Re: Problem with regexp shy grouping operator
On Fri, 12 Apr 2002, Stephen Kassner muttered drunkenly:
Experimenting further, it seems that having the `*' suffix
operator as the last element in a shy group, and again applying
the `*' operator to the group, is the construct that is problematic,
ie. \(?:<foobar>*\)*
There are other problems with shy groups, too. For instance,
\\(?: \\|^\\)
matches a start of line or space, but
\\(?:^\\| \\)
won't match a start of line.
In the ChangeLog, Ben Wing said
Shy groups were implemented in a horrible, half-assed way that
would cause them to screw up regex searching in most cases.
Fixed to work correctly.
I concur with the `horrible' sentiment; it's just a shame that this was
never backported to 21.4. This is something else that GNU Emacs gets
right and we don't :( oh well, at least 21.6/22.0 will be better :)
Again, we have a workaround for the few broken uses of shy groups
in preview-latex...
--
`Unless they've moved it since I last checked, travelling between
England and America does not involve crossing the equator.'
--- pir