[Baypiggies] More dramatic material?

Aahz aahz at pythoncraft.com
Wed Feb 24 15:38:19 CET 2010


The other important thing to remember about regular expressions is that
even if you use verbose regexes split across multiple lines, regexes are
functionally write-only for even the vast majority of experienced
programmers.  (I.e. almost nobody can look at a complicated regex and
understand what it does.)

Remember:

'Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use
regular expressions."  Now they have two problems.' --Jamie Zawinski

Sometimes regexes are the best way to solve a problem, but you really are
best served by trying other options first.  In many cases, people want to
use regexes when they should be using a full-blown parser because regexes
require less up-front investment.  Just remember that you'll get into
technical debt and pay more later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"Many customs in this life persist because they ease friction and promote
productivity as a result of universal agreement, and whether they are
precisely the optimal choices is much less important." --Henry Spencer


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