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Re: Newsfeed and Local Weather (fwd)
The example kind of amused me.
From: Tom Christiansen <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl.misc
Subject: Re: Newsfeed and Local Weather
Date: 4 May 1999 15:59:30 -0700
[courtesy cc of this posting sent to cited author via email]
In comp.lang.perl.misc,
[email protected] (Kai Henningsen) writes:
:TwospacestoseparatesentencesisasillyEnglish-languageconceitanyway.Real
:languagesdon'tneedthis.
You're wrong. It's so you can parse one sentence to the next. Otherwise,
you have to do a real parse, which is damned rough to program. This
way sentential analysis and manipulation are feasible. Without the
habit, it is virtually hopeless.
Here is one sentence:
I heard that you live next to Susan St. James, who told me to call
early, but you weren't home yet.
Here are two sentences:
I heard that you live next to Susan St. James, who told me to call
early, thought you would be home already.
Note the difference. Now, please write a regular expression that
can tell the two apart.
Good, now remove the double-space between the two sentences in the
second example and show me the pattern that can tell the difference.
'Nuff said. Tip: learn the ( and ) target movement commands in vi. Then
you can do cool things like 3d) to delete three sentences.
--tom
--
"Software Engineers are like economists." --Rob Pike
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