Mirco Wahab wrote: > Thus spoke Antoine De Groote (on 2006-09-30 11:24): > > >>Can anybody tell me the reason(s) why regular expressions are not built >>into Python like it is the case with Ruby and I believe Perl? Like for >>example in the following Ruby code >>I'm sure there are good reasons, but I just don't see them. >>Python Culture says: 'Explicit is better than implicit'. May it be >>related to this? > > > I think it is exactly because the /\b(\d+)\s+\/\// > together with $_ and $whatever=~/\/\/(?=\d+)/ are > seen as the 'line noise' everybody talks about ;-) > > Regex as part of the core language expressions > makes code very very hard to understand for > newcomers, and because Python is ... > > To invoke an additional cost in using Regexes, > the language simply prevents them in a lot of > situations. Thats it. You have to think three > times before you use them once. In the end, > you solve the problem 'elsewise' because of > the pain invoked ;-) > Tim Peters frequently says something along the lines of "If you have a problem and you try to solve it with regexes, then you have TWO problems". This isn't because the Python use of regexes is more difficult than Perl's: it's because regexes themselves are inherently difficult when the patterns get at all sophisticated.
If you think Perl gives better text-handing features nobody is going to mind if you use Perl - appropriate choice of language is a sign of maturity. Personally I tend to favour the way Python does it, but I don't require that anyone else does. The real answer to "why doesn't Python do it like Perl?" is "Because Python's not like Perl". regards Steve -- Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com Skype: holdenweb http://holdenweb.blogspot.com Recent Ramblings http://del.icio.us/steve.holden -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list