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From: Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>
To: "Mattias Engdegård" <mattiase@acm.org>
Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org, Anna Glasgall <anna@crossproduct.net>,
	Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
Subject: Re: "Raw" string literals for elisp
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2021 16:01:46 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <YTjeajrxCG5BiA4s@ACM> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <A8CD44B3-79C1-400C-B53E-32BE9436C027@acm.org>

Hello, Mattias.

On Wed, Sep 08, 2021 at 17:27:58 +0200, Mattias Engdegård wrote:
> 8 sep. 2021 kl. 16.31 skrev Anna Glasgall <anna@crossproduct.net>:

> > Cards on the table here: yes, regexes are 99.999% of the motivation
> > here

> Elisp actually has a much better regexp syntax than most other languages:

> > "\\(\\\\\\\\\\)\\(?:\\(\\\\\\\\\\)\\|\\((\\(?:\\?[0-9]*:\\)?\\|[|)]\\)\\)"

> Today that would be written

> (rx (group "\\\\")
>     (or (group "\\\\")
>         (group
>          (or (seq "("
>                   (? "?" (* digit) ":"))
>              (in ")|")))))

> which is much more readable and maintainable and less error-prone than
> what you would get with a new string syntax.

It is more readable in the same way Cobol was very readable; each small
grouping of text is immediately understandable.  But the thing as a
whole?  The rx form of that regexp takes up 6 lines, the string form 1
line.  If there are several regexps in a function rx can lead to a lot of
bloat.  Having the function fit entirely on one's screen contributes a
lot towards readability and maintainability.

It is true the rx form could be squashed onto 1 or 2 lines, but then that
readability is lost.

I have nothing against people who want to use rx, but personally, I
prefer the string form.  How much better a raw string form would be is
difficult to say.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).



