Re: extended regexp

[Jon Oddie <jonxfield@gmail.com>]

>> If there is no extended-regexp functions nor mode avalaible, I may
>> send a feature request for it (the idea would be to have a regexp variable
>> for usual or extended search and replace).  However, do you think someone
>> else might be interested by such a behaviour?
> 
> We'd be happy to use a cleaner regexp syntax, but doing it without
> breaking backward compatibility is tricky, unless you go the
> `rx' route.  E.g. provide a new function/macro (call it `re') which
> converts between your new syntax and the old one.
> 

FWIW, I started work on something like this a while back, called
`pcre2el'[1]. It is a bit misnamed, since the majority of PCRE is too
difficult to support by simple translation to Emacs native regexes,
but it does cover the simple cases.  It also converts the string forms
to `rx' syntax, and extends the RE-Builder to handle these
conversions, so you can use C-c TAB to switch transparently between
PCRE-like, Emacs and rx syntax.



    Jon

[1] https://github.com/joddie/pcre2el