<![CDATA[#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing.]]> Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing.

Character name changes. If for some reason you change the name of a character you *really* need to double-check that it's changed *everywhere*. Hint: regular expressions and global *conditional* search/replace are your tools. Also how to manage word stemming with regexps. Then triple-check *everything*. Otherwise—guaranteed—you'll flip a character's name in one paragraph and the internet will never let you forget it!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/37ed6236-3028-4c9e-802d-0fee703fb9ee/writerscoffeeclub-apr-24-share-a-silly-mistake-you-ve-made-while-writing.RSS for NodeMon, 27 Apr 2026 22:26:46 GMTFri, 24 Apr 2026 11:09:05 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 18:17:44 GMT]]>@headword @cstross @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord Hot damn! Totally forgot for a moment there that verb existed.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/DJRNDM/statuses/116466716778977066https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/DJRNDM/statuses/116466716778977066Sat, 25 Apr 2026 18:17:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 18:17:43 GMT]]>@davidtheeviloverlord @cstross I recall a story where one of the characters was pulling up his Brendas. I guess Jean got renamed...

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.radio/users/kf7ccc/statuses/116466716743476053https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.radio/users/kf7ccc/statuses/116466716743476053Sat, 25 Apr 2026 18:17:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 18:07:19 GMT]]>@cstross @DJRNDM @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord

This is still not perfect. You would need to make sure every substitution is the correct meaning of ‘pants’. Otherwise you risk sentences like:

“Whew! I'm all out of breath after that steep hill,” he trousers.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://lingo.lol/users/headword/statuses/116466675828018098https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://lingo.lol/users/headword/statuses/116466675828018098Sat, 25 Apr 2026 18:07:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:43:13 GMT]]>@cstross
I would also recommend doing it interactively.
Yes you need to confirm every change but you learn where your regex goes wrong
Sadly this doesn't help with missed occurrence

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/realn2s/statuses/116465873268575642https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/realn2s/statuses/116465873268575642Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:43:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:42:20 GMT]]>@gsuberland @cstross @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb gonna be blunt: you want to eyeball and confirm every substitution if possible

these days you can be told how many potential ones up front for a lot of text pretty fast

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://types.pl/users/flippac/statuses/116465869794899061https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://types.pl/users/flippac/statuses/116465869794899061Sat, 25 Apr 2026 14:42:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 13:22:04 GMT]]>@adamrice @gsuberland @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb (Obligatory Bill Clinton joke): It depends what you mean by "word".

Less flippantly: is 467130356 a word? Is 17/4/2012 a word? Is !true a word?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116465554182332213https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116465554182332213Sat, 25 Apr 2026 13:22:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:40:27 GMT]]>@gsuberland @cstross @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb Wait, you’re telling me a word character is not the same as a not-not word character?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://c.im/users/adamrice/statuses/116465390575777362https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://c.im/users/adamrice/statuses/116465390575777362Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:40:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:30:12 GMT]]>@ilmari @gsuberland @cstross @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb
and vim has \< and \> for “directed” word boundary zero-width expression

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sociale.network/users/oblomov/statuses/116465350223944972https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sociale.network/users/oblomov/statuses/116465350223944972Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:30:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 11:32:56 GMT]]>@jernej__s @cstross @gsuberland @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb yes, that's why I wrote \b{…}, not \b.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ilmari/statuses/116465125091663746https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ilmari/statuses/116465125091663746Sat, 25 Apr 2026 11:32:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:58:23 GMT]]>@ilmari @cstross @gsuberland @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb \b has been in regexp far longer, only the Unicode additions are new.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/jernej__s/statuses/116464989239949394https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/jernej__s/statuses/116464989239949394Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:58:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:53:45 GMT]]>@ilmari @gsuberland @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb Yeah, it's been most of 25 years for me ...

