Re: Unquoted special characters in regexps

[Luc Teirlinck]

Martin Rudalics wrote:

   I didn't care about `]'s closing a character alternative.  I did care
   about `]'s appearing in regular expressions _outside_ a character
   alternative and meant to match the character `]'.  Such `]'s should be
   quoted just like `.', `*', `+', `?', `[', `^', `$', and `\'.

To expand on my previous reply, you are arguing from a purely
legalistic viewpoint here, based on an error in the manual.  The
_purpose_ of quoting special characters even when they have no special
meaning is make clear that they have no special meaning.  "\\]" does
not clear up any confusion in situations where confusion could be
possible, so it is completely meaningless.

There is a mistake in the manual.  We should correct that mistake, not
make meaningless, and even confusing, changes to code.

Sincerely,

Luc.