Subj : RegExp Behaviour in FSE
To : Angus McLeod
From : Deuce
Date : Wed Mar 01 2006 08:21 pm
Re: RegExp Behaviour in FSE
By: Angus McLeod to Deuce on Wed Mar 01 2006 10:22 am
> Selected text *or* the entire document, might consist of several
> paragraphs. Therefore, the un-flagged RE should refer to the entire
> unmodified string, selection or all. The RE should (IMHO) treat both hard
> *and* soft newlines as newlines. Soft newlines as inserted by an
> automated wordwrap are only a convenience for the user. There shouldn't
> be any confusion. If the user, looking at the text *sees* a newline, then
> the RE should respond as expected. Were I to apply /^para/m to this
> parabraph, for instance, it should match *twice*, even though one instance
> of the word 'paragraph' was explicitly wrapped by the ENTER key, and the
> other was auto wrapped.
>
> The 'm' and 's' flags should modify the behaviour of the RE as normal, but
> (IMHO) it should treat *both* hard and soft newlines as newlines.
>
> Thoughts?
That's pretty much how I'm leaning.. was just worried about the case where Dumb
User posted something about Dumb User and I wanted to quickly do a nice simple
s/Dumb User/Idiot/g and it only matches one. I mean... it's going to need to
rewrap after a replacement anyways.
The other option would be to use only hard CRs in the string, and allow the m
flag to use wrapped lines. iirc, in general, ^ and $ match the beginning and
end of a *STRING* not a line. So the m flag would make ^ and $ match lines.
The s flag wouldn't need any special handling at all since it merely expands
what . matches to include newlines. So your example would work as you expected
with the m flag, and not match anything otherwise. ie:
$_="Two line\nParagraphs\n";
print "No flags\n" if(/^Para/);
print "m flag\n" if(/^Para/m);
Further, if it included soft CRs, that would be an extra bit of whitespace
where there "really" isnt.
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