From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Yuri Khan Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Off Topic (was: bug#31544) Date: Thu, 24 May 2018 23:53:52 +0700 Message-ID: References: <7D0B397D-5D1B-4B8C-93B6-1CA207DD552A@scratch.space> <6271469D-6B02-4334-828E-D81816143734@scratch.space> <20180524163534.GA4035@ACM> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1527180736 3737 195.159.176.226 (24 May 2018 16:52:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 24 May 2018 16:52:16 +0000 (UTC) Cc: van@scratch.space, Eli Zaretskii , Emacs developers , rms@gnu.org, Noam Postavsky To: Alan Mackenzie Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu May 24 18:52:11 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1fLtTH-0000qg-5H for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 24 May 2018 18:52:11 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:39818 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fLtVO-00082k-AQ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 24 May 2018 12:54:22 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:43045) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fLtVC-00080u-Mx for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 24 May 2018 12:54:11 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fLtVB-00014m-Su for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 24 May 2018 12:54:10 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-oi0-x235.google.com ([2607:f8b0:4003:c06::235]:44278) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fLtV8-00011y-Mr; Thu, 24 May 2018 12:54:06 -0400 Original-Received: by mail-oi0-x235.google.com with SMTP id e80-v6so2074688oig.11; Thu, 24 May 2018 09:54:06 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc:content-transfer-encoding; bh=CVM/qj1RpKXcLnBf7FE0FxIWOMP5Jy+47gCUwH1MncA=; b=MrIudMoblTZa9XMQhaexWYhKbY/q+hTAesSjC/JTvQelmD6NWkF9cCLFkPLGQ8PSR8 Ls15YZBu1VWh64SIYox94PcKe+oCj4kesDcYbMyvw1RVC4rKJBv6uEQtbat2SB1tX7s7 e67o2HbQ3JLZ0IozmTpOriScQx5xGLJiEFVdwCNV+1OHKQK645OLx0qB3TJiiRoqG/xv aYydaJDxT9UbbWkiyZsia7uwlNyoIQpHkBq4pv14H/DsoIkKLFuUZAPTULU6w4rAWFCl pNDyX8PbHcAXdb1jBdBIjBmI/Bvw0SHYHo+1NN5xalfD/h+58NRo/RZxYycqydkF2g+r GA8A== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc:content-transfer-encoding; bh=CVM/qj1RpKXcLnBf7FE0FxIWOMP5Jy+47gCUwH1MncA=; b=cg2YPXDSL5ifkqWiAEBiVQB2EALuyEXtEVoEy+BIc2hGejVw5kggT6WpUF7JuKvmOI NxliaJWFZ5U0uM9QDD33lWWT95zbF7Aw0gDRNBkgbszSEST7CAs/TlemS0rbZUp1oe8M vxE0pjuE3jpbggtMvA71l+awfwluoXX94iNzzmzAWAJPR8TNmUY1Lz2VRZvuw5bfBWFL 0wZlQdf0fV5iCep632PGWeeu+hIClW4CHA5+NEWB0Uc4chmDbONqHM6s/azzHOZygfcs QTvQJdyFiPxMxLXpDQSF5hKhmjHY5wwFRHZikuVp7ncFFINWaj6Mi/bjBaVFNEJtO3of zL3g== X-Gm-Message-State: ALKqPwc2awacyPKrqvQQquhNeDNKlQpMaCrtHq0OHCM/P4uR8IrhlZ9D jo39DNHdsdLizz6kRtVBeVl+4rZPxS6wgv25DN0= X-Google-Smtp-Source: AB8JxZqlZQLYzxkOdzKW/OlY7a5Y/7Pd846gZi9aC7sX2371JCX36yiGywjFJtvz3xvuGZEXnea71CplW34slVAxfOQ= X-Received: by 2002:aca:1216:: with SMTP id 22-v6mr4511613ois.50.1527180845667; Thu, 24 May 2018 09:54:05 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20180524163534.GA4035@ACM> X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 2607:f8b0:4003:c06::235 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:225664 Archived-At: On Thu, May 24, 2018 at 11:38 PM Alan Mackenzie wrote: > rx.el uses a wordy syntax, somewhat analagously to Cobol 50 years ago. > Its premiss is that it's the terse, dense, austere characters which make > a regexp difficult to write and read. I would suggest that it's more > the abstract concepts which cause beginners difficulties, rather than > the syntax. This was true of Cobol 50 years ago, and I think it's > always been the case with regexps. > That said, rx.el is used ~72 times in 19 files.el in Emacs, so somebody > likes it. I like rx.el. I like it because any reasonably involved rx.el expression will be written out on multiple lines, indented, and possibly commented; whereas the equivalent plain regexp will be jumbled up on one long line, or else broken up into a concat of several arbitrary parts. I like rx.el because its expressions can be navigated structurally, using =E2=80=98backward-up-list=E2=80=99, =E2=80=98forward-sexp=E2=80=99, and the= like. The same commands work on regular regular expressions only if they have not been broken up for readability. I also like rx.el because it allows me to see fewer backslashes, double-backslashes, and quadruple-backslashes.