From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim X Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: ELisp: special read syntax for regular expressions? Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:18:17 +1000 Organization: Rapt Technologies Message-ID: <87d4p3zn5y.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1207453282 10900 80.91.229.12 (6 Apr 2008 03:41:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 03:41:22 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Apr 06 05:41:55 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1JiLlQ-0006Z7-47 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:41:52 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JiLkn-0002i5-8Q for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:41:13 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!news1.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local02.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.internode!news.internode.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:18:17 -0500 Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.60 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:LyyCD/E3teImdb9xrvDcg8lFlYQ= Original-Lines: 35 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 121.44.102.175 Original-X-Trace: sv3-6MYtpMcuYxCYFkZUpdttOdO9tumlKa0W7cV5zXuEQGK4dNBelC00aXWdqcufkNIVzLFqzN7IFxVOacU!zkZF5Cj1eziI9zusdRAZcO1JaTfJAenB3fVzMxk1u3zHF8Z7POOSjRrTuaIfKp2AgHO4JEocbcQ= Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@internode X-DMCA-Complaints-To: abuse@internode X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.38 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:157732 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:53103 Archived-At: Ilya Zakharevich writes: > A few of years ago RMS asked me what one could do to make ELisp regular > expressions more handable. > > Now, when the support for Perl REx in CPerl mode is finally finished, > I think I know the answer: one needs to allow a special read syntax > for regular expressions (the result being an ordinary string). This > way one can avoid the acute backslashitis [by inverting \( and (, > etc], the regular expressions may be specially indented, and the > syntax highlighter would have a chance to remove most of the remaining > complexity by proper highlighting (similar to CPerl one). > > What do you think? > > Yours, > Ilya > > P.S. I put example of how my (Perl) test "code" is highlighted to > > ilyaz.org/software/tmp/CPerl-REx-highlight.png This sounds like a good idea. Many people, including myself, do find elisp's REs a bit painful and its noticed even more these days since perl compatible REs seem to have become a bit of a default standard. A modified read syntax certainly seems to be feasible and to my mind it fits with a lisp way of doing things. Will be interesting to see how easily that can be worked into emacs in a consistent way. Tim -- tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au