A python script to transform <center></center> to \centerline{\includegraphics[height=1.5in]{figs/figure.png}} done by guys at http://software-carpentry.org/bootcamps/office-hours.html. This is useful to transform markdown slides written to generate HTML slides, to slides for beamer http://waterthinking.blogspot.com.ar…

replace_center.py

#! /usr/bin/env python
import sys
import re
Usage = """ run with the source file as an argument
 capture the output with redirection > 
 takes a file with image source in <center> tags, 
 either on 3 lines or one, and reformats to one line
 As per the OutString variable"""
if len(sys.argv)<2:
   sys.stderr.write(Usage)
else:
   FileName = sys.argv[1]
   InFile = open(FileName,'rU')
   # this is set up to insert our file name
   # match lines starting with center tag, spaces or not, then ![]
   # capture the text between the [escaped] parentheses
   OneLineSearch = r"<center> *\!\[\] *\((.+)\).*"
   OutString = "\centerline{\includegraphics[height=2in]{%s}}"
   FoundCenter = False
   DeleteNext = False
   for RawLine in InFile:
      Line = RawLine.rstrip()
      if FoundCenter:
         ## Check if it is a figure tag
         # If not, we should print out the center tag and this line..
         if Line.strip().startswith(r"![]"):
            # This takes the line, splits on open paren, then cuts off last character (close paren)
            ImageName = Line.strip().split("(")[1][:-1]
            print OutString % (ImageName)
            DeleteNext = True
         # in this case, we found a center tag in the prior line, 
         # but not the right one, so print it retroactively
         else:
            print "<center>\n" + Line
         FoundCenter = False
      elif Line.strip().startswith("<center>"):
         OneLine = re.search(OneLineSearch,Line)
         if OneLine:
            ImageName = OneLine.group(1)
            print OutString % (ImageName)
         else:
            FoundCenter = True
      elif Line.strip().startswith("</center>"):
         if not DeleteNext:
            print Line
         DeleteNext = False
      else:
         print Line
   InFile.close()