RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#1

Post by exceptione » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC

RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#
iev.ee

Re: RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#2

Post by sourcegrift » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 10:49 AM UTC

I've had nothing but great experience with F#. If it wasn't associated with Microsoft, it'd be more popular than haskell

Re: RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#3

Post by raincole » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 10:59 AM UTC

sourcegrift wrote: post #2

I've had nothing but great experience with F#. If it wasn't associated with Microsoft, it'd be more popular than haskell

I think if it weren't a 'first class' member of .NET ecosystem[0], no one would know F#. After all Haskell and Ocaml already exist.

[0]: my very charitable take, as MS obviously cares C# much much more than F#.

Re: RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#4

Post by lynx97 » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 11:07 AM UTC

sourcegrift wrote: post #2

I've had nothing but great experience with F#. If it wasn't associated with Microsoft, it'd be more popular than haskell

You realize that Microsoft Research employed Simon for many many years?

Re: RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#5

Post by dude250711 » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 11:16 AM UTC

sourcegrift wrote: post #2

I've had nothing but great experience with F#. If it wasn't associated with Microsoft, it'd be more popular than haskell

> ...it'd be more popular than haskell

https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2010/12/haskell-researchers...

Re: RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#6

Post by anentropic » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 11:38 AM UTC

Fantastic stuff!

FYI some code snippets are unreadable in 'light mode' ("what substrings does the regex (a|ab)+ match in the following input?")

Re: RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#7

Post by sourcegrift » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 11:45 AM UTC

dude250711 wrote: post #5

sourcegrift wrote: post #2

I've had nothing but great experience with F#. If it wasn't associated with Microsoft, it'd be more popular than haskell

> ...it'd be more popular than haskell https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2010/12/haskell-researchers...

> But they all just skip the press releases and go straight to the not using it part

Lol

Re: RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#8

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 11:53 AM UTC

raincole wrote: post #3

sourcegrift wrote: post #2

I've had nothing but great experience with F#. If it wasn't associated with Microsoft, it'd be more popular than haskell

I think if it weren't a 'first class' member of .NET ecosystem[0], no one would know F#. After all Haskell and Ocaml already exist. [0]: my very charitable take, as MS obviously cares C# much much more than F#.

[deleted]

Re: RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#9

Post by sourcegrift » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 12:03 PM UTC

[flagged]

Re: RE#: how we built the fastest regex engine in F#

#10

Post by balakk » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 12:06 PM UTC

Finally, an article about humans programming some computers. Thank you!