Re: Regexp capturing unicode characters

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2024 19:44:18 +0000
> From: Heime <heimeborgia@protonmail.com>
> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> 
> On Friday, August 2nd, 2024 at 5:46 AM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> 
> > Once again, [:alpha:] and [:alnum:] will match letters and digits in
> > any language, not just in English.
> > 
> > > > The useful information is already there (including a cross-reference
> > > > to a detailed description of what "multibyte" means). I just
> > > > translated it into simpler terms, based on what you told about the job
> > > > you want to do, to save you from the need to read that if you don't
> > > > want to.
> > > 
> > > A mention that [:multibyte:] is not used much nowadays.
> > 
> > 
> > That's not what I said. I said it is almost never the right thing
> > nowadays, especially in your case.
> > 
> > I'm trying to help you by saying simplified things. The manual
> > doesn't simplify, because it's a reference.
> 
> Would graph [:graph:] be the most powerful ?  

[:graph:] includes punctuation and other symbols, which AFAIU you
don't want to match (since you thought [:word:] is what you need).

> In "34.2 Disabling Multibyte Characters", it is stated 
> 
> "Multibyte mode allows you to use all the supported languages 
> and scripts without limitations."

That's not really relevant to the issue at hand.  Yes, multibyte
characters are needed to support all the languages.  No, that doesn't
mean you need to use [:multibyte:], because that will match
punctuation, symbols, non-ASCII control and whitespace characters,
etc., and you don't want that.  OTOH, [:multibyte:] doesn't match
ASCII letters and digits, and you certainly do want to match them.

> Yet you say that it is never the right thing especially in my case.
> Where in my case I want to support languages without limitations.

Yes, and [:alpha:] and [:alnum:] support languages without
limitations.  As I already told you several times.

> I did not find the reference is enough to decide what is appropriate 
> to use for languages without limitations, or for specific languages.
> Mainly because I would not know what the classes include exactly.

I tried to help you with specific advice, but you insist on not
listening.  So this will be my last message in this thread.