From: Ammar Ali <ammarabuali@...>
Date: 2010-10-27T19:44:48+09:00
Subject: Regular expression quirk?

Hello,

AFAIK, there are no possessive quantifiers in 1.9, so I expected a
syntax error from this:

  >> re = /cats?+/
  => /cats?+/

It worked and it works, but the + is meaningless it seems:

  >> re.match "cat"
  => #<MatchData "cat">
  >> re.match "cats"
  => #<MatchData "cats">
  >> re.match "catsssss"
  => #<MatchData "cats">
  >> re.match "cats+"
  => #<MatchData "cats">

Interestingly, the + is "preserved":

  >> re.to_s
  => "(?-mix:cats?+)"
  >> re.source
  => "cats?+"

Does this make sense to anyone?

Thanks,
Ammar