Re: Please bring back the Convert to ASCII command

[Rich Siegel]

On Monday, March 18, 2013, Robert Sedor <digi...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I code plain text emails from HTML or Word documents that contain high
> ASCII characters (bullets, registration marks, curly quotes, etc.) I've
> always relied on TextWrangler's Convert to ASCII command for a quick
> one-step conversion. Zap gremlins is not a usable substitute.

In what way?

R.
--
Rich Siegel Bare Bones Software, Inc.
<sie...@barebones.com> <http://www.barebones.com/>

Someday I'll look back on all this and laugh... until they sedate me.

[Thomas Fischer]

Hello,

I would like to assign the combination ⌘ö to the menu command Go -> Previous, because that is the same on Preview (in German).
But I can't: if I try, the resulting combination is ⌘^ which
a) is different and
b) doesn't work because ^ is a combining character on my keyboard.
Is there another way to assign this shortcut or wouldn't it work at all?
I also have a shortcut ⌘ü which works and I use for ages.

Best
Thomas

[Thomas Fischer]

Hello,

could anybody of those who want the "Convert to ASCII command" back please elaborate on what it is that they need it for that can't be accomplished using "Zap Gremlins…"?

Best

Thomas

Am 24.04.2013 um 18:24 schrieb Usually Befuddled:

On Monday, March 18, 2013 2:56:00 PM UTC-4, Robert Sedor wrote:

Please restore the Convert to ASCII command in the next update.

YES!  I succumbed  to the siren call of autoupdate, and it is GONE, just like the Lindberg baby.

I have a copy of 3.5.3 on another machine and I must now move it over.....

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[Thomas Fischer]

Hello,

could anybody of those who want the "Convert to ASCII command" back please elaborate on what it is that they need it for that can't be accomplished using "Zap Gremlins…"?

Here is what I get when I scrape text from the Economist:

But the court is unlikely to base its ruling on such airy ethical principles. The legal debate revolves not around the two genes? 

humanness, but their naturalness?for the judges are being asked to rule whether Myriad?s genes count as a ?product of nature?. If they 

do, then under American law they cannot be patented.

...

But the court is unlikely to base its ruling on such airy ethical principles. The legal debate revolves not around the two genes? 

humanness, but their naturalness?for the judges are being asked to rule whether Myriad?s genes count as a ?product of nature?. If they 

do, then under American law they cannot be patented.

What does Zap do on the above?

Nothing, because the text is already 7bit ASCII.

But "Convert to ASCII" in TW 3.5.3 doesn't change it either, so it's not a good example.

Probably your email client didn't preserve the original characters, I assume this is the original text (let's see if it gets through):

But the court is unlikely to base its ruling on such airy ethical principles. The legal debate revolves not around the two genes’ humanness, but their naturalness—for the judges are being asked to rule whether Myriad’s genes count as a “product of nature”. If they do, then under American law they cannot be patented.

Then "Zap Gremlins…" with the option "replace with code" produces:

But the court is unlikely to base its ruling on such airy ethical principles. The legal debate revolves not around the two genes' humanness, but their naturalness--for the judges are being asked to rule whether Myriad's genes count as a "product of nature". If they do, then under American law they cannot be patented.

This is identical with the result of "Convert to ASCII" with TW 3.5.3.

By the way, the difference between that and the "Straighten Quotes" is in the em dash: Zap Gremlins replaces it with "--", Straighten Quotes with "-".

Best

Thomas

[Christopher Stone]

On May 02, 2013, at 12:31, grace....@gmail.com wrote:

Then "Zap Gremlins…" with the option "replace with code" produces:

______________________________________________________________________

Hello Grace,

You've tried Zap Gremlins?  With the replace-with-code option?

--

Best Regards,

Chris

[Thomas Fischer]

Hi,

did you try the "Zap Gremlins…" zapping everything in sight and replacing it with code?

The result may depend on the text (combining characters don't seem to work well) and on your localisation.

Could you provide an example where "convert to ascii" works better than the "Zap Gremlins…"?

If that doesn't do the job, I would try to use a text filter (I personally would use Perl).

Best

Thomas

Am 02.05.2013 um 19:31 schrieb grace....@gmail.com:

Hi Thomas, 

I often use the 'convert to ascii' feature to convert info into a formatted plain-text version we can use to send mime-type emails. As well as straightening quotes, and swapping em/en dashes, it is especially helpful that it swaps diacriticals for their ordinary letter equivalents. Can this be accomplished another way?

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If you have a feature request or would like to report a problem,

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[Usually Befuddled]

So I've tried for the last year using Zap Gremlins as a substitute for Convert to ASCII, but it does not always seem to do the job I need. 

I need to straighten quotes [single & double] replace em-dashes with ordinary ones, and no doubt something I've forgotten...until it bites me.

When I last tried Zap; I got output where the em-dashes were replaced with {I think} Unicode numbers. 

I'm open to suggestions, either how to use ZG better, or another approach to getting the plain vanilla text I need.

[Patrick Woolsey]

On 8/22/14 at 1:15 AM, hut6....@gmail.com (Usually Befuddled) wrote:

>So I've tried for the last year using Zap Gremlins as a
>substitute for Convert to ASCII, but it does not always seem to
>do the job I need.
>I need to straighten quotes [single & double] replace em-dashes
>with ordinary ones, and no doubt something I've
>forgotten...until it bites me.
>
>When I last tried Zap; I got output where the em-dashes were
>replaced with {I think} Unicode numbers.

Since that should work, please email tech support
<sup...@barebones.com> with a sample file so we can investigate.


Regards,

Patrick Woolsey
==
Bare Bones Software, Inc. <http://www.barebones.com/>