Why are String Formatted Queries Considered So Magical?
Stephen Hansen
me+list/python at ixokai.io
Thu Jul 1 10:27:23 EDT 2010
On 7/1/10 5:11 AM, Roy Smith wrote:
> Stephen Hansen<me+list/python at ixokai.io> wrote:
>
>> The quote does not deny the power of regular expressions; it challenges
>> widely held assumption and belief that comes from *somewhere* that they
>> are the best way to approach any problem that is text related.
>
> Well, that assumption comes from historical unix usage where traditional
> tools like awk, sed, ed, and grep, made heavy use of regex, and
> therefore people learned to become proficient at them and use them all
> the time.
Oh, I'm fully aware of the history of re's -- but its not those old hats
and even their students and the unix geeks I'm talking about.
It's the newbies and people wandering into the language with absolutely
no idea about the history of unix, shell scripting and such, who so
often arrive with the idea firmly planted in their head, that I wonder
at. Sure, there's going to be a certain amount of cross-polination from
unix-geeks to students-of-students-of-students-of unix geeks to spread
the idea, but it seems more pervasive for that. I just picture a
re-vangelist camping out in high schools and colleges selling the party
line or something :)
--
... Stephen Hansen
... Also: Ixokai
... Mail: me+list/python (AT) ixokai (DOT) io
... Blog: http://meh.ixokai.io/
P.S. And no, unix geeks is not a pejorative term.
More information about the Python-list
mailing list