Re: Full regular expressions

From: Rolf E. Sonneveld <R.E.Sonneveld_at_sonnection.nl>
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:34:50 +0200

Hi, Murray,

Murray S. Kucherawy wrote:
>
> Currently OpenDKIM doesn't expose full regular expressions to users.
> This is done for the sake of simplicity and accessibility to the wider
> population; the idea is that most people understand use of "*" as a
> wildcard from the shell or even going as far back as DOS days, while
> full regular expressions are more flexible but harder to get right.
> Internally, "*" is translated to ".*", "." converts to "\." and things
> like "^" and "$" are judiciously added, and regular expression code is
> applied, but it presents a much simpler interface.
>
>
> So here's the question: Are we needlessly simplifying the interface?
> Would people prefer to have full access to regular expressions for
> writing things like the SigningTable? Or would this expose people to
> shooting themselves in the foot?
>
>
>
> The most general answer, of course, is "offer both, make it
> selectable" but this complicates the code somewhat. We could do that,
> but I wonder if it's really necessary. Or maybe it's fine the way it is.
>
>
>
> Just a thought. Feel free to opine. J
>

at present I have no situations where I could use regular expressions.
But on the other hand, I love products that are flexible and scaleable.
So I guess I'd vote 'yes' ;-)

/rolf
Received on Tue Jun 01 2010 - 18:35:07 PST