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regional.py

"""
Usage: python3 regional.py list of words
Prints a representation of the words as Regional Identifiers, and copies the output directly to keyboard for you
This is because some terminals think that zero width spaces are silly.

Currently supports: A-Z
Requires: Python 3

Now less complex, thanks @bmispelon!
"""


import sys
import xerox
import unicodedata

def regional_indicator(letter):
    # Try and see if there's a REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL for our letter.
    try:
        return unicodedata.lookup('REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER %s' % letter.upper());
    except KeyError:
        return letter
        
output = "\u200B".join([regional_indicator(x) for x in " ".join(sys.argv[1:]).upper()])

xerox.copy(output)

print("Copied to Clipboard: %s" % output)

You can use unicodedata.lookup('REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER %s' % letter.upper()) and make the code much shorter.

@bmispelon Thank you! 🎉 I thought there'd be a better way than what I had. I've updated it accordingly

You could even lookup 'REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER A' and just add an offset from there (they are in sequence), instead of looking up each letter in the Unicode database.

A few more silly comments:

The list comprehension's brackets '[ ]' inside the join() can be removed to turn it into a generator expression, which is faster and does the same thing.

The code currently sandwiches Zero-Width Spaces between regional indicators and spaces between words, which isn't necessary. Can be fixed by joining with U+200B before joining with " ".

You can even one-line it if you're feeling particularly evil. Something like

`output = "\u200B".join([unicodedata.lookup('REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER %s' % x.upper()) if 65 <= ord(x.upper()) <= 90 else ' ' for x in ' '.join(sys.argv[1:])])`

should work 😇