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Postings from August 2000
Simon Cozens wrote: > > So a backtracking explanation doesn't really help you construct a > regular expression yourself, in the same way that the combining pieces > model doesn't tell you how the regular expression is executed. > > Now comes the kicker: the user doesn't necessarily care how the > expression is executed. The user isn't writing regular expression > engines, but *should* be writing regular expressions. So it's better for > us to explain everything in terms of the model which makes it easier to > construct regular expressions. The backtracking explanation is simply > not from a user's point of view at all - the user doesn't have to care > how it works, so long as it does work. With the combining pieces model, > however, the user just states the chunks that she wants Perl to match, > one after the other. Isn't ``how it works'' useful in optimizing complex code that could run faster ??? -- Best Regards, mds mds resource 888.250.3987 "Dare to fix things before they break . . . " "Our capacity for understanding is inversely proportional to how much we think we know. The more I know, the more I know I don't know . . . "