Please don't followup with subject "...Digest..." On 2015-03-23, at 06:53, John Walker wrote:
> Regular expressions is the most god-awful piece of clap-trap garbage I have > ever laid my eyes on. Yeah for you PC programmers! Groans of disbelief from > us mainframe programmers at the obtuse, obfuscating gibberish that RE is and > that we will be forced into learning. > RE is a tool. As others have said, if you don't need it, don't use it. Otherwise, the challehge to you: sketch out the syntax for an alternative with comparable function and greater transparency, comfortable to mainframe programmers. Would you simply advocate SNOBOL4 patterns? Extra credit if your typical RE-alternative fits in an 80-column SYSIN line. IMO, HLASM syntax is the most god-awful piece of clap-trap garbage I have ever laid my eyes on. Well, perhaps a close second to JCL. -- gil
