On Nov 17, 10:24 pm, Terry Reedy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Jerry Hill wrote: > > On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 4:37 PM, Uwe Schmitt > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Hi, > > >> Is anobody aware of this post: http://swtch.com/~rsc/regexp/regexp1.html? > > > Yes, it's been brought up here, on python-dev and python-ideas several > > times in the past year and a half. > > >> Are there any plans to speed up Pythons regular expression module ? > >> Or > >> is the example in this artricle too far from reality ??? > > > I don't think anyone has taken any concrete steps towards re-writing > > the regular expression module. My understanding from previous threads > > on the topic is that the core developers would be willing to accept a > > re-written regular expression engine, but none of them are interested > > in doing it themselves. The general consensus seemed to be that the > > pathological cases hilited in that article are not very common in the > > real world, and that simply switching to the alternative approach > > advocated there would require giving up things like backreferences > > that are actually used in the real world, which is probably > > unacceptable. > > > Some references: > >http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2007-March/072241.html > >http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2007-February/427604.html > >http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2007-April/000405.html > > > Personally, I know very little about the nitty gritty of regular > > expression engines, but there's some reference material for you to > > chew on. > > Searching the tracker for open items with 'regular expression' in the > text brings up about 20 items to also consider.
Work is currently being done on the re module. I don't think the DFA approach works permits backreferences, capture groups or non-greedy repetition, but it certainly could be used if those features aren't required by the regular expression, so the answer is definitely maybe! :-) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
