regular expression

[Asper Faner]

I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

[Paddy]

Asper Faner wrote:

I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

If you try to eliminate what you don't understand you won't learn
anything!

I suggest that you put the learning of regexps aside for a while and
come back to it 'later'.

[Erwin Moller]

Asper Faner wrote:

I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

I am sure you'll get an answer in one of zillion groups you posted this
stupid question to...

Regards,
Erwin

[Kleine Aap]

Asper Faner wrote:

I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

I.M.H.O. anyone that is not capable to grasp the concept of regular
expressions should not attempt to write computer programs at all! My
suggestion to you would be to find a job that involves working with your
hands...

[Roman]

Asper Faner wrote:

I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

It has very much to do with computer programming. There is program flow,
conditions, loops, variables.

Roman

[aejw.com]

Also regular expressions are (pretty much) universal accross a ton of
languages... even search engines now provide some support for regular
expressions... I know its a bit of a headache, but keep trying to learn it
mate. Once you have it wrapped you will never look back.

Adam - http://www.aejw.com/?page=contact

"Roman" <me**@dipmicro.comwrote in message
news:22*****************@read2.cgocable.net...

Asper Faner wrote:

>I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

It has very much to do with computer programming. There is program flow,
conditions, loops, variables.

Roman

[Joe Kesselman]

Reminder: anything crossposted across this many newsgroups, especially
asking an inherently bogus question, is probably just trolling.

If it's equally on topic everywhere, that means it's on topic nowhere.

--
() ASCII Ribbon Campaign | Joe Kesselman
/\ Stamp out HTML e-mail! | System architexture and kinetic poetry

[Dustan]

Kleine Aap wrote:

Asper Faner wrote:

I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

I.M.H.O. anyone that is not capable to grasp the concept of regular
expressions should not attempt to write computer programs at all! My
suggestion to you would be to find a job that involves working with your
hands...

Your humble opinion doesn't get much ruder...

Perhaps you meant "anyone that is not capable to grasp the concept of
regular expressions after some experience with programming should not
attempt to write computer programs at all!" Then at least newbies would
have a leg to stand on.

Otherwise, you're practically cutting off all entrances into the world
of programming! The concept of regular expressions isn't exactly the
simplest one out there. Just because you understood it immediately
(which I'm guessing you did, considering your harsh response), doesn't
mean others find the concept that simple.

[Stef Mientki]

Dustan wrote:

Kleine Aap wrote:

>Asper Faner wrote:

>>I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

I.M.H.O. anyone that is not capable to grasp the concept of regular
expressions should not attempt to write computer programs at all! My
suggestion to you would be to find a job that involves working with your
hands...

Your humble opinion doesn't get much ruder...

Perhaps you meant "anyone that is not capable to grasp the concept of
regular expressions after some experience with programming should not
attempt to write computer programs at all!" Then at least newbies would
have a leg to stand on.

Otherwise, you're practically cutting off all entrances into the world
of programming! The concept of regular expressions isn't exactly the
simplest one out there. Just because you understood it immediately
(which I'm guessing you did, considering your harsh response), doesn't
mean others find the concept that simple.

I agree, and in addition:

(large) regular expressions are easy to write,
but can be almost impossible to read back !

I once had a program to generate and evaluate regular expressions,
but can't find it anymore :-(

If someone has links to regex generators/evaluators,
I'ld be much obliged.

cheers.
Stef Mientki

[Rad [Visual C# MVP]]

On Sun, 24 Dec 2006 16:36:31 +0100, Stef Mientki wrote:

Dustan wrote:

>Kleine Aap wrote:

>>Asper Faner wrote:

I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?
I.M.H.O. anyone that is not capable to grasp the concept of regular
expressions should not attempt to write computer programs at all! My
suggestion to you would be to find a job that involves working with your
hands...

Your humble opinion doesn't get much ruder...

Perhaps you meant "anyone that is not capable to grasp the concept of
regular expressions after some experience with programming should not
attempt to write computer programs at all!" Then at least newbies would
have a leg to stand on.

Otherwise, you're practically cutting off all entrances into the world
of programming! The concept of regular expressions isn't exactly the
simplest one out there. Just because you understood it immediately
(which I'm guessing you did, considering your harsh response), doesn't
mean others find the concept that simple.

I agree, and in addition:

(large) regular expressions are easy to write,
but can be almost impossible to read back !

I once had a program to generate and evaluate regular expressions,
but can't find it anymore :-(

If someone has links to regex generators/evaluators,
I'ld be much obliged.

cheers.
Stef Mientki

A good tool to write, test and analyse regexes is the Regulator, available
here http://sourceforge.net/projects/regulator/

A good reference site is http://www.regular-expressions.info/, with
tutorials, examples and tools
--
Bits.Bytes
http://bytes.thinkersroom.com

[deviantbunnylord]

Rad [Visual C# MVP] wrote:

On Sun, 24 Dec 2006 16:36:31 +0100, Stef Mientki wrote:

Dustan wrote:

Kleine Aap wrote:
Asper Faner wrote:

I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

Hi folks, fairly new to the list(Python is my first programming
language, so I'm fairly new to the world of programming too)but this is
a question I've been wondering about since I started learning about the
re module. Are regular expressions what makes mark up languages
interpretable by webbrowsers?

[Dustan]

de**************@gmail.com wrote:

Rad [Visual C# MVP] wrote:

On Sun, 24 Dec 2006 16:36:31 +0100, Stef Mientki wrote:

Dustan wrote:
>Kleine Aap wrote:
>>Asper Faner wrote:
>>>
>>>I seem to always have hard time understaing how this regular expression
>>>works, especially how on earth do people bring it up as part of
>>>computer programming language. Natural language processing seems not
>>>enough to explain by the way. Why no eliminate it ?

Hi folks, fairly new to the list(Python is my first programming
language, so I'm fairly new to the world of programming too)but this is
a question I've been wondering about since I started learning about the
re module. Are regular expressions what makes mark up languages
interpretable by webbrowsers?

I don't actually know the answer, but my educated guess:

Regular expressions are just the simplest way to parse any text, but
there are other ways. Webbrowsers most likely depend on regular
expressions just because it's a relatively quick and easy way to
interpret the language.