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August 2017: Simplified Regular Expressions |
2017-08-09 19:00:00 -0400 |
meeting |
Regular expressions - or regexes - are a powerful, sophisticated cross-language technology
for searching for patterns and extracting information from text.
They've been a mainstay of all dynamic languages since advanced regular
expressions were introduced to Perl in the 1980s.
Unfortunately, they also look like the squawks of an angry R2 unit.
So a newer technology, Simple Regex Language (SRL), provides an alternate way to specify regexes - easier to write and easier to read, with all the same functionality under the covers.
We'll introduce ourselves to simplified regexes, and at the same time review the classic syntax. Soon no text will be beyond your power to parse.
As always, we'll take some time for your general thoughts, questions, and ideas. See you there!