Re: Possible problem with looking-back function

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> Ok, so looking-back should be replaced by:

>    (progn
>      (goto-char 11)                     ; go to end of buffer
>      ;; ---- looking-back replacement --- BEGIN
>      (save-excursion
>        (when (/= 0 (skip-chars-backward " \t\n" 1))
>          (unless (bolp)
>            (forward-line 1))
>          (looking-at "^\\([ \t\n]+\\)")))
>      ;; ---- looking-back replacement --- END
>      (match-beginning 1))

> Now it returns 1.

Or you can still use a regexp, with something like

  (defun other-looking-back (re limit)
    (save-restriction
      (narrow-to-region (point-min) (point))
      (goto-char limit)
      (re-search-forward (concat "\\(?:" re "\\)\\'") nil t)))

Note that it imposes a few different constraints on the regexp, mostly
it can't use things like \> or \< or \b at the end because
narrow-to-region will prevent it from peeking at the next char.


        Stefan