From: harryo@... (Harry Ohlsen)
Date: 2002-04-10T10:31:42+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby-dev summary (Shared subpattern)

Michael Campbell <michael_s_campbell@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<20020408163753.837.qmail@web12405.mail.yahoo.com>...
> > Of course you're 100% correct; I realize my mis-thinking here now.
> > 
> > (ab*)X(?*1)  will match:
> > 
> > aXba, aXa, abXabbbb, etc.

I've never heard such an idea before, but it might be worth
checking whether Perl 6 or Python 2.2 have added this mechanism,
in which case perhaps we should be taking on the same syntax.

I can't think of a real-world case where I would have used
this, but I can imagine situations where it would be really
helpful.