- From: Bert Bos <Bert.Bos@sophia.inria.fr>
- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 11:27:06 +0100 (MET)
- To: www-style@w3.org
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 UTC