Re: position absolute different in IE than firefox, help!

In article <slrnfj8eoq.vl1.spamspam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Ben C <spamspam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 2007-11-09, dorayme <doraymeRidThis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <slrnfj859a.vl1.spamspam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Ben C <spamspam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Ticking a box marked "Use Grep" is ironic since "grep" itself is the
name of a different ed command ("global regular expression print"),
which filters rather than substitutes. It should be called "Use Regex".

You referring to the F & R dialog box in BBEdit for Mac?

Yes.

In a spiel in the supporting files with BBEdit there is a *note*
that says:

Grep is the name of a frequently used Unix command that searches
using regular expressions, the same type of search pattern used
by BBEdit. For this reason, you will often see regular
expressions called "grep patterns," as BBEdit does. They're the
same thing.

Yes, they are the same thing, but I stand by my quibble that "Use Grep"
is a poor choice of name.


O I was not meaning to dispute anything you said... I would
simply not know. (I know how to put in a set of back shocks on a
Ford XY real quick now but...)

The Unix program grep is named after the ed command. What the ed command
does is print out each line of the buffer that matches the pattern. The
grep program does the same: it prints out each line of its input that
matches the pattern. That's not quite the same as Find as Replace. It's
more like Find. The thing they have in common is regular expressions, so
why not call the option that?

Another difficulty is that many of these different programs use slightly
different regular expression syntax. Does BBEdit really use grep
patterns? I think it actually uses the PCRE library (perl-compatible
regular expressions), which are not the same as either grep or egrep
patterns (although closer to egrep). This is important in the real world
because it changes what you need to escape. In a grep pattern ? matches
a ?, and \? means "0 or more". But in an egrep (or PCRE) pattern \?
matches a ? and ? means "0 or more". It's very annoying when you don't
know which you're supposed to be using.


On this reasoning, it sounds to me that BBEdit is using egrep
because I have to escape the ? to match the ?.

It would be less confusing to normal people and much less confusing to
nerds just to call it "use regex".

Well, I was not confused because I am an innocent lamb and
printed out some of the documentation that came with the software
and read it lying back on the enormous bench seat of the XY after
a swim one day at Clovelly Bay. Not that I don't get confused. It
is enormous fun making patterns and watching them work on whole
folders of files. Strange but true for those with the boy in
them. <g>

--
dorayme
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: position absolute different in IE than firefox, help!
    ... Grep is the name of a frequently used Unix command that searches ... does is print out each line of the buffer that matches the pattern. ... The thing they have in common is regular expressions, ...
    (alt.html)
  • Re: Stopping script from printing duplicate expressions after grep
    ... > I've been tasked with developing a bash script that checks system ... > the pattern I'm looking for in more than one expression, ... The -q flag makes grep quiet. ... you don't match regular expressions, ...
    (comp.unix.shell)
  • Re: Fraudulent eBay listing
    ... O.K. I had not noticed that you were using plain grep, ... in egrep), * simply stands for "zero or more of the preceding ... Interpret PATTERN as an extended regular expression. ... regular expressions while you're ...
    (rec.crafts.metalworking)
  • Re: grep and operator
    ... Subject: grep 'and operator' ... grep 'first pattern' and 'second pattern' foofile ... If BRP always appears at the beginning of the line, or rather, the BRP you ... record delimiter and so you may want to switch to awk where you can specify ...
    (comp.unix.sco.misc)
  • [SUMMARY] Statistician I (#167)
    ... The heart of this problem, as suggested in the quiz description, is pattern ... have the pattern matching in place, the rest of the code is pretty trivial. ... use regular expressions, or at least review their knowledge. ... Next, as indicated in the comment, square brackets surrounding text are ...
    (comp.lang.ruby)