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Re: regexp question: match anything but not a group?


From: Andreas Röhler
Subject: Re: regexp question: match anything but not a group?
Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:37:04 +0200
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.2.0

Am 04.04.2014 11:04, schrieb Loris Bennett:
Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com> writes:

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

But it still seems valid to protect against greedyness?
                                               ^^^^^^^^^^
AKA greed,

I just made it up, but funny enough - it does actually exist (with
slightly different spelling)!

>From http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/greediness:

,-------------------------------------------------------------------
| greediness (ˈɡriːdɪnɪs)
|
| Definitions
|
| noun
|
|  1. the quality of being greedy
|
| greedy (ˈɡriːdɪ Pronunciation for greedy )
|
| Definitions
|
| adjective
|
| Word forms:  greedier,  greediest
|
|  1. excessively desirous of food or wealth, esp in large amounts;
|     voracious
|  2. (postpositive) foll by for eager (for)   ⇒ `a man greedy for
|     success'
|
| Derived Forms
|
| ˈgreedily adverb
| ˈgreediness noun
|
| Word Origin
|
| Old English grǣdig; related to Old Norse grāthugr, Gothic grēdags
| hungry, Old High German grātac
|
| Example Sentences Including 'greediness'
|
|     At times his greediness got the better of him but he never let
|     his enthusiasm go off the boil.
|
| Sun, News of the World (2004)
|
|     Broilers consume lots more feed-there's a good chance that
|     greediness has been inadvertently selected for.
|
| New Scientist (1998)
|
|     Mr Carman asked him if he had a `streak of greediness " in him
|     for money, expensive cars and Rolex watches.
|
| Sun, News of the World (1999)
|
|     Thus individuals who do experience strong pulls of greediness
|     often go to desperate measures to hide their behaviour.
|
| Knowles, Jane Know Your Own Mind
`-------------------------------------------------------------------

If I were you, Thorsten, I wouldn't rely on "The Sun and "NOTW" for
particularly nuanced usage of the English language, even if Collins does
quote them.  "New Scientist" is in a different category, but I think
"greed" would be much better in the example given for the following
reason:

I would say that "greed" is traditionally "a deadly sin", i.e. a moral
failing, whereas "greediness" is a (normally) non-fatal display of
overindulgence.  Bankers may be reviled for their greed, but
sticky-faced children told off for their greediness.

In "Mastering Regular Expressions", Friedl refers to the "greediness"
aspect of regular expressions, which, given the lack of a moral context,
seems to me the appropriate choice.

Cheers,

Loris


"greediness" sounds a little bit wrapped, sorted, objective - while "greed" 
evokes the living beast. :)



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