From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2004-11-18T22:03:17+09:00
Subject: Re: About Regular Expressions


"Nikolai Weibull" <mailing-lists.ruby-talk@rawuncut.elitemail.org> schrieb
im Newsbeitrag news:20041118125218.GF9088@puritan.pcp.ath.cx...
> * Robert Klemme <bob.news@gmx.net> [Nov 18, 2004 13:20]:
> > > Lately there have been a bunch of posts on this list about regular
> > > expressions in Ruby and people seem to cry wolf whenever they don't
> > > get them quite right.  By crying wolf here I mean that they suspect
> > > a bug.  That's most often the same as blaming core-dumps on the
> > > operating system.  It's time that people try to reason about what
> > > they've actually written and look at the documentation (which may be
> > > too limited?) before complaining here.
>
> > In principle this applies for all kind of questions and complaints.
Maybe
> > it's just a sign that regular expressions are not easy to grasp for
people
> > without CS background.
>
> Perhaps, but it's sad that no one can for their life consider the fact
> that maybe they've done something wrong themselves, not the writers of
> the software/programming language they are using.

Well, yes, but it's not true that "no one" considers the option of his own
failure.  That's dramatically exaggerated IMHO, although I readily concede
that it's a general human tendency.

> > > I am not suggesting that these question stop entirely, but I request
> > > that they be well thought out before.  Still, there seems to be a
> > > need for a FAQ or similar, covering regular expression basics and
> > > common pitfalls - perhaps even including common idioms and uses in
> > > Ruby.
>
> > Like http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?RegexpCookbook ?
>
> Hardly.  That page is for writing regular expressions that match some
> specific data, not a discussion about how to write and use regular
> expressions in the large.  Still, a wiki page would work fine.
> nikolai

In *that* case a book like "Mastering Regular Expressions" might be far
more appropriate as the matter is quite complex.  See here for example:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/index.html

Kind regards

    robert