Re: Regular Expression tutorial

[Jor-el <jorel@marvin.megadodo.umb>]

On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, Gerardo M. Sarria M. wrote:

> I found it interesting.
> However this document is for people with knowledge about compilers.
> For example, you don't define what a token is.
> And I think you may put in anywhere the RE's formal definition:
> 
> RE's are:
> 1. E    (The empty string)
> 2. If 'a' is a minimal language component, 'a' is an RE
> 3. If 'a' and 'b' are RE then:
>                 - (a)(b) is RE
>                 - (a)|(b) is RE
>                 - (a)* , (a)+ are RE
>                 - (a) is RE
> 
> I mean, a recursive definition.
> 
> Although I think the document is very graphical (many examples).
> See ya
> 
> Gerardo
> 

Gerardo,

	Thanks for you feedback. Unfortunately, I was hoping that my
document would be useful to people who dont know much about Computer
Science, so it is quite evident that I have a lot more work to do. Putting
in the formal definition of RE would only take me further away from my
target audience. 

	And anyway, the regex(7) man-page provided by Debian is far more
technical than my document. So I shouldnt be trying to duplicate that
document.

	You have indeed pointed out a problem with my document - that I
used undefined terms which would cause a newbie some difficulty. I will
make changes accordingly.

Thanks,
Jor-el

"There is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress."
-- Mark Twain