DEV Community: Takuma Otake

[Python] Extracting characters inside quotes and manipulating strings outside of quotes

Takuma Otake — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 11:55:00 +0000

Hello everybody.
This is an English translation and modification of the article (link) posted in Japanese in advance.

When I was programming in Python recently, I had a hard time finding a library for string manipulation without parentheses, so I decided to publish the code I wrote for this purpose in a library.
I'm not sure if there is enough demand for this library, so I'm holding off on releasing it on PyPI.

Release site

Project name: Splitable str
Module name: sstr
https://github.com/bigbamboo-jp/splitable-str

How to use

Example 1: Extract the words in square brackets in a sentence

from sstr import sstr

text = "Is this an [apple]? No, it's an [orange]. Then give me a [grape]."
text_ = sstr(text)
surrounded_words = []
for part in text_.divide_and_classify(enclosure=[['[', ']']]):
    if part[1] == True:
        word = part[0]
        surrounded_words.append(word[1:-1])
print(surrounded_words)  # ['apple', 'orange', 'grape']

Example 2: Count the number of "water" in a sentence (exclude the part in double quotes from the search)

from sstr import sstr

text = 'One person said that "water is infinite", but water is finite by any means.'
text_ = sstr(text)
quantity = text_.scount('water', enclosure='"')
print(quantity)  # 1

You can check other usage examples in the README.

Copy VEGAS Pro presets, etc. to another PC

Takuma Otake — Sat, 29 Jan 2022 15:37:11 +0000

Hello everybody.
This is an English translation and modification of the article (link) posted in Japanese in advance.

Introduction

I recently changed my main PC.
I install the software that I always use on the new PC, but some of them need to be migrated.
Chrome and Microsoft Office are linked to the account, so they do it automatically, but for software that does not, you have to export and import the settings yourself.
When I was doing such work leisurely while fighting drowsiness, I realized that it was not straightforward to migrate the settings of the video editing software VEGAS Pro.
Normally, software for creators such as video editing software has a menu for migrating settings, but only VEGAS Pro did not find such a menu.
I had no choice but to ask Google Sensei and he told me to download "Preset Manager 2.0".
However, the software has already been officially distributed, and I had to download it from an unofficial archive site.
At that time, I was already sick, so I just checked for viruses and installed the software from that installer.
* Good boys should not download programs from suspicious sites.
And I used that software to migrate the data, but the only migrated setting was the event FX filter his package.
However, there is no other tool that could be used, so I had no choice but to spend about an hour manually migrating the settings.
This time, the migration was completed, but I don't want to struggle with the same thing a few years later, so I decided to put together the work required to migrate the settings in the program.

Main subject

So, this time, I would like to introduce you to VEGAS Pro Configuration Backup Tools.
With this free software, you can back up and restore the effect settings of VEGAS Pro.
The backup targets are "Filter package of each event FX", "Media generator preset", and "Rendering template".

How to use

* You must agree to the license (MIT License) to use the program.

Download the ZIP file containing the latest program
Download the latest release of "Source code (zip)" on this page.
Extract the ZIP file
Right-click the downloaded ZIP file and click "Extract All" to display the extraction wizard.
Find the folder of the item you want to back up from the extracted folders

Reference

Filter package of each event FX → Event FX
Media generator preset → OFX Presets
Rendering template → Render Templates
Execute "save.bat" in the folder of the item you want to back up (operate at the migration source)
Execute the backup file (operate at the migration destination)
* It is necessary to copy the backup file to the migration destination using a USB memory or the like.

Important point

Not all settings will be migrated (eg event pan / crop presets will not be migrated).
Use this program at your own risk.

How to "Copy" text contained in PC screens and image files

Takuma Otake — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 18:15:34 +0000

Hello everybody.
This is an English translation and modification of the article (link) posted in Japanese in advance.
* Because this is the first DEV post, there may be various things that are not good ... I would be grateful if you could let me know in the discussion.

Introduction

Sometimes when using a PC, this happens.

