On 11.04.25 06:24, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> At 2025-03-30T22:23:58+0000, Lennart Jablonka wrote:
> > It’s implementation-defined whether \+ behaves like literal + or like
> > \{1,\}. (The same applies to \? and \|; I didn’t find uses of those.)
> > As it happens, OpenBSD treats it as literal +.
> >
> > Found it through a failure of html-device-smoke-test.sh.
>
> Thanks! Expect this in my next push.
The difference between theory and practice is much greater in practice than it
is in theory, and a complete switch to modern EREs would doubtless be a major
burden, so I'm not sure how helpful it is to remind that moving away from
obsolete¹ BREs would eliminate the above problem, and additionally make all REs
more readable by eliminating the obfuscating backslash storm which afflicts
BREs. E.g. all the backslashes in the above example would vanish into
the dustbin of superfluity, leaving only the stuff which does stuff.
It's just a thought - less is more, I figure, and wading through a cloud
of characters which don't do anything just makes your job harder.
¹ See "man 7 regex".
Erik
--
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but
coaxed down-stairs a step at a time.
- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar
