Re: Line disciplines (was Re: RFC 69 (v3) Standardize input record separator)

On Fri, 11 Aug 2000 10:31:55 -0400 (EDT), [email protected] wrote:

>Since what I proposed is obviously the wrong thing to do, I'm
>wondering whether I should try redrafting RFC 69 or withdrawing it
>completely, after which hopefully someone else will make a better
>proposal.  Please let me know.  Thanks.

I don't think it's completely wrong, but it shouldbe too radically
different either. I too think that the input file separator should have
regexish features, if the programmer wishes so. Now, one can only set $/
to a fixed string, which is inflexible if one doesn't know if one
processes a Unix of a Mac file.

My thoughts would be: a DFA regex engine, i.e. a state machine which is
controlled by the next character in the input stream. No backtracking,
very fast. But: no backreferences either, so the regex syntax will be
more limited, than what the generic regex engine can process. I think
that for this kind of application, we don't need it.

-- 
	Bart.