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Asterisk

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Re: Asterisk

#11

Post by chrisseaton »

tialaramex wrote: post #10
chrisseaton wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* is the wildcard in some forms of regular expressions, such as file name globs.

A glob isn't a regular expression, and indeed one of the reasons it isn't is that it lacks the Kleene star - which is the thing an asterisk does in the typical regular expression syntax.

I don't think you need the Kleene star to be regular.

Star-free languages are regular languages without the Kleene star.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-free_language

But I'm not an expert in formal languages and maybe you are.

Re: Asterisk

#12

Post by riffraff »

I always thought Obelix was named after obelisks because of the menhir connection (e.g. both are upright stone monuments of a sort).

The connection with asterisk/Asterix makes it so much better.

FWIW, I only realized last year, ~30 years after I read the books, that Idefix was named thus because of "idée fixe"[0].

Ah, the unexpected depth of a children comic book!

[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/id%C3%A9e_fixe

Re: Asterisk

#13

Post by denotational »

chrisseaton wrote: post #11
tialaramex wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A glob isn't a regular expression, and indeed one of the reasons it isn't is that it lacks the Kleene star - which is the thing an asterisk does in the typical regular expression syntax.

I don't think you need the Kleene star to be regular. Star-free languages are regular languages without the Kleene star. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-free_language But I'm not an expert in formal languages and maybe you are.

I think you're slightly at cross-purposes: GP is saying that since globs lack the Kleene star, they cannot be used to define all regular languages.

Star-free languages are a strict subset of the set of regular languages, so there exist regular languages that require the Kleene star to be represented as a regular expression; indeed the Wikipedia article you linked gives an example.

It's perhaps worth noting that neither regular expressions nor globs are themselves regular languages: they are just used to define regular languages. Consider that regular expressions usually require some form of parenthetical notation, and that languages with matched parentheses cannot be regular as a trivial consequence of the pumping lemma.

Re: Asterisk

#14

Post by dagw »

dmitriid wrote: post #8

Coming from Russian books I was extremely confused by the varied asterisks used for footnotes in English/American literature. Why would you go to all the trouble with 15 different types of asterisks when you can just use numbers?

Number and symbols serve a slightly different use. The general rule in English is that footnotes (ie they reference something at the foot of the same page) use symbols and that you only have to use different symbols for different footnotes if you have multiple footnotes on the same page. Numbers are used for references found at the end of the book/chapter/article and have to be unique for the whole book/chapter/articel.

Realistically I've never seen most of those symbols in any book I've ever read. If you're regularly using more than 2 footnotes a page, you're probably better of numbering them and moving the references to the end of the chapter or book.

Re: Asterisk

#15

Post by OskarS »

riffraff wrote: post #12

I always thought Obelix was named after obelisks because of the menhir connection (e.g. both are upright stone monuments of a sort). The connection with asterisk/Asterix makes it so much better. FWIW, I only realized last year, ~30 years after I read the books, that Idefix was named thus because of "idée fixe"[0]. Ah, the unexpected depth of a children comic book! [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/id%C3%A9e_fixe

I always kinda enjoyed the english translation of the tribe chief being Vitalstatistix.

Re: Asterisk

#16

Post by BowBun »

riffraff wrote: post #12

I always thought Obelix was named after obelisks because of the menhir connection (e.g. both are upright stone monuments of a sort). The connection with asterisk/Asterix makes it so much better. FWIW, I only realized last year, ~30 years after I read the books, that Idefix was named thus because of "idée fixe"[0]. Ah, the unexpected depth of a children comic book! [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/id%C3%A9e_fixe

I'm not sure if you're a native French speaker, but most of the names in Asterix & Obelix are puns and worth exploring!

- Panoramix (panorama) - Abraracourcix (a bras racourcis) - Bonnemine, Assurancetourix, Agecanonix, etc.

Re: Asterisk

#17

Post by Tainnor »

BowBun wrote: post #16
riffraff wrote: post #12

I always thought Obelix was named after obelisks because of the menhir connection (e.g. both are upright stone monuments of a sort). The connection with asterisk/Asterix makes it so much better. FWIW, I only realized last year, ~30 years after I read the books, that Idefix was named thus because of "idée fixe"[0]. Ah, the unexpected depth of a children comic book! [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/id%C3%A9e_fixe

I'm not sure if you're a native French speaker, but most of the names in Asterix & Obelix are puns and worth exploring! - Panoramix (panorama) - Abraracourcix (a bras racourcis) - Bonnemine, Assurancetourix, Agecanonix, etc.

They translate most of those names differently in other languages, in German, they use German puns, etc. (strangely enough, Idefix wasn't translated).

Re: Asterisk

#18

Post by phaemon »

riffraff wrote: post #12

I always thought Obelix was named after obelisks because of the menhir connection (e.g. both are upright stone monuments of a sort). The connection with asterisk/Asterix makes it so much better. FWIW, I only realized last year, ~30 years after I read the books, that Idefix was named thus because of "idée fixe"[0]. Ah, the unexpected depth of a children comic book! [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/id%C3%A9e_fixe

A pun that actually works better in the English translation as Dogmatix.

Re: Asterisk

#19

Post by Tainnor »

dagw wrote: post #14
dmitriid wrote: post #8

Coming from Russian books I was extremely confused by the varied asterisks used for footnotes in English/American literature. Why would you go to all the trouble with 15 different types of asterisks when you can just use numbers?

Number and symbols serve a slightly different use. The general rule in English is that footnotes (ie they reference something at the foot of the same page) use symbols and that you only have to use different symbols for different footnotes if you have multiple footnotes on the same page. Numbers are used for references found at the end of the book/chapter/article and have to be unique for the whole book/chapter/artic…

In German academic texts, numbered footnotes are very common. I think it's similar in other continental European traditions. In English texts, I've usually seen more chapter end notes than footnotes.

Also, some citation styles make heavy use of footnotes.

Re: Asterisk

#20

Post by riffraff »

BowBun wrote: post #16
riffraff wrote: post #12

I always thought Obelix was named after obelisks because of the menhir connection (e.g. both are upright stone monuments of a sort). The connection with asterisk/Asterix makes it so much better. FWIW, I only realized last year, ~30 years after I read the books, that Idefix was named thus because of "idée fixe"[0]. Ah, the unexpected depth of a children comic book! [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/id%C3%A9e_fixe

I'm not sure if you're a native French speaker, but most of the names in Asterix & Obelix are puns and worth exploring! - Panoramix (panorama) - Abraracourcix (a bras racourcis) - Bonnemine, Assurancetourix, Agecanonix, etc.

I'm italian, so some of the things made sense from the start (Panoramix, Asterix and many of the one-off characters which I can't recall) but some have always been obscure :)
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