Yea or Nay this idea, please. I've had it for a month or so.

Around the time of my "regex reversal" craze, I also had the idea of providing, as a learning tool (or more?), a means of translating from a simple english specification to a Perl regex. The idea being that this would help people understand what a regex does by forming one from what they say.

An example might be (if it were function-oriented): 
# /^[+-]?\d+$/
$match_integers = form_REx(
  start,          # ^
  class("+-"),    # [+-]
    optional,     # ?
  digit,          # \d
    one_or_more,  # +
  end             # $
);

[download]
This is pretty easy to read, no? And it helps make a connection between the "line noise" and the instruction associated with it. Here's another example, if it were to parse a string holding the specification: 
# /^[+-]?\d+$/
$match_integers = form_REx(<< 'END');  # single-quoted!
start          # ^
class "+-"     # [+-]
  optional     # ?
digit          # \d
  one_or_more  # +
end            # $
END

[download]
It looks very similar (and it should). It's just a matter of "do I want to make lots of functions" or "do I want to do a lot of parsing".

But before I do this... would anyone find it useful? I'm not about to waste time on something no one needs.

japhy -- Perl and Regex Hacker

In reply to Regex Learning Tool by japhy

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