Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!mordor!sri-spam!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!CITHEX.CALTECH.EDU!carl
From: carl@CITHEX.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: Puzzles in TPU-land ...
Message-ID: <880412093213.71d@CitHex.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 12 Apr 88 16:35:50 GMT
References: <8804071545.AA04487@scgvaxd.SCG.HAC.COM>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 22


 > This nested pattern example (very similar to the one above) ...
 > 
 >         pat1 := 'foo ' & 'bar';
 >         pat2 := 'please ' & pat1;
 >         range1 := search(pat2,forward);
 > 
 > ... finds a match in "would somebody please pass the foo bar?"
 >                                      -----------------------
 > whereas ...
 > 
 >         pat1 := 'jelly';
 >         pat2 := 'please ' & pat1;
 >         range1 := search(pat2,forward);
 > 
 > ... finds *NO* match in "would somebody please pass the jelly bar?"
 > 
 > It doesn't seem to work quite right when pat1 is a single term rather
 > than two concatenated terms.

The problem is that in the second case, pat1 is a string and not a pattern.
The presence of the "&" operator in the first example forces tpu to make pat1
a pattern.