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This queue is for tickets about the YAPE-Regex-Explain CPAN distribution.

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The Basics
Id: 41497
Status: open
Priority: 0/
Queue: YAPE-Regex-Explain

People
Owner: Nobody in particular
Requestors: kentfredric [...] gmail.com
Cc:
AdminCc:

Bug Information
Severity: Important
Broken in: 3.011
Fixed in: (no value)



Subject: Out of date regex support
Regex::Explain Appears to lack ability to comprehend, or even emit, many of the new perl regex features. 1. Named Capture groups: Simply Deleted From Output 2. (?(DEFINE)) structures: Completely lost 3. (?&ref) references to DEFINE'd strucutres Can break output horribly As such, its entirely useless for any complex regex.
Here is just a quick update on this bug. No steps have yet been taken to support these newer regex features. No significant updates to the module have been made since Perl version 5.6 because the original module author (PINYAN) has been too busy to address this issue. I (GSULLIVAN) received permission from the original author to become a co-maintainer of this module. Fixing this bug will not be trivial for me. It will require me to understand the module code in detail as well as become familiar with these new regex features. Therefore, I can not commit to any timeframe for adding these new features. Patches and tests are welcome. So that others will be more aware of this issue, I added a LIMITATIONS section to the POD in version 4.01. I'd like to note that the following statement by kent.fredric is misleading: "As such, its entirely useless for any complex regex." The module can be used to explain all regular expressions, complex or simple, which do not include the new syntax introduced in Perl 5.10 three years ago (2007). This means that it can handle all regexes written during the first 20 years of Perl's existence. That's a lot of regexes!