Lexeduct
========

**You can try Lexeduct live in your web browser here: [Lexeduct Online][]**

> "this is not a wheel I've re-invented before"

**Lexeduct** is an experimental framework for text-processing pipelines,
written in Javascript, usable both on the console under [Node.js][], and
in a web browser.

It is currently a work in progress.  The current released version is 0.1.
The framework and usage and everything is subject to change without notice.

Being a framework, Lexeduct inevitably handles some use cases well, and other
use cases poorly.  See the "Limitations" section below for more details.

The name "Lexeduct" is in analogy with "aqueduct": conduits for words intead
of water.

Basic Usage
-----------

The main tool is `lexeduct.js`.  You can `cd` into the `src` directory and run
it as `./lexeduct.js`, or you can put the `src` directory on your executable
search path, for example like

    export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/lexeduct/src

and run it as `lexeduct.js` from anywhere on your system.  (YMMV on Windows.)

The basic usage is

    lexeduct.js {param=value|transformer-name}

So, for example,

    $ echo 'Hello!' | lexeduct.js upper
    HELLO

Parameters can be given with the syntax `name=value` before the name of the
transformer they are to be applied to:

    $ echo 'Hello' | lexeduct.js chars=e remove-chars
    Hllo

You can of course use shell pipelines to compose transformers:

    $ echo 'Hello!' | lexeduct.js upper | lexeduct.js chars=' ' insert-chars
    H E L L O !

*Or* you can name multiple transformers on `lexeduct.js`'s command line to
compose them:

    $ echo 'Hello!' | lexeduct.js upper chars=' ' insert-chars
    H E L L O !

Multiple transformers are applied left-to-right.

    $ echo 'Hello!' | lexeduct.js chars=a insert-chars upper
    HAEALALAOA!A

    $ echo 'Hello!' | lexeduct.js upper chars=a insert-chars
    HaEaLaLaOa!a

Transformers
------------

The idea is that this repository will eventually contain a giant catalogue
of possible text transformers that can be composed.  Or at least, more than
are presently included.

Each transformer is in a seperate Javascript file in the `src/transformers`
directory which exports, node-style, a single function called `makeTransformer`
which takes a configuration object and returns a transformer function.  The
transformer function takes two arguments: the current string to process, and
(optionally) an object which can be used to store ancillary state.  Every
transformer function should return either a string, or null (not yet supported),
or an array of strings (not yet supported.)

The module may also export a couple of other things, like an English description
of the transformer, and the possible configuration options.  For a reasonably
simple example, see the source of the `upper` transformer, in
[upper.js](src/transformers/upper.js).

State deposited into the state object is shared by all transformers, so it's
a good idea to choose a key that you think will probably be unique.

In-Browser Version
------------------

Run `./make.sh` from this directory (or the commands it contains) to generate
a Javascript file which contains all the available transformers in a format
suitable for loading in an HTML document.

Then open `demo/lexeduct.html` in your browser.  It provides a UI for composing
these transformers and applying them to text provided in a textarea.

Limitations
-----------

The main limitation is that every filter is line-based.  Even the filters
that work on words take a line, split it into words, do whatever it is they
do to the words, then stick the words back together to form a new line,
destroying any irregular spacing in the original line.

Acknowledgements
----------------

Lexeduct was partly inspired by, and is partly a product of parallel evolution
resembling, [Michael Paulukonis][]'s [TextMunger][].  It is also indebted to
various and sundry discussion with him, and others on the
[GenerativeText Forum][], particularly [John Ohno][].

[Lexeduct Online]:      https://catseye.tc/installation/Lexeduct
[Node.js]:              https://nodejs.org/
[Michael Paulukonis]:   https://michaelpaulukonis.github.io/
[TextMunger]:           https://github.com/MichaelPaulukonis/text-munger
[GenerativeText Forum]: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/generativetext
[John Ohno]:            https://www.lord-enki.net/