Add blank:{lang} shortcut to util.load_mode

spacy/tests/test_misc.py

@@ -135,3 +135,14 @@ def test_ascii_filenames():
     root = Path(__file__).parent.parent
     for path in root.glob("**/*"):
         assert all(ord(c) < 128 for c in path.name), path.name
+
+
+def test_load_model_blank_shortcut():
+    """Test that using a model name like "blank:en" works as a shortcut for
+    spacy.blank("en").
+    """
+    nlp = util.load_model("blank:en")
+    assert nlp.lang == "en"
+    assert nlp.pipeline == []
+    with pytest.raises(ImportError):
+        util.load_model("blank:fjsfijsdof")

spacy/util.py

@@ -161,6 +161,8 @@ def load_model(name, **overrides):
     if not data_path or not data_path.exists():
         raise IOError(Errors.E049.format(path=path2str(data_path)))
     if isinstance(name, basestring_):  # in data dir / shortcut
+        if name.startswith("blank:"):  # shortcut for blank model
+            return get_lang_class(name.replace("blank:", ""))()
         if name in set([d.name for d in data_path.iterdir()]):
             return load_model_from_link(name, **overrides)
         if is_package(name):  # installed as package