 at 02:28
2

[status-completed] – Jakub Hampl Mar 17 '11 at 18:12
@Jakub: Could the tool-tip be changed to more accurately describe the new functionality? – Dennis Williamson Mar 19 '11 at 21:26
To what? Change case? Sounds kinda weird. – Jakub Hampl Mar 19 '11 at 21:41
@Jakub: I don't know why that sounds weird, but some combination of change/toggle and case/capitalization or some variation perhaps. Maybe somebody will come along with a better idea. – Dennis Williamson Mar 19 '11 at 22:13
@Dennis I'm hoping to get some proper icons for a near future release so I'll add it to that. – Jakub Hampl Mar 19 '11 at 22:44

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 16 '11 at 01:36

0

Bug report:

Using George Edison's UserScript version Replace & Find doesn't update the diff, but Replace All does. I don't know if this applies to the original version or not.

answered Mar 16 '11 at 01:36

Dennis Williamson

896
1
5
11

3

[status-completed] – Jakub Hampl Mar 16 '11 at 02:05

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 18 '20 at 08:33

0

Bug Report:

It doesn't seem to work on StackApps. I don't get the added buttons in the toolbar.

As always, I'm reporting this against George's version without knowing whether it applies to the original.

In case I haven't said it already:

Thanks Jakub and George!

edited Jun 18 '20 at 08:33

Community

1

answered Mar 16 '11 at 01:43

Dennis Williamson

896
1
5
11

1

I fixed this problem in my UserScript. – Nathan Osman Mar 16 '11 at 04:52
Also added askubuntu.com and answers.onstartups.com. Any other SE site I'm missing? – Jakub Hampl Mar 16 '11 at 19:06
@Jakub: Ya, I noticed that and added askubuntu.com to the packaging. I don't think you're missing any others. – Nathan Osman Mar 20 '11 at 19:40

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 06 '11 at 14:00

0

Bug Report: (using George Edison's UserScript)

Diff ignores changes in whitespace, making indentation changes fairly invisible.

answered Apr 06 '11 at 14:00

Hasturkun

101
2

OBSOLETE - SE Editor Toolkit

Looking for Maintainer

Autocorrect

Realtime diff

Lowercasing

Search & Replace

Code-sane^tm

Where can I get it?

Gotchas

Version History

8 Answers8

Deprecated.

Thanks Jakub and George!

Linked

OBSOLETE - SE Editor Toolkit

Looking for Maintainer

Autocorrect

Realtime diff

Lowercasing

Search & Replace

Code-sanetm

Where can I get it?

Gotchas

Version History

8 Answers8

Deprecated.

Thanks Jakub and George!

Linked

Code-sane^tm