One justification I have heard people make (not that I subscribe to the idea myself) is that one doesn't have to worry so much about meta-characters, in that nearly every single character loses its meta function in a character class.

Instead of having to write /a\+b/, one can write /a[+]b/. Thus, instead of having to worry about whether a punctuation character needs to be escaped or not, one can stick it in a character class and be done with it.

I think this is a false economy, but, if it makes you happy...

• another intruder with the mooring in the heart of the Perl

In reply to Re: Why would one want in a regex a class with only a single entry? by grinder
in thread Why would one want in a regex a class with only a single entry? by ack

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