cl-irregsexp

Introduction

cl-irregsexp is an ASDF-installable library for fast text matching. It goes beyond the facilities allowed by traditional regular expressions, while also making the matchers easier to write and maintain.

Why?

Traditional regexps are everywhere and well-understood. There are already several fine regular expression toolkits for Common Lisp. They are both complete and mature. Why use cl-irregsexp?

• The syntax: instead of writing (with cl-ppcre)

  (register-groups-bind (method url version-major version-minor) 
  	  ("(\\S+)\\s+(\\S+)\\s+HTTP/(\\d+).(\\d+)$" line)
  	  ...)
  	

  write

  (match-bind (method (+ (space)) url (+ (space)) "HTTP/" (version-major (integer)) "." (version-minor (integer)) (last))  
            line 
  	  ...)

  which might be clearer and doesn't involve mentioning the captured variables twice.
• cl-irregsexp works seamlessly on both arrays of integers and on strings.
• cl-irregsexp has excellent performance (for some operations) using open-coded Boyer-Moore matchers.

Why not?

• No documentation.
• The syntax is weird. For fast, complete and mature Perl compatible regexps check out cl-ppcre for example, or terse-ppcre.
• Things are still in early stages. Anything might change, even the name.
• Lack of testing and features.

Help!

• Suggest a better name!
• Improve the syntax.
• Write documentation.
• Add more features.

Write to the CL-IRREGSEXP-devel mailing list. Or add to the wiki.

Download

Here are some snapshots.

Project members