Making real use of Python in gedit

If you are a fan of gedit, and a fan of Python like me then the chances are that you have tried out the gedit Python console plugin at some point. Years ago I tried it out but realised it was really aimed at plugin developers and not at people wanting a quick and easy way to manipulate data in the text editor.

Last week I wrote a simple gedit plugin and so learned about the API and how to manipulate text in the editor. Even once I had learned about the API it still seemed far to complex to be usefull for quick data manipulation of an open file, so I decided to make a simple script that made things simpler, and makes the gedit Python console do what I wanted all along.

Get It

Save this script as ~/.gnome2/gedit/plugins/doc.py
Now open up the Python console in gedit and type import doc

Use It

import doc
d = doc.Doc(window)
d.set_lines( ['one', 'two', 'three'] )
d.append('\n')
d.append('four')
lines = d.get_lines()
lines.reverse()
d.set_lines(lines)

Now you can use regular expressions on you're open documents :)

Documentation

doc.Doc: __init__(self, window) Create Doc instance append(self, text) Add text to the bottom of the document clear(self) Clear the document get_line(self) Return the contents of the line that the cursor is currently on get_lines(self) Return a list containing all of the lines in the document get_selection(self) Return the selected text get_text(self) Return the full text of the document set_lines(self, lines) Replace the current document with the lines in the supplied list set_text(self, text) Set the full text of the document