ATS: And Then There Were Fourteen

Rixstep's ACP Text Services treble in number.

Get It Try It

FUNAFUTI (Rixstep) — Rixstep add two new cool text services to the ATS collection and bring the total up to fourteen - treble what they started out as once upon a time.

The two new services are called 'Hyperlink' and 'LI Brackets'. They and the other dozen are explained below.

1. Camel - convert a highlighted string to camel case.
   'camel case' becomes 'CamelCase'. And so forth.

2. Capitals - convert a highlighted string to capitals.
   'BULLDOG' becomes 'Bulldog'. And so forth.

3. Escapes - convert a highlighted string to HTML UCS.
   This uses 'percent escapes' to make URLs and other strings palatable for the web. Non-ASCII characters get a 'percent' representation.

4. Hyperlink - convert a highlighted string to a hyperlink.
   Useful when crafting for the web in raw HTML.
   'http://rixstep.com' becomes '<a href=http://rixstep.com>http://rixstep.com</a>'
   'steve@apple.com' becomes '<a href=mailto:steve@apple.com>steve@apple.com</a>'.
   RRLs and local URLs are transformed as well.

5. Kanachars - flip a highlighted string from/to katakana.
   Based on the propitious coincidence that it's easy to map occidental characters to 'Matrix' characters and back again. This is for fun.

6. LI Brackets - bracket a highlighted string with opening and closing HTML LI tags. A list such as the following:
   
   One line
   Line Two
   Third line
   Another line
   
   Becomes:
   
   <li>One line</li>
   <li>Line Two</li>
   <li>Third line</li>
   <li>Another line</li>
   
   And so forth.

7. Lower Case - convert a highlighted string to lower case.
   'BULLDOG' becomes 'bulldog'. And so forth.

8. Resolve Path - expand command lines to show full paths.
   A very important service. Takes care of expanding your command lines so you don't fall prey to interlopers exploiting $PATH hacks made possible by weaknesses in legacy NeXTSTEP technology and the Unix command interpreters (such as bash). This service traverses your $PATH value exactly as your command interpreter will do. The command:
   
   echo 'hello world'; ls -al /; sudo ipfw show
   
   Becomes:
   
   /bin/echo 'hello world'; /bin/ls -al /; /usr/bin/sudo /sbin/ipfw show
   
   And so forth.

9. Single Spaces - remove redundant (horizontal/vertical) space.
   Self explanatory. Removes redundant space both vertically and horizontally.

10. Standard Quotes - replace 'smart quotes' with ASCII quotes.
    So your copy and paste ops don't turn into mush when put in HTML files or email messages.

11. Strip HTML Tags - strip HTML tags from highlighted text.
    Takes them all out. Use one of the other services to clean up white space etc.

12. Tidy Up Quote - fix typical havoc in a highlighted mail quote.
    Indispensable for dealing with email still constrained by the limitations of Microsoft text management. Text isn't allowed to wrap because Redmond engineers still haven't learned how. Compare:
    
    > please put me
    > on subscription list
    > - thanks
    
    With:
    
    > please put me on subscription list - thanks
    
    And so forth. A keyboard shortcut gets you there in a flash.

13. Undo Escapes - remove escapes from a highlighted string.
    Unravel the hidden secrets in those weird URLs you see popping up in your browser location bar.

14. Upper Case - convert a highlighted string to upper case.
    'bulldog' becomes 'BULLDOG'. And so forth.

Note these services run anywhere native Cocoa text is used on OS X - which today means just about everywhere. It could be a file I/O dialog, a web form, the message composition window of your email client, your text editor - almost everywhere.

The ACP Text Services are available only with the full ACP.

See Also
Rixstep's ACP: ACP Text Services