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Show HN: RegEx for Regular Folk – A visual, example-based introduction

refrf.shreyasminocha.me

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Re: Show HN: RegEx for Regular Folk – A visual, example-based introduction

#5
Neatly presented.

However, I'd suggest to reorganize the chapters so that features not yet introduced aren't shown in examples without explanations. For example, you explain anchors and quantifiers many chapters later but use them liberally in earlier chapters without explaining them.

Re: Show HN: RegEx for Regular Folk – A visual, example-based introduction

#8
post #7

Recursive RegEx has always been confusing to me. https://www.rexegg.com/regex-recursion.html

Railroad diagrams may help. I use a three step approach to present one example of recursion, which includes showing the difference between two-level nesting vs recursive version [1]. This is the railroad visualization for two-level [2].

[1] https://github.com/learnbyexample/py_regular_expressions/blo...

[2] https://www.debuggex.com/r/SMLRfiyt0Ag2hXu5

Re: Show HN: RegEx for Regular Folk – A visual, example-based introduction

#10
I like the example based approach. I learn from examples far quicker than I learn from “explanations”. If I attempt to learn from an example and my brain hits an exception, only then do I start reading the supporting text.

Nice approach. You’ve made a valuable thing and implemented a powerful idea.

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