From: MikkelFJ <mikkelfj-anti-spam@...>
Date: 2003-02-22T07:24:21+09:00
Subject: Re: Regexp help: Parsing a CSV file


"ahoward" <ahoward@fsl.noaa.gov> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.33.0302212148210.18812-100000@eli.fsl.noaa.gov...
> On Sat, 22 Feb 2003, Brian Candler wrote:

> every NFA can be reduced to a DFA, and so either a NFA or DFA is 'regular'
by
> definition.

But it may be at the cost of combinatorial explosion in size. There are
better options: using hierarchical state charts you can have parallel
substates and thus reduce the size signficantly. The solution is typically
also closer to the intuitive understanding of the problem. Not that the
intuitive argument matters for regular expression syntax. Also, regular
expressions are so unreadable that they rarely grow to unmanageable sizes.


Mikkel