Is Perl *that* good?

[Skip Montanaro]

    > If only compiled regular expression objects allowed easy access to the
    > last match object, python regxes would become significantly more
    > convenient.  For example, today you have to write:
    > 
    > m = myregex.match(line)
    > if (m):
    >   xyz = m.group('xyz')
    > 
    > It would be much easier to do:
    > 
    > if myregex.match(line):
    >   xyz = myregex.lastm.group('xyz')
    > 
    > Having to introduce a new variable name for a match object just
    > muddles the code unnecessarily in common regex usage scenarios.

Sure, it's more convenient but it's not thread-safe.  The old regex package
used to do this.  When Perl-compatible regular expressions were introduced
into Python it was removed precisely because of that limitation.  As Peter
Hansen pointed out, if you want that behavior you can write it on a
per-application basis.

Skip