text.py

"""Helpers for text manipulation"""

import re
from HTMLParser import HTMLParser

maxlen = 200

def strip(msg, html=True, space=True, truncate=False):
    class MLStripper(HTMLParser):
        def __init__(self):
            self.reset()
            self.fed = []
        def handle_data(self, d):
            self.fed.append(d)
        def get_data(self):
            return ''.join(self.fed)

    if html:
        stripper = MLStripper()
        stripper.feed(msg)
        msg = stripper.get_data()
    if space:
        msg = re.sub("\s+", " ", msg).strip()
    if truncate:
        msg = trunc(msg)
    return msg

def abbrevs(name):
    """
    Turn a space-delimited name into initials, e.g. Frank Ubiquitous Zappa -> FUZ
    """
    return "".join([w[:1] for w in name.split()])

def trunc(message):
    if len(message) > maxlen:
        return (message[:(maxlen-3)] + "...")
    else:
        return message