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From: Jorden M <jrm8005@gmail.com>
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
Subject: Re: [9fans] du and find
Date: Mon,  3 May 2010 14:34:27 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <j2u3aaafc131005031134x69594d76ye4dcb45069820741@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <455f59971ace96897640df2bff497ce3@kw.quanstro.net>

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 10:53 AM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:
>> It's always been easier for me to use python's/perl's regular
>> expressions when I needed to process a text file than to use plan9's.
>> For simple things, e.g. while editing an ordinary text in acme/sam,
>> plan9's regexps are just fine.
>
> i find it hard to think of cases where i would need
> such sophistication and where tokenization or
> tokenization plus parsing wouldn't be a better idea.

A lot of the `sophisticated' Perl I've seen uses some horrible regexes
when really the job would have been done better and faster by a
simple, job-specific parser.

I've yet to find out why this happens so much, but I think I can
narrow it to a combination of ignorance, laziness, and perhaps that
all-too-frequent assumption `oh, I can do this in 10 lines with perl!'
I guess by the time you've written half a parser in line noise, it's
too late to quit while you're behind.

>
> for example, you could write a re to parse the output
> of ls -l and or ps.  but awk '{print $field}' is so much
> easier to write and read.
>
> so in all, i view perl "regular" expressions as a tough sell.
> i think they're harder to write, harder to read, require more
> and more unstable code, and slower.
>
> one could speculate that perl, by encouraging a
> monolithic, rather than tools-based approach;
> and cleverness over clarity made perl expressions
> the logical next step.  if so, i question the assumptions.
>
> - erik
>
>



  reply	other threads:[~2010-05-03 18:34 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 51+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2009-12-28 23:05 anonymous
2009-12-28 23:09 ` lucio
2009-12-28 23:14 ` Steve Simon
2009-12-29 17:59 ` Tim Newsham
2009-12-29 18:28   ` Don Bailey
2009-12-29 20:16   ` Rob Pike
2009-12-30  7:44     ` anonymous
2010-05-03 12:13   ` Mathieu Lonjaret
2010-05-03 12:18     ` Akshat Kumar
2010-05-03 12:26       ` Mathieu Lonjaret
2010-05-03 12:49         ` tlaronde
2010-05-03 13:10         ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2010-05-03 13:41           ` Steve Simon
2010-05-03 15:18             ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2010-05-03 15:29               ` jake
2010-05-03 15:46                 ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2010-05-03 15:37               ` Steve Simon
2010-05-03 13:17       ` Rudolf Sykora
2010-05-03 14:53         ` erik quanstrom
2010-05-03 18:34           ` Jorden M [this message]
2010-05-04 10:01             ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2010-05-04 10:29               ` Robert Raschke
2010-05-04 15:38               ` Jorden M
2010-05-04 16:56                 ` Gabriel Díaz
2010-05-04 18:39                   ` Karljurgen Feuerherm
2010-05-03 14:03     ` erik quanstrom
     [not found] <<20091228230510.GA25423@machine>
2009-12-28 23:25 ` erik quanstrom
2009-12-28 23:31   ` Don Bailey
2009-12-28 23:50     ` Lyndon Nerenberg (VE6BBM/VE7TFX)
     [not found] <<68eb39920912281531jd0e4661j56adfc589a370dfc@mail.gmail.com>
2009-12-28 23:35 ` erik quanstrom
2009-12-28 23:39   ` Don Bailey
2009-12-29  1:00     ` anonymous
2009-12-29  1:13       ` Don Bailey
2009-12-29  0:41 erik quanstrom
2009-12-29  1:03 ` Lyndon Nerenberg (VE6BBM/VE7TFX)
2010-01-01 20:34 ` roger peppe
     [not found] <<af7cc2a5be1668a4f2cb708f5bd96f67@yyc.orthanc.ca>
2009-12-29  1:22 ` erik quanstrom
     [not found] <<df49a7371001011234r3aaaf961n8ce253a6681e74b1@mail.gmail.com>
2010-01-02  0:51 ` erik quanstrom
2010-01-02  1:44   ` roger peppe
     [not found] <<df49a7371001011744o6687fd59l451d690ea56edea5@mail.gmail.com>
2010-01-02  2:02 ` erik quanstrom
2010-01-02  5:29   ` anonymous
2010-01-02 18:43   ` roger peppe
2010-01-03  2:28     ` Anthony Sorace
     [not found] <<20100102052943.GA9871@machine>
2010-01-02 17:05 ` erik quanstrom
2010-01-02 18:18   ` anonymous
     [not found] <<df49a7371001021043p2a990207od65457a068b7828@mail.gmail.com>
2010-01-02 19:47 ` erik quanstrom
2010-01-02 23:21   ` Bakul Shah
2010-01-03  1:49     ` erik quanstrom
2010-01-03  2:31       ` Bakul Shah
2010-01-03  2:40         ` erik quanstrom
2010-01-06 20:44           ` Akshat Kumar

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