Parsing a text file is simple if you have the right program for that. It's free, fast and pretty effective. The program I'm talking about is named "Text Complete" and it's a very popular tool for scanning text files. Many people don't know about this program. Read on to discover why it's so helpful.
One of the most common issues people come across with text files is trying to figure out where something went wrong. For example, imagine this scenario: You open up your word processor, and you try to save a document in txt format. Sure, you get to the end of the document and notice that it's not in txt format or even readable. So, what did you do wrong? Well, the program could not read the file for some reason, and now you're stuck with a document that is unreadable.
This is pretty common, especially on word processors which tend to be more "human" than machine optimized. The reason the file is unreadable is because the application used a poor optimization strategy. In other words, the file was opened with a common subexpression transform, but the programmer used one that was too broad. The problem was not noticed at the time, since it didn't cause any harm, and we continued to use the program. However, later on we noticed that the program would no longer be able to read the file without breaking down. So, we closed the program and tried again... same result.
This is where the importance of a good Text Search Program is. It's just like having a super computer at your beck and call, only, it's very easy to use. This program parses the text file and tells you where the problem is and how to fix it. Once you've fixed the problem, you can open the text file and continue working. How cool is that? Can anyone say "Hello World"?
The developers took this one step further. They made sure the user had total control. That means you can delete, edit, or even re-word everything in the document! Or, if you just want to play around, start with th
e basics and customize to your heart's content! We had fun making the program.
As far as security goes, there's nothing to worry about. Usual safeguards include cookie storage and safe-guard values in the HTML code. There are other measures too, but these were the basics for us. The best part was that we could test our software over unlimited numbers of connections! No wonder it performed so well!
Since this little program is so simple, we could imagine many other improvements to it. Some day, we might be able to get rid of some of the programming extras that slows things down. Some day, we might be able to convert between different data types, easing the transition from one file format to the next. Right now, we have to convert data from various file formats and that takes a lot of time!
Now that our favorite utility has been updated, there's only one way for us to see how it does. We converted another document and saved it to our file folder. When we opened it, we were impressed! The text was wonderfully formatted and there was no trouble at all doing to change the formatting. It looked exactly as it did on our computer! This program is a real winner!
Clearly, there are a lot of potential uses for such a tool. Perhaps someday, someone will create a tool that will make converting from a Word document to a PDF a snap. We're dreaming!
This time, though, we didn't write the software ourselves. That honor goes to Bill Andrews, who did the initial development work. He deserves some kind of special recognition, as this project would not have been possible without his hard work. Thanks to him, we're able to freely use his wonderful tool. (We have his permission, of course!)
The only glitch so far seems to be with Word, although it probably just happens on occasion with other file formats. If you try to open the text file using Word, the program may prompt you to install the correct text file Parser. There are, fortunately, many parsers available free on the Internet. And Bill Andrews has made sure that his code is compatible with the widest variety of computers, so even those on a limited system will be able to view the document that they want to read!
