Good point; I should have said "built-in". On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 12:54 PM Matthias Felleisen <matth...@felleisen.org> wrote: > > > > > On Feb 12, 2019, at 12:48 PM, David Storrs <david.sto...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > That's impressive and yes, you're right that it works. The problem is > > that it is something non-standard, a user extension that the > > programmer needs to know about, ensure is installed, and require. > > Perl, Python, and the pcre library all consider named captures to be > > first-class features of the language. Perl considers regex > > composition to be first-class, and Python and pcre probably do as well > > although I haven't checked. If you end up doing a lot of text > > handling then these features are invaluable, so why is Racket behind > > the times? > > > Off topic. > > The “first class” idea caught my eye because it is always used in > such a wrong way. In the olden days (like 10 years ago), first class > meant that plain programs can use a value in all kinds of ways. Turning > a set of values into first-class citizens empowers programmers. > > If Perl/Python and cohorts truly cared about first class support > for such features, they would also enable plain old (and young) > programmers to create such variants on their own. Who knows > what else that would enable? > > The issue of finding and installing the correct library is a distraction > from true power in programming languages. > > Tne End. > >
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