On Sat, 12 Aug 2000, Bart Lateur wrote:
[...]
> different either. I too think that the input file separator should have
> regexish features, if the programmer wishes so. Now, one can only set $/
[...]
> My thoughts would be: a DFA regex engine, i.e. a state machine which is
> controlled by the next character in the input stream. No backtracking,
> very fast. But: no backreferences either, so the regex syntax will be
> more limited, than what the generic regex engine can process. I think
> that for this kind of application, we don't need it.
The idea of having two different regex "languages" in Perl makes
me very, very nervous. Potential for confusion
How about instead we build the DFA as you describe, with its more
limited syntax, but it must be manually turned on by use of a flag
(similar to the 'o' precompiled flag)?
Actually this could be a good thing in general...when you're
writing a frequently-used and hairy regex, you could set the 'precompile'
and 'use DFA' flags to get maximum speed.
Dave