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464970990003246https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464970990003246Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:53:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:50:02 GMT]]>@cstross @gsuberland @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb To be fair, \b{…} was only added to Perl ten years ago 😉

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ilmari/statuses/116464956389823331https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ilmari/statuses/116464956389823331Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:50:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:44:28 GMT]]>@ilmari @cstross @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb ooh good to know, thanks

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/gsuberland/statuses/116464934495017327https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/gsuberland/statuses/116464934495017327Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:44:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:41:59 GMT]]>@ilmari @gsuberland @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb My perl experience mostly predates unicode 😉

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464924704131387https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464924704131387Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:41:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:39:21 GMT]]>@gsuberland @cstross @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb Unicode defines word boundaries, and Perl has \b{wb}, which matches them.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ilmari/statuses/116464914361667898https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/ilmari/statuses/116464914361667898Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:39:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:36:17 GMT]]>@gsuberland
If you don't care about hyphens, `\bword\b` might be the better choice as a zero-width assertion (i.e. no need for capture groups to retain other characters).

If you do.. `(?<!-)\bword\b(?!-)` with some perl magic included will do the look backs/lookaheads.

@cstross @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/towo/statuses/116464902318639853https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/towo/statuses/116464902318639853Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:36:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:31:18 GMT]]>@cstross @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb annoyingly there's no standard character class that matches word boundaries in Latin script prose with high confidence, e.g. something along the lines of [\s"“”„;:!?¡¿‽.,()\[\]…]

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/gsuberland/statuses/116464882729536006https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/gsuberland/statuses/116464882729536006Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:31:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:28:59 GMT]]>@SmartmanApps @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross To be fair, the one at the top is a plantain

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mindly.social/users/alexanderdyas/statuses/116464873610582182https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mindly.social/users/alexanderdyas/statuses/116464873610582182Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:28:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:16:12 GMT]]>@cstross @WellsiteGeo @quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @edwinb or [^\w-] instead of \W for a more careful approach, since the \W class will replace smarty-pants to smarty-trousers. hyphens are not included in \w, so the inverted class \W matches on them, which is unlikely to be what you want. [^\w-] works the same but doesn't treat hyphens as word boundaries to avoid the issue.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/gsuberland/statuses/116464823357664051https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/gsuberland/statuses/116464823357664051Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:16:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 09:08:17 GMT]]>@richcarl I work in Scrivener, which includes pcre regexps. But you know even Microsoft Word has regexps these days? They're well-hidden and their implementation is typically Microsoftish (i.e. non-standard and missing a few features) but it's there in the search/replace dialog box. And the publishing industry runs on Word files—so much so that if you go the trad route you *have to* submit your manuscripts in docx format.

So every non-amateur author uses Word or LibreOffice at some stage.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464556256664251https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464556256664251Sat, 25 Apr 2026 09:08:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:54:55 GMT]]>@cstross Sure, regexps are great. If your editor supports them, and you know how to write them correctly, and the implementation doesn't have word boundary issues with utf-8. For any average writer stuck on an average text editor, I suggest the 3-step method.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nu/users/richcarl/statuses/116464503732772009https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nu/users/richcarl/statuses/116464503732772009Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:54:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:52:13 GMT]]>@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross 🤣 🤣 🤣

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://masto.ai/users/Pineywoozle/statuses/116464493073771895https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://masto.ai/users/Pineywoozle/statuses/116464493073771895Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:52:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:33:22 GMT]]>@richcarl Or you could use a regular expression. Hint: I once rewrote a UNIX man page for regular expressions as part of my day job back in the early 1990s. None of your search/replace tips are news to me.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464418948226800https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464418948226800Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:33:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to #WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:32:15 GMT]]>@DJRNDM @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord

Groan.

s/(\W+?)(pants)(\W+?)/\1trousers\3/ig

You could use \b — match a word boundary — instead of \W+? (smallest count of non-word characters preceding the next regexp group) but that'd miss run-on strings ending in pants (eg. InterCappedpants).

The pcre search modifiers s///ig are for case-insensitive and global.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464414575750036https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116464414575750036Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:32:15 GMT