(Image: EmEditor message dialog)

"I don't know what it says..."
At times like this, most people try to understand the meaning using a translation website. But this is a message dialog.
After dragging to select a range, right-click and click "Copy"...
You can't do that.
So, normally, you have to manually enter it on the translation site, but when it comes to a somewhat long text, it can't be helped anymore. In that case, human beings are creatures who want to make things easier, so you think, "Is there a way to read the characters on the screen?"
This time, I would like to introduce software that makes it easy.

Free software: Cloud OCR Snip

The introduction has become long, but this time I will introduce a free software called "Cloud OCR Snip".
The method of reading the characters on the screen is introduced in other blogs, but most of them have problems such as many steps and poor recognition accuracy.

(Image: The result of character recognition on the language selection page of Wikipedia with GT Text)

In the above results, the texts in Latin alphabet languages are well recognized, but the other texts are broken beyond imagination.
In general, all software that returns the above results use the local character recognition engine for character recognition. Certainly, if it is a simple sentence, it may be read properly, but if it is a slightly complicated sentence, the accuracy will drop at once.
Let's try to recognize the same sentence with Cloud OCR Snip this time.

(Image: The result of character recognition on the language selection page of Wikipedia with Cloud OCR Snip)

This one reads so well that I can't find any mistakes.
The reason for the difference so far is that the software like the one in the previous example processes the data locally, while this software uses the cloud service to process the data.
Each cloud service requires a computer to do a lot of learning work to improve recognition accuracy, so it performs far better than when it is done locally.
Since this kind of character recognition is a fairly advanced technology, most services charge for it, but the Google Cloud Vision API used in the example above is free up to 1000 times per month (beyond 1000 times, it costs US$1.5 for every 1000 times).

* The above information is as of December 2021. Please check here for the latest information.

You can also start character recognition by clicking the icon on the right side of the taskbar or pressing a hotkey, so you can easily use it even when you want to check a little.
In summary, Cloud OCR Snip and Google Cloud Vision API make it free and easy to use very accurate character recognition (up to 1000 times a month).

Get ready to use

First of all, regarding installation, since this is a developer community site, I will omit the details. Download the installer from here and run it (latest version recommended).
Next is the initial setting, but basically you can finish it by following the instructions on the screen. However, setting up a cloud service is a bit complicated, so I'd like to briefly explain it here.
・When using Google Cloud Vision API
If you search the web with "How to Create Google API JSON Credential" etc., you will reach the support page of paid software with the same function. See it.
* To use the service, you need to set the payment method (credit card and PayPal can be used).

Try using

If you left-click the icon in the task tray or press the hotkey (default: Alt key, Shift key, S key at the same time) to specify the area to read, the text on the screen can be recognized and copied.
Also, right-click the icon in the task tray and left-click "Read text from image file" in the displayed menu to display the image file selection dialog. Then select an image and you will be able to recognize and copy the text in the image.
In addition, right-click the icon in the task tray and left-click "Read text from clipboard image" in the displayed menu to recognize the text in the image on the clipboard and copy it.
* If there is no image available on the clipboard, the operation will be blocked.
* This function can also be called by hotkeys (default: Windows key, Shift key, D key at the same time).

Use in combination

If you want both the result of character recognition and the scanned image, first take a screenshot with Snip & Sketch (hotkey: Windows key, Shift key, S key simultaneously), and then cloud OCR the image. Load with Snip.
* If you take a screenshot using the hotkey in Snip & Sketch, it will be automatically copied to the clipboard. You can also save the screenshot to a file by clicking the notification that appears when the shot is complete.

DEV Community: Takuma Otake

[Python] Extracting characters inside quotes and manipulating strings outside of quotes

Release site

How to use

Copy VEGAS Pro presets, etc. to another PC

Introduction

Main subject

How to use

Reference

Important point

How to "Copy" text contained in PC screens and image files

Introduction

(Image: EmEditor message dialog)

Free software: Cloud OCR Snip

(Image: The result of character recognition on the language selection page of Wikipedia with GT Text)

(Image: The result of character recognition on the language selection page of Wikipedia with Cloud OCR Snip)

* The above information is as of December 2021. Please check here for the latest information.

Get ready to use

Try using

Use in combination