Pattern engine extension for \< and \> support?

[Sebastian Gniazdowski <sgniazdowski@gmail.com>]

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Hi,
in regexps, there are \<, \> and also \b sequences, that match zero-length
string on the word boundary. They are particularly useful for e.g.:
refactoring substitutions, like e.g.: with sed:

sed -r -i -e 's/\<myvar\>/other/'

This automatically protects pre/suffixed strings like str_myvar and
myvar_str. In mcedit, I often use \b that's available there (\< and \> do
not work), to obtain the same effect with the regex:

\bmyvat\b

I'm not sure if distinction of left and right boundary offered by \<, \>
actually makes a difference.

Zsh has similar sequences already - (#s) and (#e). They do match 0=length
strings on begin or end of the matched string. So maybe the topic is known
to any implementing person? Is it hard to add such \b or \<,\> sequences?
Could it be also possible to make it backward-safe, i.e. the sequence be
ignored by proceeding Zsh versions?




-- 
Best regards,
Sebastian Gniazdowski

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