Making regex suck less
Carl Banks
imbosol at vt.edu
Mon Sep 2 19:34:29 EDT 2002
John La Rooy wrote:
> Carl Banks wrote:
>
>>>"anything,anything,anything,same_as_3rd,same_as_2nd,same_as_1st"
>>>or would you like to suggest something else?
>>
>>
>> How about:
>>
>> pattern = Group(Any()) + Group(Any()) + Group(Any()) \
>> + GroupRef(3) + GroupRef(2) + GroupRef(1)
>>
> Err symantically that's exactly the same as the re and my suggestion
> only the syntax is different. It's still nothing like saying
>
> pattern = "6 character palindrome"
Oh. Well, methinks you don't give humans enough credit. I'm a human,
and I can read the verbose regexp. Of course, humans can read regular
expressions, too. Maybe I don't give humans enough credit, either.
:-)
The point is, I was arguing for less-cryptic, more-verbose regular
expressions as a way to make complicated patterns more transparent. I
certainly wasn't arguing for "6 character palindrome".
Sorry-for-the-confusion-ly y'rs
--
CARL BANKS
http://www.aerojockey.com
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