[Caml-list] Regular expression library: a poll on features

[Xavier Leroy <xavier.leroy@inria.fr>]

Dear OCaml users,

There is a consensus that the current OCaml regexp library (Str) is
not satisfactory, for various reasons: not robust enough; slow on
certain regexps; non-reentrant API; and restrictive license.

We are therefore investigating alternative regexp libraries, with the
idea of providing both an emulation of the Str interface (for backward
compatibility) and a better interface (for new programs).  Several
candidates exist, most notably PCRE and Jérôme Vouillon's RE library.

One issue on which I'd like your opinion is that none of these
candidates support both features below:

1- back-references in regexps (e.g. "([a-z]+)\1", meaning any sequence
of lowercase letters followed by another occurrence of the same sequence);

2- partial string matching as per Str.string_partial_match, i.e.
the ability to recognize that a string is a prefix of a string that
match a regexp.

What I'd like to know is: do you use any of these features?  Please
reply to me personally -- there's no need to bother the list with this
-- and I'll post a summary of the replies.

Thanks for your input,

- Xavier Leroy
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