Re: RFE: support POSIX standard and developing RE's

shawn wilson wrote:
>
> Instead of implementing one or another regex type in core, it might be
> better to know about and hook into libs for their regex engines. For
> example, libperl for perl's engine when +perl or libpcre as another
> option. IDK you can do the same with python, I think you can with ruby
> and IIRC Lua uses libpcre.
>
----
I mostly agree. While I would *want* and love the +perl/libpcre
option @ compile time, I wouldn't want it to change the standard/current
vim RE, else millions of lines of current macros would break. Choosing
which RE, whether it be POSIX ex-RE's, or PCRE's (which I prefer even
more), needs to be done in a _sane_ orthogonal way.

Sadly, the method grep uses -{F,G,E,P} = fixed-strings, basic (often
called obsolete RE's, though supported as default in most GNU
tools for compat. purposes), Extended, and PCRE's.

Maybe having "\X" & "\P" for extended and pcre's would be a start,
though I'd _like_ to see a way of choosing different RE's for
use in macros & .vim files (for compat), and a 2nd option for
interactive RE's (thus eliminating the need for the "/[vmMVXP]"
on each search or substitute).

Note that PCRE's are frequently provided as a 4th option to the
3 POSIX RE's in gnu and other tools -- they are not just used in
Perl (as the name might lead some to think). I think that's one
reason why Perl added the python-specific features so it could
still retain its "most feature rich" status (but that's speculation
on my part).

The thing that blew me away -- PCRE's are faster than even
plain-text searches (let alone the Basic and Extended ones).




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