Re: [Haskell-cafe] Interesting new user perspective

jason.dusek:

Tommy M. McGuire wrote:

...

Is it wrong to use Parsec to parse regular expressions for a really simple regex engine[4]?

I sometimes think it is better, from a maintainability standpoint, to just use Parsec for all that stuff and forget about regular expressions. There are many proficient application programmers and system programmers who are unfamiliar with regexen which, even if they weren't arcane, are still so balkanized.

At first, I found writing Parsec for argument/option processing to be almost offensive -- so many lines for so little action! -- but it's clear as day to a lot of people and that is a real mark in its favor.

And for true regular expression problems, we have regex libs, dozens. They're just not the only tool for text manipulation, and Haskell makes constructing true parsers just as easy, so may as well do it right, and do it well. -- Don