To be honest, I believe that "regular expressions", was poorly designed, generates unmaintainable code and is pure [insert favorite word here for human waste].
It is like a lot of things that are coming from the "one man, one pc" world. Nobody considered the long term effects. Nobody considered the up-scaling from a one-man shop to a shop with many programmers. Nobody considered the "somebody else may have to maintain my code at 2am" problem. I will give you another example, from the IP world. getaddrinfo() I use it daily. I have to. But, it is still a badly designed function. Too many options with too many rules which makes it hard to teach and hard to maintain. Even though I know how to use it, I still think the person that designed it should be prosecuted. But, I *have* to use it. There is no other option. That's not the same with regular expressions. There are other options. I have experience with regular expressions. I have written code using them. (I now wish I had not.) I have debugged regular expressions written by others. I know believe they should be eliminated and never used again. Just like Vi. Tony Thigpen -----Original Message ----- From: Ze'ev Atlas Sent: 03/26/2014 06:53 AM
Ah So it is not the complexity of the PCRE package, but the concept and implementation of regex that is unpopular. Which means that even using the IBM supplied functions would be considered bad programming. Mmm ... well, in that case I am encouraged and honored to be in the opposition and I will continue to push it. ZA Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android <https://overview.mail.yahoo.com/mobile/?.src=Android> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *From: * Tony Thigpen <[email protected]>; *To: * Ze'ev Atlas <[email protected]>; *Subject: * Re: Another Article On Lagging Mainframe Skills *Sent: * Wed, Mar 26, 2014 10:43:16 AM Ze'ev, The original questions could be condensed to: "Why did nobody download my port of PCRE?" I think this thread has show one of the reasons, that being: "Many mainframe programmers don't like regular expressions." Back to my original response: Pick something popular to port and people will use it. If you port something that very few want, then don't get upset when nobody else bothers to download it, Tony Thigpen -----Original Message ----- From: Ze'ev Atlas Sent: 03/25/2014 12:48 PM > Well, I will be polite about it > Regular expressions may indeed not be the ideal way to do pattern matching. I recall that there was another alternative named SNOBOL, but it did not really catch. > > The reality is that regular expressions became THE standard in text pattern matching, a standard that is used by virtually all popular languages on all popular platforms (whether those platforms are better or worse then the mainframe is not the issue here.) The glaring exceptions are the mainframe (z/OS) main languages COBOL and PL/1 and their platform which does not provide this capability. The Rexx 'parse' is much weaker and much less functional then regular expressions. > > So John, if your complaint is that regular expressions are not ideal, I may sympatize with you. But if you say that this capability is not important and should not be adapted because you do not find any use for it, in that case you actually illuminate my argument. In that case I will put my argument in another way, the mainframe platform is stagnant and there is no room for any refreshment according to those who see it this way. Stagnation is the first sign of death. > > Ze'ev Atlas > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List [mailto:[email protected] <javascript:return>] On Behalf Of John Walker > Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 10:10 AM > To: [email protected] <javascript:return> > Subject: Re: ASSEMBLER-LIST Digest - 22 Mar 2014 to 24 Mar 2014 (#2014-54) > > This comment of pc'ish arrogance re reg expressions deserves to be rebuked strongly. Honestly, I have used minimal regular expressions and found it to be obtuse, arcane obfuscation that is valued because it's the only text handling capability that Unix-land values. Ooh, YOU are smart enough to do it, and any SMART programmers should know how to use it. What a load of bull. It is awful to read and it does NOT need to be that way. The forward slashes and back slashes all over the place is crap and ought not to be forced down ANYONE'S throats. What a load of rubbish. I will NOT be polite about it. And your arrogance re the mainframe about it dieing. That's crap from pc-land, which is utterly a self-fulfilling prophecy, which sadly, due to management buy in to the lie, will eventually be done. Right now, mainframe is a living, viable, important resource for any large company. From the start, the advent of pc clusters has radically > increased the > cost infrastructure of all large companies. It sucks, and is only NOW starting to imitate what the mainframe did 60 years ago. Ooh, you are imitating the dinosaur. Nice. So, you prove the dinosaur was valuable after all, thus contradicting your own argument that is a useless thing. Bravo. Typical pc hypocrisy. > -------------------------------------------- > > This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. > >
