Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!mcnc!uvaarpa!mmdf
From: worley@compass.com (Dale Worley)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Regexps (was Re: Changing the first character of a string.)
Message-ID: <1990Jul5.135434.11673@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 5 Jul 90 13:54:34 GMT
Sender: mmdf@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU (Uvaarpa Mail System)
Reply-To: worley@compass.com
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 27


   From: merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz)

   Regexps are well-defined and extremely predicatable about their
   "leftmost wildcard matches the most possible iterations" behavior.

OK, where is it written down?  Also, you forgot to mention that |
attempts to match the left alternative before the right.  (I mention
that to show that it's not so easy to completely define dynamic
behavior.)

   It's no more silly than presuming that "a" really matches "a", is it?

Well, every exposition of "regular expressions" I've ever seen states
that "a" matches only "a", but I've never seen *in print* anyone
stating that regexps match the most possible first.

Also, I have a general preference for declarative definitions of
things above dynamic definitions.

Dale Worley		Compass, Inc.			worley@compass.com
--
It was peculiarly satisfying to watch the reactions at the truck stops
along the way to this bunch of men with hippie long hair, biker
leather jackets, and a nose ring who nonetheless were warm,
intelligent, friendly and polite, and paid with credit cards - we blew
all their possible-stereotype fuses.