create quick links for a blog post

create_quick_links.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys
import re

text = sys.stdin.read()

regex = re.compile('### ([^\n]+)', re.DOTALL)

headers = regex.findall(text)

def create_hash (text):
    text =  re.sub('\]\([^)]+\)', '', text)
    text = re.sub('[^a-zA-Z0-9]+', '-', text)
    text = re.sub('^\-', '', text)
    text = text[:30]
    text = re.sub('\-[^-]*$', '', text)
    return text.lower()

hashes = map(create_hash,  headers)

quick_links = ''

for i in range(len(headers)):
    the_header = headers[i]
    the_hash = hashes[i]
    text = text.replace('### ' + the_header, '''### %s<a name="%s"></a>''' % (the_header, the_hash))
    quick_link_header = re.sub('\]\([^)]+\)', '', the_header)
    quick_link_header = re.sub('[\]\[]', '', quick_link_header)
    quick_links += '''- [%s](#%s)\n''' % (quick_link_header, the_hash)

print quick_links + text