Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!texbell!uhnix1!sugar!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: POSIX Regular Expression Funnyness
Message-ID: <2973@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 2 Feb 89 16:21:15 GMT
References: <4118f7b1.ae48@apollo.COM> <5980041@hpfcdc.HP.COM> <2962@ficc.uu.net> <9563@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Organization: Xenix Support
Lines: 15

In article <9563@smoke.BRL.MIL>, gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn ) writes:
> In article <2962@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
> >Why didn't they add a few backslash-escaped metacharacters, again?

> Whatever you do, DON'T use \ for any more escapes!

I'd agree in principle that this is a good idea for new programs, but
since the existing regular expression syntax already uses \ for escapes
adding a new syntax for metacharacters [:...:] is no help (you still
need \(...\), for example), and adds gratuitous inconsistancies..
-- 
Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
Work: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180.   `-_-'
Home: bigtex!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.uu.net.                 'U`
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