Re: Regexps (was Re: Invalid Operating System)

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From: Yoz Grahame
Subject: Re: Regexps (was Re: Invalid Operating System)
Date: 07:07 on 18 Dec 2006
On 12/17/06, Robert Rothenberg <robrwo@xxxxx.xxx> wrote:
>
> Bad comparison: traditional regexps are much easier to read than the ones
> used in contemporary programming languages.

PCRE-style regexp in Javascript:
regexp = /(\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}/;

Traditional POSIX regexp in C:
char regexp[] = "\\([:digit:]\{1,3\}\\.\\)\\{3\\}[:digit:]\\{1,3\\}";

The second one is clearly the more horrific of the two hateful messes,
but I'll give you that it's *way* more fun to type if you just can't
get enough joyful bouncing on the backslash key.
(And traditional POSIX holds an even deeper hate - backslashes EITHER
switch a character from being a literal to a metacharacter, OR from a
metacharacter to a literal, depending on the character in question.
Consistency's for suckers, clearly.)

-- Yoz
There's stuff above here

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