Talk:Regular Expressions
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- Started: 2 June 2006
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[edit] Depth of Book?
I'm wondering if this book is going to be simply a reference to programming using regular expressions, or if this book will cover the mathematical theory behind regular expressions. Explaining the theory behind it would require a divergance into autmata theory, state machines, etc. --Whiteknight(talk) (projects) 01:02, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
- I think that is perfectly valid content for this book. It should probably be in a chapter devoted to advanced topics. — franl ✦ talk ✦ 17:11, 5 06 2006 (UTC)
[edit] How can we differentiate this content from the Wikipedia article?
The corresponding Wikipedia article – Wikipedia:Regular Expressions – is very detailed. How can we differentiate this book's content from that article? Perhaps this book should have a tutorial style? — franl ✦ talk ✦ 17:22, 5 06 2006 (UTC)
- I don't know if you have any available, but there are a number of existing book references on the subject of regular expressions. You could use these existing books to prepare a book-length outline or plan for implementing this wikibook. Also, there are a number of different computer languages that utilize regular expressions (Perl, sed/awk, emacs, PHP, etc), and you could easily devote a page to regular expression implementation in each different language. Also, you could include projects using regular expressions, such as a C preprocessor module, HTML tag extractor, loader (with virtual address correction), automatic spell checker, etc. --Whiteknight(talk) (projects) 17:51, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Automata theory
As per my note above, I have decided to create a new wikibook on the subject of automata theory. Currently, this new book is in the planning stage, and exists only as a preliminary outline HERE on my user page. Since this is only an outline, I would appreciate any comments or suggestions on this matter. --Whiteknight(talk) (projects) 00:19, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Beginner Mistakes?
I'd like to suggest that there be a section on trouble-shooting regex patterns. I've learned about regex in the past week and have written up two problems I had on my blog here: http://www.mind-manual.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/07/regular-expressions-how-i-hatelove-thee/. I'd do it myself but I'm not sure whether it'll fit into the context of this book. Cheers!
