| Version: | 1.1 | ||
| Released: |
Octobre 1999 |
||
| Mail to: | Vassili Bykov <vassili@magma.ca>, <vassili@objectpeople.com> | ||
| Flames to: | /dev/null |
[CU: Ported to Dolphin Smalltalk, Oct 23, 1999, by chris uppal]
The matcher includes classes in two categories:
| VB-Regex-Syntax | |
| VB-Regex-Matcher |
[CU: and also RxError and its subclasses -- all in category VB-Regex-Exceptions]
and a few CharacterArray methods in `VB-regex' protocol. No system classes or
methods are modified.
String>>matchesRegex: -- in 90% cases this method is all you need to access the package.
RxParser -- accepts a string or a stream of characters with a regular expression, and produces a syntax tree corresponding to the expression. The tree is made of instances of Rxs<whatever> classes.
RxMatcher -- accepts a syntax tree of a regular expression built by the parser and compiles it into a matcher: a structure made of instances of Rxm<whatever> classes. The RxMatcher instance can test whether a string or a positionable stream of characters matches the original regular expression, or search a string or a stream for substrings matching the expression. After a match is found, the matcher can report a specific string that matched the whole expression, or any parenthesized subexpression of it.
All other classes support the above functionality and are used by RxParser, RxMatcher, or both.
The matcher is similar in spirit, but NOT in the design--let alone the code--to the original Henry Spencer's regular expression implementation in C. The focus is on simplicity, not on efficiency. I didn't optimize or profile anything. I may in future--or I may not: I do this in my spare time and I don't promise anything.
The matcher passes H. Spencer's test suite (see 'test suite' protocol), with quite a few extra tests added, so chances are good there are not too many bugs. But watch out anyway.
With the existing separation between the parser, the syntax tree, and the matcher, it is easy to extend the system with other matchers based on other algorithms. In fact, I have a DFA-based matcher right now, but I don't feel it is good enough to include it here. I might add automata-based matchers later, but again I don't promise anything.
As of today (October 3, 1999), you can contact me at <vassili@objectpeople.com>. If this doesn't work, look around comp.lang.smalltalk and comp.lang.lisp.
[CU. And I am chris.uppal@metagnostic.org]
Updated on 2002-03-10