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by xigoi 588 days ago
Why are they called regular expressions if they can parse non-regular languages?
2 comments
db48x 586 days ago
It’s gradually got so. <https://youtu.be/JIlpjJnc6qY?t=54>

Literally, Larry Wall was adding things to regexes all the way back before the release of Perl 2.

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donaldihunter 588 days ago
The word 'regular' comes from the mathematical roots of automata and finite state machines.
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moomin 587 days ago
Which have a one to one correspondence with regular languages, so this isn’t actually an answer to the question.
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