From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail
From: David House <dmhouse@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel
Subject: Re: Structural regular expressions
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:03:44 +0100
Message-ID: <AANLkTi=dv8n40x-rTtz__sp2dKUJ+CJZkVnwjBH0qKSX@mail.gmail.com>
References: <loom.20100907T212314-566@post.gmane.org>
	<AANLkTimYvE0aqrG-OQxuY6BTca7ngzrfQUa62mOxyV=+@mail.gmail.com>
	<loom.20100907T222143-475@post.gmane.org>
	<87sk1lt4uf.fsf@gmail.com> <jwvsk1kaav2.fsf-monnier+emacs@gnu.org>
	<pvhphbi0wq0d.fsf@gmx.li> <jwvlj7c9ura.fsf-monnier+emacs@gnu.org>
	<46875.130.55.118.19.1284065220.squirrel@webmail.lanl.gov>
	<AANLkTimUS7zL77TGiWoEdS+=nuww=TSABKMZuSiYPaCc@mail.gmail.com>
	<E1Ou5lY-0006Jj-MB@fencepost.gnu.org>
NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1284138239 2464 80.91.229.12 (10 Sep 2010 17:03:59 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:03:59 +0000 (UTC)
Cc: wence@gmx.li, Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman@gmail.com>,
	monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, emacs-devel@gnu.org
To: rms@gnu.org
Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Sep 10 19:03:55 2010
Return-path: <emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org>
Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org
Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165])
	by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69)
	(envelope-from <emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org>)
	id 1Ou710-0002c3-Pv
	for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:03:55 +0200
Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:53732 helo=lists.gnu.org)
	by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43)
	id 1Ou710-00024Y-EQ
	for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:03:54 -0400
Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=37395 helo=eggs.gnu.org)
	by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Ou70u-00022L-Me
	for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:03:50 -0400
Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69)
	(envelope-from <dmhouse@gmail.com>) id 1Ou70s-0001Hj-NQ
	for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:03:48 -0400
Original-Received: from mail-ew0-f41.google.com ([209.85.215.41]:52669)
	by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69)
	(envelope-from <dmhouse@gmail.com>)
	id 1Ou70s-0001HW-Ho; Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:03:46 -0400
Original-Received: by ewy28 with SMTP id 28so2197823ewy.0
	for <multiple recipients>; Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:03:44 -0700 (PDT)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
	h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:received:in-reply-to
	:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type
	:content-transfer-encoding;
	bh=In6uwRPShF6Kzdlv4w7QXcbwk4w7qmiuVned8jhhJo0=;
	b=gKMhv6f90m4Ivf6R8kAtH4XwtaTHPh08md0+38LIs7KTG2hufNaEGH/yj6H5uqLMXp
	ylfeXnJ1SHWZ4mUloUHTq3UXgVjUdzhj7CM0/f4uCQh4ce39cixc0OiKbOotCj/4epfF
	caHfJoMbji0YkriImelzP0mkuji0HWo3o75iI=
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
	h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to
	:cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding;
	b=iVghCjY+biprJiLiWtmXbS860npHfZ7XjIzb13fXfQtG6XsGUNo/xifiMBgXjQHC/x
	cKEjltlhPoWoNa32Vb+6kFypHefMLBHUHaMqgqk7OHai+LO+f/PISBjoT1KDN2zp3UAb
	FQFOgYLTuEbTFgu9kouyNNXCL8yHebDPJwwwU=
Original-Received: by 10.213.28.205 with SMTP id n13mr177274ebc.5.1284138224433; Fri,
	10 Sep 2010 10:03:44 -0700 (PDT)
Original-Received: by 10.14.53.69 with HTTP; Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:03:44 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <E1Ou5lY-0006Jj-MB@fencepost.gnu.org>
X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2)
X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." <emacs-devel.gnu.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-devel>,
	<mailto:emacs-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel>
List-Post: <mailto:emacs-devel@gnu.org>
List-Help: <mailto:emacs-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-devel>,
	<mailto:emacs-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=subscribe>
Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org
Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org
Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:129917
Archived-At: <http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel/129917>

On 10 September 2010 16:43, Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:
> Could someone please explain what a "structural regular expression"
> means? =A0The message that started the thread did not say.

It is not a property of the regexps themselves, but pertains to
functions that use regexps: namely that they only apply to a subset of
your buffer. For example, you might do a query-replace-regexp on only
the comments of a C file, or an isearch-regexp on only the strings. So
note that the subsets they apply to are non-contiguous in general.

It has been proposed to support this by generalizing the concept of
the region to actually be a list of (contiguous) regions. Another idea
further up was to use special text properties.