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000064_icon-group-sender _Wed Jun 21 13:53:39 1995.msg
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1995-09-18
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Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Thu, 22 Jun 1995 08:58:24 MST
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 1995 13:53:39 +0300 (WET)
From: Ehud Lamm <mslamm@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il>
To: gep2@computek.net
Cc: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Subject: Re: ICON and Data Conversion
In-Reply-To: <9506191810.AA27336@ns1.computek.net>
Message-Id: <Pine.A32.3.91.950621134620.61640A-100000@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
A question comes to mind regarding what notations are easy for people to use.
From my experience it takes people time to grasp RE, but this time is
spent is CS classes. Snobol patterns also take time to learn, and I think
even more time that RE - but no one really has to learn them in school.
The Icon method is superior in that it offers much more than just string
scanning - it gives you a whole new flow control mechanism, that can be
used for other purposes, and that is integrated in the language. On the
other hand it too take time to learn, and seems less relevant to string
scanning that REs and S4 patterns.
So we have:
REs - known and semi-powerful (and you can add all kinds of extensions...)
S4 - powerful, take time to learn, but seems closer to REs
Icon - Great idea! But takes getting used to the concept.
Since I think S4 doesn't stand a chance in the future. And I don't want
to make a flame war on this - if you want to say I am wrong, I'd be happy
to learn why. So, since S4 is a dying language we can choose between REs
which suit people who have to get the job done, and who know REs from
school, from GREP etc. , and Icon's wondeful way of doing things which is
still used only by the elite... :-)
If you have the time and want to invest it in learning a powerful tool
learn Icon, if you just need a quick hack I am sure Perl, AWK are much
easier to use.
Ehud Lamm mslamm@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il