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Geek Strut: Windows/GREP help (NRR)

tiger_blurptiger_blurp 275 Posts
edited December 2006 in Strut Central
Shot in the dark.What programs are available for Windows that would allow me to do multiple grep search/replace (i.e wild card-type search/replace where the stuff that needs to be replaced varies, but the patterns for where they show up are fairly constant) to clean out and tidy up a bunch of html code in text files?I currently do this daily for work on my Mac using BBEdit and Applescript, which is a breeze. I know that I can do the same on a Windows PC, but I don't know that platform beyond the basic everyday user shit, so I don't know what tools are available. Work is willing to foot the bill for the software, altho if the costs are really high, it might be a bit much to ask.The caveats are:1) it has to be something moderately basic -- I don't need hardcore programmer/developer shit. All I want to do is run a bunch of grep searches. I don't mind if its a deeply powerful program, but it has to be simple enough to use for this purpose that I don't need to take a class or be deep in the coding game to figure out how to accomplish this task. I'm fairly familiar with GREP syntax, and I feel comfortable with very low level code work, but I'm no pro.2) it has to run on Windows XP -- no linux. The computers we use at work are strickly XP machines.The way I do it now is I have an applescript with a bunch of BBEdit grep searches already coded into it. So all I have to do is open my file, choose the applescript from the script menu, twiddle my thumbs a bit while it's processing, then presto, I have a clean file.I would love to find something on the Windows side that could do the same thing or something very similar, and be as easy to implement. Ideally, I would want one of my co-workers who is not at all code-savvy to be able to open a text document on their machine, and be able to run the same collection of searches without difficulty. So basically, beyond being able to grep, I hope to find something that will automate a bunch of greps easily on one file.Sorry for the utter geekdom of this post, but work is sweating me on this shit, and I'm not making any headway on my own. I figure there's got to be at least one or two folks on The Strut who can make some sense out of any of what I just typed, even if it's just to point me in the direction of a better (free) place to find out this information. Google hasn't helped me thus far.Thanks in advance.

  Comments

  • ZekeZeke 221 Posts
    Check out Ultraedit. I haven't used it since I got a Mac, but have used it in the past to do large search and replace jobs.

    Pretty similar to BBEdit.
  • sindiansindian 68 Posts
    This might be too heavyweigtht for you, but you could install cygwin (cygwin.com). It installs a bash shell and all the unix utilities, including grep. There's also unixutils (http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/). Much lighter install. The advantage of these two approaches is that you can actually run grep on Windows.

    You could also install perl, python, or ruby on WinXP. There's also emacs. Probably not what you want though, if all you need is grep.
  • DJFerrariDJFerrari 2,411 Posts
    This might be too heavyweigtht for you, but you could install cygwin (cygwin.com).

  • pknypkny 549 Posts
    This might be too heavyweigtht for you, but you could install cygwin (cygwin.com). It installs a bash shell and all the unix utilities, including grep. There's also unixutils (http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/). Much lighter install. The advantage of these two approaches is that you can actually run grep on Windows.

    You could also install perl, python, or ruby on WinXP. There's also emacs. Probably not what you want though, if all you need is grep.

    Cosign on the UNIXUtils for Windows, I use these on my Windows machines all the time, and sounds like it would the easiest solution for you.

    If even that is too overkill of a solution, you could just download Grep for Windows, freely available from here:

    http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/grep.htm

  • tiger_blurptiger_blurp 275 Posts
    Just wanted to say thanks to all of y'all for the advice.

    I've heard a lot of good things about UltraEdit. And that cygwin thing seems pretty dope. Trying to see if I can carve out some nerding time today to make this shit happen. Thanks again.
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