1533
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Kissaki@programming.dev 13 points 1 day ago

You always forget regex syntax?

I've always found it simple to understand and remember. Even over many years and decades, I've never had issues reading or writing simple regex syntax (excluding the flags and shorthands) even after long regex breaks.

[-] Akito@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 day ago

It's not about the syntax itself, it's about which syntax to use. There are different ones and remembering which one is for which language is tough.

[-] Lehmanator@programming.dev 2 points 5 hours ago

This is exactly it. Regex is super simple. The difficulty is maintaining a mental mapping between language/util <-> regex engine <-> engine syntax & character class names. It gets worse when utils also conditionally enable extended syntaxes with flags or options.

The hardest part is remembering whether you need to use \w or [:alnum:].

Way too few utils actually mention which syntax they use too. Most just say something accepts a "regular expression", which is totally ambiguous.

[-] Lehmanator@programming.dev 1 points 5 hours ago

This is exactly it. Regex is super simple. The difficulty is maintaining a mental mapping between language/util <-> regex engine <-> engine syntax & character class names. It gets worse when utils also conditionally enable extended syntaxes with flags or options.

The hardest part is remembering whether you need to use \w or [:alnum:].

Way too few utils actually mention which syntax they use too. Most just say something accepts a "regular expression", which is totally ambiguous.

[-] Lehmanator@programming.dev 1 points 6 hours ago

This is exactly it. Regex is super simple. The difficulty is maintaining a mental mapping between language/util <-> regex engine <-> engine syntax & character class names. It gets worse when utils also conditionally enable extended syntaxes with flags or options.

The hardest part is remembering whether you need to use \w or [:alnum:].

Way too few utils actually mention which syntax they use too. Most just say something accepts a "regular expression", which is totally ambiguous.

[-] Lehmanator@programming.dev 1 points 6 hours ago

This is exactly it. Regex is super simple. The difficulty is maintaining a mental mapping between language/util <-> regex engine <-> engine syntax & character class names. It gets worse when utils also conditionally enable extended syntaxes with flags or options.

The hardest part is remembering whether you need to use \w or [:alnum:].

Way too few utils actually mention which syntax they use too. Most just say something accepts a "regular expression", which is totally ambiguous.

[-] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I give you that, true. I wish vim had PCRE

[-] ewenak@jlai.lu 1 points 1 day ago

There is the "very magic" mode for vim regexes. It's not the exact PCRE syntax, but it's pretty close. You only need to add \v before the expression to use it. There is no permanent mode / option though. (I think you can remap the commands, like / to /\v)

this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
1533 points (100.0% liked)

Programmer Humor

21016 readers
1142 users here now

Welcome to Programmer Humor!

This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!

For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.

Rules

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS