From: Jeff Wood <jeff.darklight@...>
Date: 2005-11-27T09:02:40+09:00
Subject: Re: String#to_rx ?

How does this differ from embedding variables in regular expressions now with

a = "hello world"
b = "hello"
c = /#{ b }/
c.match( a ).to_a
#=> ["hello"]

Let me know if I'm missing something...

j.

On 11/26/05, Nikolai Weibull
<mailing-lists.ruby-talk@rawuncut.elitemail.org> wrote:
> Trans wrote:
>
> > Could you give us a summary of how it would apply. I really don't have
> > time to weed through all that material.
>
> There are two possible solutions as I see it that make more sense than
> #to_rx: a) strings are interpreted as just that - strings of symbols
> that you want to interpret literally and b) add syntax to allow you to
> easily embed strings inside a regular expression.
>
> In Perl 6, the suggestion is to interpret $string as a string and
> <$string> as a regular expression.  In Ruby that'd be #{string} and
> <#{string}>, I suppose.  (#{regex} would still mean what it means today
> in both cases.)
>
> Another thing that'd be nice to have is a way to insert literal strings
> directly, e.g., /<'common regex operators include *, ?, and .'>/, where
> <'...'> is syntax for a literal string.  A way to embedd a string
> variable would then perhaps be /<'#{var}'>/, but I think that the
> solution in the previous paragraph may make more sense.
>
> I'm probably not making myself clear enough, but if what I'm saying
> seems interesting I'd suggest you at least read "Synopsis 5" [1].
>
>         nikolai
>
> [1] http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2002/06/26/synopsis5.html
>
> --
> Nikolai Weibull: now available free of charge at http://bitwi.se/!
> Born in Chicago, IL USA; currently residing in Gothenburg, Sweden.
> main(){printf(&linux["\021%six\012\0"],(linux)["have"]+"fun"-97);}
>
>


--
"Remember. Understand. Believe. Yield! -> http://ruby-lang.org"

Jeff Wood