From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: rx.el sexp regexp syntax Date: Wed, 30 May 2018 23:53:16 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87h8mw3yoc.fsf@gmail.com> <20180525155126.GA4096@ACM> <87lgc7hebk.fsf@gmail.com> <87r2lzd375.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> <8736ybpwhh.fsf@gmail.com> <87y3g1a9kv.fsf@gmail.com> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1527738690 12398 195.159.176.226 (31 May 2018 03:51:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 May 2018 03:51:30 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Robert Pluim Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu May 31 05:51:25 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 1fOEcV-00038x-OD for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 31 May 2018 05:51:23 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:41876 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fOEec-0001cq-TE for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 30 May 2018 23:53:34 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:58775) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fOEeT-0001bA-F5 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 30 May 2018 23:53:29 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fOEeP-0007PV-KZ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 30 May 2018 23:53:25 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:41582) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fOEeK-0007LQ-QA; Wed, 30 May 2018 23:53:16 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1fOEeK-0003ZN-4b; Wed, 30 May 2018 23:53:16 -0400 In-reply-to: <87y3g1a9kv.fsf@gmail.com> (message from Robert Pluim on Wed, 30 May 2018 09:25:52 +0200) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e 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:225839 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > > The clearer representation of structure is not the same thing as > > verbosity. rx does both, but they are not the same thing. We could > > envision making the structure more or less equally clear without > > making the patterns so long. > It's not clear to me how you'd do that. I don't see a specific way either, but someone might come up with a way. I'm suggesting this as a topic of investigation. > and frankly being able to write 'bos' rather than remembering '\\`' or > 'symbol-start' rather than '\\_<' is a net win in my eyes. I agree, as regards those. On the other hand, those strings might not be the best. Maybe 'text<' and 'sym<' would be better. We could have a series of keywords, XYZ< and XYZ>, which would be as systematic as now or more so, and shorter too. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)