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From: Muttley@DastartdlyHQ.org
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Command Languages Versus Programming Languages
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2024 10:09:48 -0000 (UTC)
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On Thu, 21 Nov 2024 19:12:03 -0000 (UTC)
Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> boring babbled:
>On 2024-11-20, Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm curious what you mean by Regexps presented in a "procedural" form.
>> Can you give some examples?
>
>Here is an example: using a regex match to capture a C comment /* ... */
>in Lex compared to just recognizing the start sequence /* and handling
>the discarding of the comment in the action.
>
>Without non-greedy repetition matching, the regex for a C comment is
>quite obtuse. The procedural handling is straightforward: read
>characters until you see a * immediately followed by a /.

Its not that simple I'm afraid since comments can be commented out.

eg:

   // int i; /*
   int j;
   /*
   int k;
   */
  ++j;

A C99 and C++ compiler would see "int j" and compile it, a regex would
simply remove everything from the first /* to */.

Also the same probably applies to #ifdef's.