First off, for those readers who aren’t programmers, it’s important to define what are the (in)famous regular expressions. According to the Regex Crossword FAQ…
A regular expression (regex or regexp for short) is a special text string for describing a search pattern. (…) For example, if you wanted to find all references to the name "Casper" but using all the different ways of spelling it, you could use the regular expression [CK]asp[ae]r, which will match both "Casper", "Caspar", "Kasper" and "Kaspar".
The thing is: this definition by no means reflects how insanely difficult it is to learn them. There is no other way than repeatedly using them until you eventually start memorizing them, a process that is particularly arduous and unintuitive. This is what Regex Crossword aims to prevent, by hosting a series of Sudoku-like puzzles to help you master them; it won’t be an easy process still, but at least it may be more fun…
On the left you can see a typical puzzle, in which you must carefully observe the regexs that represent every row or column, and write a letter from a selected list that matches both criteria. You can always press the "Help" button at the top right of the website to visualize a diagram with all the information you need. As you can see, it’s easy to understand the rules, but hard to master them.
The website features several sections to make the levels as varied as possible. There is also another area which includes levels made by other users, along with a stats page. Also, if you check the Help and FAQ section, you will be recommended other tools and online resources in case you want to learn a bit more about regexs. Don’t forget to use an account so that your progress on the levels can be saved.
Finally, although this project is "something we do for fun", you can donate via PayPal or several cryptocurrencies (check the Help and FAQ section to see which ones are available) to help with hosting expenses and to keep ensuring further improvements and levels.
Visit Regex Crossword via the following link.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWeird. The definition sounds like a straightforward, fairly intuitive thing. What makes them so hard?
The infinity combinations you can get and that they aren't easy to read. IMO is one of the most powerful tool for text search but also a dangerous one (the day you create your RE it totally makes sense and it is hyper intuitive... six weeks later you want to cry).
Quoting: x_wingI see. So the cautionary tale for young programmers is, if you aren't solid in your commenting and variable names, you'll be condemned to use this stuff.Quoting: Purple Library GuyWeird. The definition sounds like a straightforward, fairly intuitive thing. What makes them so hard?
The infinity combinations you can get and that they aren't easy to read. IMO is one of the most powerful tool for text search but also a dangerous one (the day you create your RE it totally makes sense and it is hyper intuitive... six weeks later you want to cry).
Arehandoro Apr 1, 2020
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: x_wingI see. So the cautionary tale for young programmers is, if you aren't solid in your commenting and variable names, you'll be condemned to use this stuff.Quoting: Purple Library GuyWeird. The definition sounds like a straightforward, fairly intuitive thing. What makes them so hard?
The infinity combinations you can get and that they aren't easy to read. IMO is one of the most powerful tool for text search but also a dangerous one (the day you create your RE it totally makes sense and it is hyper intuitive... six weeks later you want to cry).
I did some commenting in few regex I had to do at work the other day... and two days later when I revisit them it wouldn't work. Turned out with all the rush to leave the office I had confused some symbols and had messed it xD
Quoting: tomaszgNice. Next step - regex golf! https://xkcd.com/1313/
This might have been inspiration for the comic: https://alf.nu/RegexGolf
Quoting: ArehandoroOh man, finally a -hopefully- way to learn better regex!
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: x_wingI see. So the cautionary tale for young programmers is, if you aren't solid in your commenting and variable names, you'll be condemned to use this stuff.Quoting: Purple Library GuyWeird. The definition sounds like a straightforward, fairly intuitive thing. What makes them so hard?
The infinity combinations you can get and that they aren't easy to read. IMO is one of the most powerful tool for text search but also a dangerous one (the day you create your RE it totally makes sense and it is hyper intuitive... six weeks later you want to cry).
I did some commenting in few regex I had to do at work the other day... and two days later when I revisit them it wouldn't work. Turned out with all the rush to leave the office I had confused some symbols and had messed it xD
The linked site, https://regex101.com/ is actually nice for situations like that. It parses the regular expression into components and explains what they do.
As for the crossword itself, it's actually doable and I completed almost all the official puzzles, only the hexagonal one is unfinished.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWeird. The definition sounds like a straightforward, fairly intuitive thing. What makes them so hard?Unlike programming languages, you don’t have meaningful variable or function names to rely on. It’s just symbols and a lot of nesting of rules and patterns. So it’s about a legible as minified code, if not less.
For example, this very simple pattern will match semi-colons that appear at the start or end of a line, or are followed by another semi-colon (I use it to clean up a list after removing duplicate entries):
^;+|;(?=;)|;$
Every single character has significance, a purpose of its own. Namely:
<start of line><semi-colon><1 or more><OR><semi-colon><start of group><look ahead (without including in results)><match><semi-colon><end of group><OR><semi-colon><end of line>
It’s very hard to come up with the exact pattern you are trying to match (without getting false positives), and often as hard to remember what it’s trying to match if you come back to it after the fact. If someone else made it and you don’t even know what it’s looking for, you have to decipher it piece by piece.
Last edited by Salvatos on 1 April 2020 at 7:29 pm UTC
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