Everybody's opinion wanted! Ian Hickson writes: > It would be much better to have one much more comprehensive syntax based on > a regular expression model. > The advantages are actually numerous: > * Regular expressions have been in use for *years*, so the technology is > mature (i.e. can be efficient). > * They are commonly used in many applications, so the learning curve for > both implementors and users is shallow. > * A single, comprehensive and self-consistent regular expression scheme > would actually do more for clarity than adding more and more attribute > selectors in future specs. Well, personally I like regexps very much, but I have some doubt as to the number of people that can read and write them. But maybe there are other opinions on this list. So let's ask: QUESTIONAIRE: 1. will this regexp-selector: COL[WIDTH="^ *[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)? *(\*|px|%)? *$"] match this HTML? <COL width=".9px"> 2. please send me your attempt at writing a regexp that matches "fr", "fr-ca", "fr-fr", "fr-ca-quebec" (in both upper- and lowercase), etc, but not "franc" or "free" or "fr!" or "de-fr". 3. how easy is it for you to write such a regexp? 4. if you can't write it, would it be hard to learn, do you think? 5. can you estimate how easy/hard it is for other people? > I once read that a truly great utility was one which was used for a > purpose never dreamed of by the designer - the way the spec is now this is > not likely to happen with attribute selectors. Donald Knuth, in the preface to Metafont, I believe. Bert -- Bert Bos ( W 3 C ) http://www.w3.org/ http://www.w3.org/people/bos/ W3C/INRIA bert@w3.org 2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP 93 +33 (0)4 93 65 76 92 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France +33 (0)4 92 38 76 92 (<--- after 5 Jan 1998)Received on Tuesday, 10 March 1998 05:27:26 GMT
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