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pythonshellapplescript

Add "+" character in between every character in AppleScript List

I'm trying to edit a list of shortcuts and separate keys with a "+" character.

So "⌃⌥B" becomes "⌃+⌥+B" and so on

So far I've been able to extract my shortcuts into a list named "hotkeyShortcutList".

My example hotkeyShortcutList list looks like this:

set hotkeyShortcutList to {"$", "U", "J", "G", "R", "⇧R", "⇧Y", "⇧G", "⇧B", "⇧P", "⇧⌫", "⌃M", "⌃W", "⌃S", "⌃X", "⌃C", "⌃V", "⌃N", "⇧⌃N", "⌃U", "⌃B", "⇧⌃A", "⌃A", "⌥I", "⌥O", "⇧⌥I", "⇧⌥O", "⌥B", "⌥D", "⌥S", "⌃⌥M", "⌃⌥B", "⌃⌥X", "⇧⌃G", "⇧⌃⌥R", "⇧⌃⌥L", "⌃Å", "⌃]", "⇧⌃Å", "⇧⌃}", "⇧⌃M", "⇧⌃⌥!", "⇧⌃⌥@", "⇧⌃⌥£", "⇧⌃⌥$", "⇧⌃⌥%", "⇧⌃⌥^", "⌃1", "⌃2", "⌃3", "⌃4", "⌃5", "⌃6", "⇧⌃!", "⇧⌃\"", "⇧⌃#", "⇧⌃€", "⇧⌃%", "⇧⌃&", "K", "⌃K", "⌃V", "⇧⌃⌥K", "A", "Y", "Z", "⇧⌃*", "⇧⌃⌥*", "X", "⌃,", "⌃.", "⇧⌃;", "⇧⌃:", "⌃P", "⇧⌃)", "⇧⌃?", "⌃+", "Space", "[", "]", "V", "L", "P", "S", "N", "Q", "O", "T", "E", "D", "W", "C", "F"}

My script for processing so far:

set processedShortcutList to {}
repeat with i from 1 to length of hotkeyShortcutList
set theCurrentListItem to item i of hotkeyShortcutList
set processedListItem to (do shell script ("<<<" & theCurrentListItem & " sed -E 's/.{1}/&+/g ; s/-$//'"))
set processedListItem to characters 1 thru -2 of processedListItem as text
set end of processedShortcutList to processedListItem
end repeat
return processedShortcutList

However I've got 3 issues:

  1. The shell script seems to work on regular characters, but bugs out when trying to handle special characters like "⇧", "⌃" and "⌥". I have very limited understanding of shell scripts, but it seemed to be the way to go with text handling from what I could Google...

  2. I need to replace special characters with text after the "+"'s have been added. ⇧ replaced with "shift", ⌃ replaced with "control", ⌥ replaced with "command", ⌥ replaced with "command" etc.

  3. I'd like to add some edge case protection to keys that have multiple letters like "space" for spacebar and "F1" for F-keys, so I don't end up with "s+p+a+c+e" and "F+1".

I know AppleScript might not be the easiest way to do it, but I'll be using the values inside of an AppleScript, so I feel like it would be nice to keep it all together. Any suggestions?

Solution

  • Here is a method that is faster than the other answers as it does not need to run in a repeat loop as it coerces the list to linefeed separated text to process it with a single do shell script command and sed, then coerces the result of the do shell script command back to a list.

    In testing in Script Debugger the following example AppleScript code took 0.01 second, while the code in the answer from red_menace took 0.05 seconds, and the code in the answer from Mockman took 0.93 second.

    Example AppleScript code:

    set hotkeyShortcutList to {"$", "U", "J", "G", "R", "⇧R", "⇧Y", "⇧G", "⇧B", "⇧P", "⇧⌫", "⌃M", "⌃W", "⌃S", "⌃X", "⌃C", "⌃V", "⌃N", "⇧⌃N", "⌃U", "⌃B", "⇧⌃A", "⌃A", "⌥I", "⌥O", "⇧⌥I", "⇧⌥O", "⌥B", "⌥D", "⌥S", "⌃⌥M", "⌃⌥B", "⌃⌥X", "⇧⌃G", "⇧⌃⌥R", "⇧⌃⌥L", "⌃Å", "⌃]", "⇧⌃Å", "⇧⌃}", "⇧⌃M", "⇧⌃⌥!", "⇧⌃⌥@", "⇧⌃⌥£", "⇧⌃⌥$", "⇧⌃⌥%", "⇧⌃⌥^", "⌃1", "⌃2", "⌃3", "⌃4", "⌃5", "⌃6", "⇧⌃!", "⇧⌃\"", "⇧⌃#", "⇧⌃€", "⇧⌃%", "⇧⌃&", "K", "⌃K", "⌃V", "⇧⌃⌥K", "A", "Y", "Z", "⇧⌃*", "⇧⌃⌥*", "X", "⌃,", "⌃.", "⇧⌃;", "⇧⌃:", "⌃P", "⇧⌃)", "⇧⌃?", "⌃+", "Space", "[", "]", "V", "L", "P", "S", "N", "Q", "O", "T", "E", "D", "W", "C", "F"}

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to linefeed
set foo to hotkeyShortcutList as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {}

set processedShortcutList to paragraphs of (do shell script "sed -e 's/⌃/control+/g' -e 's/⌥/option+/g' -e 's/⇧/shift+/g' -e 's/⌫/backspace+/g' <<< " & foo's quoted form)

    Result:

    {"$", "U", "J", "G", "R", "shift+R", "shift+Y", "shift+G", "shift+B", "shift+P", "shift+backspace+", "control+M", "control+W", "control+S", "control+X", "control+C", "control+V", "control+N", "shift+control+N", "control+U", "control+B", "shift+control+A", "control+A", "option+I", "option+O", "shift+option+I", "shift+option+O", "option+B", "option+D", "option+S", "control+option+M", "control+option+B", "control+option+X", "shift+control+G", "shift+control+option+R", "shift+control+option+L", "control+Å", "control+]", "shift+control+Å", "shift+control+}", "shift+control+M", "shift+control+option+!", "shift+control+option+@", "shift+control+option+£", "shift+control+option+$", "shift+control+option+%", "shift+control+option+^", "control+1", "control+2", "control+3", "control+4", "control+5", "control+6", "shift+control+!", "shift+control+\"", "shift+control+#", "shift+control+€", "shift+control+%", "shift+control+&", "K", "control+K", "control+V", "shift+control+option+K", "A", "Y", "Z", "shift+control+*", "shift+control+option+*", "X", "control+,", "control+.", "shift+control+;", "shift+control+:", "control+P", "shift+control+)", "shift+control+?", "control++", "Space", "[", "]", "V", "L", "P", "S", "N", "Q", "O", "T", "E", "D", "W", "C", "F"}