You are probably too used to the two different algorithms you wrote. There are only two systems I know of where asterisks make sense and both are about STRING matching:
- regular expressions - other wild card systems Obviously both algorithms don't use regular expressions. For example dots are dots and not wild cards, you don't use ^ or [ ] etc. Group parameter: This is classic wild card use. Match any combination of characters when using *. OK. Auth: This is NOT wild card use. It's matching groups and sub groups. That's totally different because we are no longer talking about STRINGS but about GROUPS. For me this disqualifies the use of * due to severe confusion with the group parameter and unexpected results. And it could be easily solved. When matching groups instead of strings, a character could be used that is not interpreted as a wild card. For example to match 'blog' and its sub groups: blog> blog+ blog- blog! blog: blog# blog$ blog& blog/ (bad because of file system confusion) ... Then you would add just one additional sentence to the auth pages: "To match a group use "group", to match a group and its sub groups use "group+" And nobody would hopefully think that the + means "one or more". Markus On Mar 11, 2010, at 10:30 PM, The Editor wrote: > This is true. The asterisk in site.auth pages works slightly > differently than the asterisk in the search group parameter for > example. In site auth it means pages in that group and all sub groups, > so the dot is actually meaningless. In the group parameter it just > means any page name with that substring at the beginning, so: te* > matches test and te.one and so on. > > I realize this is a bit confusing. I'm not sure it is worth trying to > fix them to work the same. They are just different algorithms for > different purposes in different places. It might be a bit challenging > actually to rework the auth function, and I wouldn't want to weaken > the group parameter. So maybe it is best to leave it as a quirk we > should live with. > > Cheers, > Dan > > > On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 6:46 PM, Markus <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hey, >> >> I had this site.auth.mail: >> >> bla.*: @guest >> >> And _thought_ guest could mail from bla.whatever pages where I used an >> email form in bla.footer. >> >> Now, I (finally) noticed that I can only send mails using that form >> when logged in. I believe that I tested it being a guest when I >> created site.auth.mail a longer time ago. But I did not take notes... >> >> Guest can only send mail when I remove the dot: >> >> bla*: @guest >> >> Now, I feel like going crazy. I use bla.* throughout my site. For >> example in the search function. It matches bla.whatever everywhere but >> seemingly not in site.auth.mail. >> >> Regards, >> Markus >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "BoltWire" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/boltwire?hl=en. >> >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "BoltWire" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/boltwire?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BoltWire" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/boltwire?hl=en.
