Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation?

From	Dr J R Stockton <reply1245@merlyn.demon.co.uk.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.javascript
Subject	Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation?
Date	2012-11-05 19:26 +0000
Organization	Home
Message-ID	<ZClAbbI$LBmQFw47@invalid.uk.co.demon.merlyn.invalid> (permalink)
References	(1 earlier) <XnsA0FF6988CAC95eejj99@194.109.133.133> <BMSdnRSFG8QIVA7NnZ2dnUVZ_vGdnZ2d@earthlink.com> <f7k798117mcgu610jd2i8ca98s770f9uc5@4ax.com> <Ceidnfe5X9M_dg7NnZ2dnUVZ_hWdnZ2d@earthlink.com> <32ld985i9rkvi86ul4eqiv1gsdhr78sd6g@4ax.com>

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In comp.lang.javascript message <32ld985i9rkvi86ul4eqiv1gsdhr78sd6g@4ax.
com>, Sun, 4 Nov 2012 21:52:07, Hans-Georg Michna <hans-
georgNoEmailPlease@michna.com> posted:

>On Fri, 02 Nov 2012 08:49:33 -0700, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
>
>>On 11/2/2012 6:58 AM, Hans-Georg Michna wrote:
>
>>> I sometimes see code that inefficiently loops through strings or
>>> character arrays, apparently because the programmer did not know
>>> regular expressions.
>
>>Or perhaps the programmer thought the case was not performance critical,
>>and the explicit loop code was clearer and more readable than the
>>regular expression equivalent.
>
>At least a simple regular expression is clear and very readable
>for someone who knows the language, probably much clearer and
>easier to read than some multi-line code in any high-level
>language.
>
>So it depends on the programmer who reads the code. Win some,
>lose some.
>
>s = s.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
>
>Is that easy to read? For me it is. It comes naturally. (:-)
>This is JavaScript's trim function, by the way.

Since a literal space - Unicode 0020 - in a RegExp literal can always be
represented as \s, and similarly for tab perhaps there should be a
vari-ant form of the literal in which spaces and tabs are not
significant.  In that form, expressions could be written with spaces to
indicate their structure.  That one could be /^ \s+ | \s+ $/ for
example.  The means of expressing the vari-ance is left as an exercise
for the reader; maybe by using character "`" as the bounding delimiter.

It is easy enough to learn enough about RegExps for them to be used on
coding, though it is hard to learn enough to be able to write the
optimal RegExp for any job and to read worst-case RegExps.

-- 
 (c) John Stockton, nr London UK. Mail, see Homepage. BP7, Delphi 3 & 2006.
   <http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> TP/BP/Delphi/&c., FAQqy topics & links;
   <http://www.bancoems.com/CompLangPascalDelphiMisc-MiniFAQ.htm> clpdmFAQ;
   NOT <http://support.codegear.com/newsgroups/>: news:borland.* Guidelines

Thread

Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? RobG <rgqld@iinet.net.au> - 2012-11-01 18:32 -0700
  Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2012-11-02 06:14 +0000
    Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-11-02 02:28 -0700
  Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2012-11-02 10:22 +0100
    Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2012-11-02 10:37 +0100
    Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-11-02 06:25 -0700
      Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Asen Bozhilov <asen.bozhilov@gmail.com> - 2012-11-02 06:35 -0700
      Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Hans-Georg Michna <hans-georgNoEmailPlease@michna.com> - 2012-11-02 14:58 +0100
        Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-11-02 08:49 -0700
          Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Hans-Georg Michna <hans-georgNoEmailPlease@michna.com> - 2012-11-04 21:52 +0100
            Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2012-11-04 22:49 +0000
              Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Hans-Georg Michna <hans-georgNoEmailPlease@michna.com> - 2012-11-05 13:18 +0100
              Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-11-06 06:48 -0800
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2012-11-06 15:04 +0000
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-11-06 10:43 -0800
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-11-06 11:22 -0800
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-11-06 12:16 -0800
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-11-06 12:53 -0800
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Hans-Georg Michna <hans-georgNoEmailPlease@michna.com> - 2012-11-07 17:34 +0100
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-11-07 23:21 +0100
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2012-11-07 23:23 +0100
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-11-07 17:00 -0800
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2012-11-08 07:16 +0100
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Dr J R Stockton <reply1245@merlyn.demon.co.uk.invalid> - 2012-11-07 17:50 +0000
            Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Dr J R Stockton <reply1245@merlyn.demon.co.uk.invalid> - 2012-11-05 19:26 +0000
              Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Stefan Weiss <krewecherl@gmail.com> - 2012-11-07 22:13 +0100
        Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-11-02 09:51 -0700
      Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-11-02 18:41 +0100
        Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-11-02 12:30 -0700
          Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2012-11-02 20:33 +0000
            Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Hans-Georg Michna <hans-georgNoEmailPlease@michna.com> - 2012-11-04 21:57 +0100
              Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2012-11-04 22:44 +0000
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Andrew Poulos <ap_prog@hotmail.com> - 2012-11-05 15:41 +1100
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2012-11-05 09:07 +0000
          Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-11-02 22:10 +0100
            Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-11-02 15:22 -0700
              Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-11-03 10:19 +0100
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-11-03 13:05 -0700
                Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-11-03 21:39 +0100
        Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-11-03 12:26 +0100
  Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? "Jukka K. Korpela" <jkorpela@cs.tut.fi> - 2012-11-02 12:28 +0200
    Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-11-02 10:00 -0700
  Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Asen Bozhilov <asen.bozhilov@gmail.com> - 2012-11-02 06:15 -0700
  Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-11-06 06:32 -0800
    Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? RobG <rgqld@iinet.net.au> - 2012-11-06 18:23 -0800
      Re: Good use of bitwise NOT "~" or unnecessary obfuscation? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-11-07 11:22 -0800

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