build a control file to reformat source file with <wbr> - regex

Question

My problem: long chemical terms, without any guidance to a browser about where to break the term. Some terms are over 70 characters.
My goal: introduce <wbr> at logical insertion points.
Example of problem:
isoquinolinetetramethylenesulfoxidetetrachlororuthenate (55 chars)
Example of opportunities to break a chemical term (e.g. the way a person would pronounce the term as opposed to typing the term):
iso<wbr>quinoline
tetra<wbr>methylene
methylene<wbr>sulfoxide
tetra<wbr>chloro
Usually (but not always) iso, tetra, and methyl are word_break_opportunities.
In general how should I set up an environment with:
control file with "rules" that introduce word_break opportunities
file on which to apply the rules from the control file
The control file will be updated with new rules as new chemical term are encountered.
Would like to use: sed, awk, regex.
Perhaps the environment would look like:
awk rules.awk inputfile.txt > outputfile.txt
Am prepared for trial and error so would appreciate basic explanation so I can refine the control file.
My platform: Windows 7; 64 bit; 8 GB memory; GNUwin32; sed 4.1.5.4013; awk 3.1.6.2962
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Your first job is to come up with a list of what is and isn't breakable. Once you have this you can define a format to interpret, and build some code around it.
For example, I would probably go something like:
Opening chars:
iso
tetra
then some code like:
for Each openingString {
if (string.startsWith(openingString)){
insert wbr after opening string
}
}
2.
Opening chars, unless followed by
iso|"tope|bob"
tetra|"pak"
for Each openingString {
if (string.startsWith(openingString)){
get the next element from the row (after the |, surrounded by ")
split around the |
for each part
if (!string.startsWith(part, openingString.length)) {
insert wbr after openingString
}
}
}
then build up from there. It's a pretty monumental task though, it's going to take a lot of building on to get to something useful, but if you're committed to it! The first task is to decide how you're going to hold these mappings though.