From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Hansen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: ELisp: special read syntax for regular expressions? Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:48:33 +0200 Organization: disorganized Message-ID: <87k5jcauzi.fsf@localhorst.mine.nu> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1207428837 21576 80.91.229.12 (5 Apr 2008 20:53:57 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 20:53:57 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Apr 05 22:54:29 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 1JiFP5-0006ki-F2 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:54:24 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JiFOR-0003X9-QS for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:53:43 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JiFOA-0003Ut-5L for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:53:26 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JiFO8-0003TA-Il for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:53:25 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JiFO8-0003T5-FW for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:53:24 -0400 Original-Received: from main.gmane.org ([80.91.229.2] helo=ciao.gmane.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1JiFO7-0007xd-R2 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:53:24 -0400 Original-Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1JiFO0-0005tj-FO for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:53:16 +0000 Original-Received: from e178058079.adsl.alicedsl.de ([85.178.58.79]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:53:16 +0000 Original-Received: from david.hansen by e178058079.adsl.alicedsl.de with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:53:16 +0000 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Mail-Followup-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Lines: 22 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: e178058079.adsl.alicedsl.de Mail-Copies-To: nobody User-Agent: Gnus/5.110007 (No Gnus v0.7) Emacs/23.0.60 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:Mk3X4Eu9nIDkJPu26k4sYmUgP3Q= X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) 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:53091 Archived-At: On Sat, 5 Apr 2008 11:17:10 +0000 (UTC) Ilya Zakharevich wrote: > 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? Have a look at the Gauche Scheme implementation. It has a regexp read syntax: #/.../. Would be nice to have something like this in Emacs. It can be hard to keep track of all the backslashes. David