Perl 6 regexes... (fwd)

[Steve Fink]

On Mon, Aug 12, 2002 at 12:37:09AM -0700, Sean O'Rourke wrote:
> What Dan says. If you're interested, there are at least three options:
>
> - a fairly well-developed compiler for perl 5 regexes (languages/regex).
>
> - a less well-developed compiler built into the prototype Perl 6 compiler
> (languages/perl6)
>
> - a set of regex ops in rx.ops, suitable for starting your own
> implementation from scratch.

There's a #4 floating around too -- Mark Kvale wrote a compiler for
doing benchmarking tests.

> Since I'm working on #2, I'd of course most appreciate help on that ;).
> It unfortunately relies on a couple of other miscellaneous enhancements
> that haven't made it into CVS. If you're interested in taking a look
> before it gets into CVS, email me and I'll send you the duct tape I'm
> using to hold it together now.

I'd like to take a look! (I'm the author of #1, btw, so I'm really
just trying to steal all of your good ideas.)

I really ought to commit my current set of bugfixes to
languages/regex. I'm still struggling with the expression (a)+,
though. And I ought to be documenting things better so people can
steal my ideas more easily.

Question for Sean: are you using the rx ops, or compiling down to
regular (non-rx) bytecodes like languages/regex does?

I would also be very happy for help with #1 (languages/regex).
Although if I look at Sean's stuff and decide it's a fundamentally
superior approach (as I did once already with the first incarnation of
languages/regex after I saw what Brent Dax had done), then I will
happily scrap all my stuff. But that'll take some convincing -- I
think there's quite a bit of life left in my approach! :-)