  parent reply	other threads:[~2021-09-08 16:01 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 120+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-09-08  1:49 "Raw" string literals for elisp Anna Glasgall
2021-09-08  7:10 ` Po Lu
2021-09-08 14:19   ` Anna Glasgall
2021-09-08  7:12 ` Lars Ingebrigtsen
2021-09-08 14:20   ` Anna Glasgall
2021-09-08 11:30 ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-09-08 14:27   ` Anna Glasgall
2021-09-08 11:34 ` Adam Porter
2021-09-08 13:59   ` Clément Pit-Claudel
2021-09-08 14:12     ` Adam Porter
2021-09-09  3:09   ` Richard Stallman
2021-09-08 13:10 ` Stefan Monnier
2021-09-08 14:31   ` Anna Glasgall
2021-09-08 15:27     ` Mattias Engdegård
2021-09-08 15:41       ` Stefan Kangas
2021-09-08 16:45         ` Mattias Engdegård
2021-09-08 16:01       ` Alan Mackenzie [this message]
2021-09-08 18:24         ` Mattias Engdegård
2021-09-08 19:00           ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-09-08 19:22         ` Philip Kaludercic
2021-09-08 19:36           ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-09-08 21:11           ` Stefan Kangas
2021-09-08 21:24             ` Philip Kaludercic
2021-09-09  6:52             ` tomas
2021-09-08 15:54     ` Stefan Kangas
2021-09-08 16:05     ` tomas
2021-09-08 16:42       ` Lars Ingebrigtsen
2021-09-08 20:08         ` Stefan Monnier
2021-09-08 20:18       ` Stefan Monnier
2021-09-09  7:04         ` tomas
2021-09-09 10:30         ` Mattias Engdegård
2021-09-09 11:36           ` Stefan Kangas
2021-09-09 13:33             ` Mattias Engdegård
2021-09-09 14:32               ` tomas
2021-09-14 10:43               ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-09-14 11:42                 ` Ihor Radchenko
2021-09-14 13:18                   ` Stefan Monnier
2021-09-14 13:22                     ` Stefan Kangas
2021-09-14 14:01                       ` Ihor Radchenko
2021-09-14 14:39                       ` Clément Pit-Claudel
2021-09-14 15:33                         ` Amin Bandali
2021-09-14 16:05                         ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-09-14 17:49                   ` Jose E. Marchesi
2021-09-08 20:40 ` Anna Glasgall
2021-09-08 21:28   ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-10-02 21:03   ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-04  0:13     ` Richard Stallman
2021-10-04  0:36       ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-04 12:00         ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-04 15:36           ` character sets as they relate to “Raw” " Daniel Brooks
2021-10-04 16:34             ` Stefan Monnier
2021-10-04 20:49               ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-04 21:19                 ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-10-04 22:19                   ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-05 11:20                     ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-10-05 17:08                       ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-06 20:54                         ` Richard Stallman
2021-10-07  7:01                           ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-05  8:55                 ` Yuri Khan
2021-10-05 16:25                   ` Juri Linkov
2021-10-05 17:15                     ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-05 18:40                       ` [External] : " Drew Adams
2021-10-06 20:54                       ` Richard Stallman
2021-10-07  6:54                         ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-07 13:14                           ` Stefan Kangas
2021-10-07 13:34                             ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-07 14:48                               ` Stefan Kangas
2021-10-07 16:00                                 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-08  0:37                                   ` Stefan Kangas
2021-10-08  6:53                                     ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-08 15:09                                       ` Display of em dashes in our documentation Stefan Kangas
2021-10-08 16:12                                         ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-08 17:17                                           ` Stefan Kangas
2021-10-10  8:00                                             ` Juri Linkov
2021-10-08 17:27                                           ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-08 18:26                                           ` [External] : " Drew Adams
2021-10-08 17:17                                       ` character sets as they relate to “Raw” string literals for elisp Alan Mackenzie
2021-10-08 17:42                                         ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-08 18:47                                           ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-08 20:01                                             ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-10-09  6:18                                               ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-09 10:57                                                 ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-10-09 11:49                                                   ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-09 13:08                                                     ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-10-09 13:15                                                       ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-09 15:07                                                         ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-10-11  0:45                                                           ` linux console limitations Daniel Brooks
2021-10-12 10:18                                                             ` Alan Mackenzie
2021-10-14  4:05                                                               ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-10  8:03                                                   ` character sets as they relate to “Raw” string literals for elisp Juri Linkov
2021-10-05 18:23                     ` [External] : " Drew Adams
2021-10-05 19:13                       ` Stefan Kangas
2021-10-05 19:20                         ` Drew Adams
2021-10-05 17:13                   ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-05 12:04                 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-05 21:20                 ` Richard Stallman
2021-10-05 22:13                   ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-06 12:13                     ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-06 18:57                       ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-07  4:23                         ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-07 22:27                         ` Richard Stallman
2021-10-08 10:37                         ` Po Lu
2021-10-08 10:53                           ` Basil L. Contovounesios
2021-10-08 11:27                             ` tomas
2021-10-05 22:25                   ` character sets as they relate to “Raw†" Stefan Kangas
2021-10-06  6:21                     ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-07 22:20                       ` Richard Stallman
2021-10-06 12:29                     ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-06 12:52                       ` Stefan Kangas
2021-10-06 13:10                         ` Jean-Christophe Helary
2021-10-06 11:53                   ` character sets as they relate to “Raw” " Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-04 18:57             ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-10-04 19:14               ` Yuri Khan
2021-10-05 21:20                 ` Richard Stallman
2021-10-06  3:48                   ` character sets as they relate to “Raw†" Matthew Carter
2021-10-04 22:29         ` "Raw" " Richard Stallman
2021-10-05  5:39           ` Daniel Brooks
2021-10-05  5:43             ` Jean-Christophe Helary
2021-10-05  8:24               ` Richard Stallman
2021-10-05 12:23               ` Eli Zaretskii

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