PowerRename: Lookbehind

[runxel]

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

Have positive (?<=…) and negative (?<!…) lookbehind as search regex available. Sometimes you just can't get around not using it. 🤷‍♂️

[crutkas]

Good idea. Should have unit tests too.

[rhorber]

I did some research (as I wanted to solve this) and found out that the Standard Library does not support Lookbehind.
See: Microsoft Docs Regular Expresssions and cpluplus.com ECMAScript syntax

An alternative would be to use Boost Regex for regular expressions, which supports it. Obviously, that's not up to me to decide 😉.

[enricogior]

@rhorber
first of all, thank you for looking into the issue.
Switching library may cause regressions, and since we don't want regressions, what about starting with this approach: add the Boosts lib as an option that can be selected in the PowerRename Settings, so the users that want extended features can explicitly choose so and they will be aware that there might be differences with the default lib.

[enricogior]

To speed up the work, and if you don't feel confident in changing the Settings, start using a flag in the code to select with lib to use and later we will expose it as a setting.

[rhorber]

Opt-in of boost library is a great idea.
Honestly, I'd rather have some advice about including the lib as I have little experience with C++ and Visual Studio. Is there already one added where I can copy from? Or what is your preferred way of doing it? Thanks.
Edit: About implementing/adding the setting, I'll give it a try.

[enricogior]

@rhorber
the preferred way to add a lib to a project is using Nuget and for Boots you should add https://www.nuget.org/packages/boost/
Are you familiar with using Nuget in VS? Check under Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Manage Nuget Packages for Solution...

Edit: consider using the modular boost lib to have just the regex part https://www.nuget.org/packages/boost_regex-vc141/

[rhorber]

@enricogior Thank you for the explanations. I'll start implementing it.
FYI: The modular lib requires the boost package, also vc142 is required as it's the configured Platform Toolset.

[enricogior]

@rhorber
v142 is OK since it's the one we are currently using.
What is important is to keep the Windows SDK version to the value shown in the screenshot.