regex <-> variables interaction (was: Re: variables draft (draft-homme-s

On Tuesday 08 April 2003 19:27, ned(_dot_)freed(_at_)mrochek(_dot_)com wrote:
<snip>
> > header :regex "Foo" "((a|b))*"?
> That IMO is an issue for the regex draft. As for how it should be
> handled there,
<snip>

On a related note, I think the regex extension should include 
non-capturing parentheses: "make (?:money|dollars)"

Esp. in the light of the variables extension, which makes formerly 
non-capturing () capturing now. As everyone here will know, capturing 
in regexes imposes a non-negligible performance penalty on regex use, 
which is a critical component even without capturing.

Of course, this may mean that we can't use the posix regex spec as 
reference anymore. How about the ecmascript one? With libpcre being 
available under a very liberal license, I don't see a bigger 
implementation burden than with posix regexes...

Marc

-- 
"You're hackers, aren't you," the barman said, eyeing us. No one said
a thing. The darkness of the Eurotunnel rolled by. Apparently we'd
given ourselves away by talking too enthusiastically about IPv6. He
looked around conspiratorially, lowered his voice. "Can you get me
some credit card numbers?"
      -- James J. King "What's the shortest way to hack a Linux box?"
         Telepolis 2001/08/11 (#9293)

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