Re: How to grok a complicated regex?

[Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se>]

Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@gnu.org> writes:

> I notice many times what people say, you respond
> with your personal preferences, without
> acknowledging in some way the validity of other
> people's pov. Maybe that method somehow interferes
> w/ your understanding of other people and
> their concerns.

What do you mean?

Aaanyway...

For a person to be able to read those regexps that
look like comic book insults is not to be expected.
If someone is still able to do that congratulations to
him/her, unless such an unusual talent comes with
drawbacks in other areas of life...

For a person who writes and reads such regexps every
day, if such a person exists, he or she should acquire
the skill to do so seamlessly, like I write, and you
read, this English paragraph and ditto Elisp form:

    (setq fill-nobreak-predicate '(fill-single-char-nobreak-p
                                   fill-single-word-nobreak-p))

There should be no need at all of a thought process
but instead instant recognition. How will such
a person arrive at that skill level? Simple, he/she
does it every day! There will be no need for a second
representation or even illustrative tools. Such will
be at best fun toys (very soon) as the actual
representation will be the only one ever considered.

For everyone else who perhaps does it now and then the
(de/re)construction method like picking apart a math
formula or a French MAB Model B pistol is nothing to
be ashamed of. Or, for that matter the incremental
method of understanding the general purpose and
inserting the missing char whenever a problem appears.

If anyone is very fond of the regexps and wishes to do
them all the time and for this reason thinks of tools
and toys as to be able to do that, that's fine, as
long as one is aware why it is done (well, maybe
that's not necessary come think of it).

But if so, then I have an even better idea, namely an
Emacs wiki page to which you can e-mail desired
regexps, and then the group of regexp lovers can
provide those after getting instruction either exactly
what it should be, or the general problem to be
solved, and then the can deliver it, stainless steel,
and everyone is happy.

-- 
underground experts united