regex edit mode

regex edit mode

[Sam Halliday]

Hi all,

It is sometimes confusing, when writing a regex in elisp, to remember all the escaping rules that are in play.

Does anybody on this list know of a minor mode that would allow the user to edit regexes so that escaping is not necessary, but for the escaping to occur "under the hood".

Imagine being able to place the point over a string containing a regex (which is using escapes) and then call an interactive function which makes the escape characters go away and if special characters are entered, the escapes are added automagically. When exiting the minor mode, the raw string with escapes would appear again.

It would be equally fantastic to be able to do this for other languages that have their own escaping rules: java/scala come to mind.

Just a thought. It would really brighten up my day if it were possible.

Sam

Re: regex edit mode

[Igor Sosa Mayor]

Sam Halliday <sam.halliday@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> It is sometimes confusing, when writing a regex in elisp, to remember all the escaping rules that are in play.
>
> Does anybody on this list know of a minor mode that would allow the
> user to edit regexes so that escaping is not necessary, but for the
> escaping to occur "under the hood".
>
> Imagine being able to place the point over a string containing a regex
> (which is using escapes) and then call an interactive function which
> makes the escape characters go away and if special characters are
> entered, the escapes are added automagically. When exiting the minor
> mode, the raw string with escapes would appear again.
>
> It would be equally fantastic to be able to do this for other languages that have their own escaping rules: java/scala come to mind.
>
> Just a thought. It would really brighten up my day if it were possible.

not exactly what you are looking for, but... do you know this function?

,----[ C-h f regexp-builder RET ]
| regexp-builder is an alias for `re-builder' in `re-builder.el'.
| 
| (regexp-builder)
| 
| Construct a regexp interactively.
| This command makes the current buffer the "target" buffer of
| the regexp builder.  It displays a buffer named "*RE-Builder*"
| in another window, initially containing an empty regexp.
| 
| As you edit the regexp in the "*RE-Builder*" buffer, the
| matching parts of the target buffer will be highlighted.
| 
| [back]
`----


-- 
:: Igor Sosa Mayor     :: joseleopoldo1792@gmail.com ::
:: GnuPG: 0x1C1E2890   :: http://www.gnupg.org/      ::
:: jabberid: rogorido  ::                            ::

Re: regex edit mode

[Rasmus]

Igor Sosa Mayor <joseleopoldo1792@gmail.com> writes:

> Sam Halliday <sam.halliday@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> It is sometimes confusing, when writing a regex in elisp, to
>> remember all the escaping rules that are in play.
>>
>> Does anybody on this list know of a minor mode that would allow the
>> user to edit regexes so that escaping is not necessary, but for the
>> escaping to occur "under the hood".
>>
>> Imagine being able to place the point over a string containing a regex
>> (which is using escapes) and then call an interactive function which
>> makes the escape characters go away and if special characters are
>> entered, the escapes are added automagically. When exiting the minor
>> mode, the raw string with escapes would appear again.
>>
>> It would be equally fantastic to be able to do this for other
>> languages that have their own escaping rules: java/scala come to
>> mind.
>>
>> Just a thought. It would really brighten up my day if it were possible.
>
> not exactly what you are looking for, but... do you know this function?
>
> ,----[ C-h f regexp-builder RET ]
> | regexp-builder is an alias for `re-builder' in `re-builder.el'.
> | 
> | (regexp-builder)
> | 
> | Construct a regexp interactively.
> | This command makes the current buffer the "target" buffer of
> | the regexp builder.  It displays a buffer named "*RE-Builder*"
> | in another window, initially containing an empty regexp.
> | 
> | As you edit the regexp in the "*RE-Builder*" buffer, the
> | matching parts of the target buffer will be highlighted.
> | 
> | [back]
> `----

There's also rx, a mini lisp-language for regexp.  Visual-regexp on
github might be able to handle external regexp languages.

—Rasmus

-- 
Er du tosset for noge' lårt!

Re: regex edit mode

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2014-09-30, at 18:55, Sam Halliday wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> It is sometimes confusing, when writing a regex in elisp, to remember all the escaping rules that are in play.
>
> Does anybody on this list know of a minor mode that would allow the user to edit regexes so that escaping is not necessary, but for the escaping to occur "under the hood".
>
> Imagine being able to place the point over a string containing a regex (which is using escapes) and then call an interactive function which makes the escape characters go away and if special characters are entered, the escapes are added automagically. When exiting the minor mode, the raw string with escapes would appear again.

Not exactly what you have in mind, but do you know M-x re-builder?

> Sam

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University