From: "Maurício" <briqueabraque@...>
Date: 2003-01-08T00:26:53+09:00
Subject: Re: Regular expressions alternative

 >>   Hi,
 >>
 >>   Wouldn't it be a good idea to create a option (say, b) for regular
 >>expressions such that all characters (except / and \) would match
 >>themselves unless preceeded by a backslash? For instance:
 >>
 >>  /http:\/\/www.ruby-lang.org/b
 >>
 >>would match only the site name (...)

 > you're essentially reversing the semantics of meta characters.

   I think I'm only standardizing. a matches a, so, $ matches $.
If you want something special, preceed it with a backslash. I
think that should have been done in the first place.

 > this can lead to wired errors, when you don't realize the option
 > is set.

   This can happen with any of the existing options, i, x and o...

 > why not just write a function that escapes all
 > meta characters?

   I want to be able to create a regular expression without
knowing by heart all existing special characters. I would
like, for instance, to write a regexp that matches
100% (or any number like \d\d%) without knowing if % is
a special character or not. Even the existing function
Regexp.escape doesn't help with that.


   [...],
   Maur�cio