Latest commit to dired-aux; maybe add string-multi-replace?

[Oleh Krehel]

Hi all,

I just fixed the `dired-do-compress' command to work with files and
directories that have spaces in them.

After the fix, I saw this pattern repeat:

    (dired-shell-command
     (replace-regexp-in-string
      "%o" (shell-quote-argument out-name)
      (replace-regexp-in-string
       "%i" (shell-quote-argument (file-name-nondirectory file))
       (cadr suffix)
       nil t)
      nil t))

I've seen the pattern of nested `replace-regexp-in-string' quite a few
times before. It doesn't look great.

I propose the following API:

    (defun string-multi-replace (str &rest patterns)
      "Return STR after replacing PATTERNS in it.
       PATTERNS is a list of (FROM TO LITERAL)."
      (let (pat from to literal)
        (while (setq pat (pop patterns))
          (setq from (car pat))
          (setq to (cadr pat))
          (setq literal (caddr pat))
          (setq str (replace-regexp-in-string from to str nil literal)))
        str))

    (string-multi-replace
     "tar -c %i | xz -c9 > %o"
     (list "%o" (shell-quote-argument "foo bar.tar.gz") t)
     (list "%i" (shell-quote-argument "foo bar") t))
    ;; => "tar -c foo\\ bar | xz -c9 > foo\\ bar.tar.gz"

Would this be OK? In which file would the new function belong? Any
further comments?

regards,
Oleh