The Regex Story

[Lie Ryan]

On 04/09/10 18:59, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:48:22 +1000, Lie Ryan wrote:
> 
>> On 04/09/10 12:32, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>>> Regexes do have their uses. It's a case of knowing when they are the
>>>> best approach and when they aren't.
>>>
>>> Agreed. The problems begin when the "when they aren't" is not
>>> recognised.
>>
>> But problems also arises when people are suggesting overly complex
>> series of built-in functions for what is better handled by regex.
> 
> What defines "overly complex"?

These discussions about readability and suitability of regex are
orthogonal issue with the sub-topic I started. We are all fully aware of
the limitations of each approaches. What I am complaining is the recent
development of people just saying no to regex when the problem is in
fact in regex's very sweetspot. We have all seen people abusing regex;
but nowadays I'm starting to see people abusing built-ins as well.

We don't like when regex gets convoluted, but that doesn't mean built-in
fare much better either.