replace <> in BBCode for []

[Former Member]

Basically, I like HTML, so what if I could type in my posts and threads:

<b><i><u><font face="comic sans ms" color="#1979e6" size="5">Hi sir </font></u></i></b>

and it would replace all of the < and > for [ and ] like this:
[b][i][u][font face="comic sans ms" color="#1979e6" size="5"]Hi sir [/font][/u][/i][/b] Basically it wouldn't really be coding in HTML, just BBCode with angle brackets, and the angle brackets automatically get censored and replaced with regular brackets. I know it's not essential, but I just think it would be really awesome.  

[Retread]

Jul 26, 2019 7:42:46 GMT -8 @smithj said:

Basically, I like HTML, so what if I could type in my posts and threads:

<b><i><u><font face="comic sans ms" color="#1979e6" size="5">Hi sir </font></u></i></b>

and it would replace all of the < and > for [ and ] like this:
[b][i][u][font face="comic sans ms" color="#1979e6" size="5"]Hi sir [/font][/u][/i][/b] Basically it wouldn't really be coding in HTML, just BBCode with angle brackets, and the angle brackets automatically get censored and replaced with regular brackets. I know it's not essential, but I just think it would be really awesome.  

This sounds like an idea that would lead to problems unless it was applied with a LOT of finesse.

To just blindly "replace all of the < and > for [ and ]" would be a disaster in any situation where someone was displaying the HTML that was used somewhere, and putting that in a post. I reckon there might be a way for the plugin to recognize the context, but without that, this plugin would do as much harm as good.

And there are situations where one might use < to mean 'less than' and > to mean 'greater than'. Replacing those would be highly undesirable.

Hopefully one of the coders will take a look at this and advise whether your idea could be implemented without having undesired effects.

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For what it's worth, you can easily replace the angled brackets with square brackets in Notepad++

[Former Member]

Jul 26, 2019 11:48:25 GMT -8 Retread said:

Jul 26, 2019 7:42:46 GMT -8 @smithj said:

Basically, I like HTML, so what if I could type in my posts and threads:

<b><i><u><font face="comic sans ms" color="#1979e6" size="5">Hi sir </font></u></i></b>

and it would replace all of the < and > for [ and ] like this:
[b][i][u][font face="comic sans ms" color="#1979e6" size="5"]Hi sir [/font][/u][/i][/b] Basically it wouldn't really be coding in HTML, just BBCode with angle brackets, and the angle brackets automatically get censored and replaced with regular brackets. I know it's not essential, but I just think it would be really awesome.  

This sounds like an idea that would lead to problems unless it was applied with a LOT of finesse.

To just blindly "replace all of the < and > for [ and ]" would be a disaster in any situation where someone was displaying the HTML that was used somewhere, and putting that in a post. I reckon there might be a way for the plugin to recognize the context, but without that, this plugin would do as much harm as good.

And there are situations where one might use < to mean 'less than' and > to mean 'greater than'. Replacing those would be highly undesirable.

Hopefully one of the coders will take a look at this and advise whether your idea could be implemented without having undesired effects.

---

For what it's worth, you can easily replace the angled brackets with square brackets in Notepad++

If you want to use HTML or any other language and not have it display in the post just put it in here :
Insert Code Here

is that possible? I don't think members on the website I would install it on would write any plain html at all (unless if they could put it in the place of BBCode), and if they did they could just put it in the code box. 

[Retread]

Jul 26, 2019 12:46:53 GMT -8 @smithj said:

If you want to use HTML or any other language and not have it display in the post just put it in here :
Insert Code Here

is that possible? I don't think members on the website I would install it on would write any plain html at all (unless if they could put it in the place of BBCode), and if they did they could just put it in the code box. 

That's a big question that needs to be answered but I don't have the knowledge to know if it's possible to ignore whats between [code][/code] tags and deal only with the < and > which exist outside the code tags.

Also, I reckon the preferred method would be to do the replacement while in the editor and before the content is actually posted. If the plugin is designed to replace < and > in posts which already exist, then the content would revert if the plugin is removed. So the formatting would fall apart without the plugin working.

Even if all that is possible, there would still be a problem using < or > in a few things that are posted occasionally.

No way, Coke >>> Pepsi!
would become
No way, Coke ]]] Pepsi!

Maybe elli or Chris or Brian will weigh in on whether something like what you're asking for, could work.

[Brian]

Honestly, my suggestion would be to just type the brackets to begin with instead of trying to automate it with a plugin. Most of the tags are exactly the same to begin with. The plugin is an extra step that isn't really necessary.

[elli]

Like, yeah... you could probably do this with some crazy regex rule... the question is why?

Similarly to Brian, I don't think it's that much extra effort to hit the square brackets instead of the angle brackets. They're the same tags (although b, i, and u don't have the same semantic meaning in HTML5 as they do in BBCode).

[Todge]

As elli said above, it is certainly possible to use RegEx to grab and change only the tags, but the effort to create that plugin would be far more than to simply hit [ instead of <..

Hell, you don't even need to use the shift key!!

[Quozzo]

I'm probably trying to revive the proded dead horse at this point, but I think my plugin can do it. I say I think because looking at the date of the post it was over 3 years ago I created it.

support.proboards.com/post/6563215/thread