Regular language

[simont]

I noticed yesterday after writing a comment in some code that one of my writing habits had changed, without me really noticing. So I thought I'd see what other people's opinions were.

Poll #17528 A regular holy war

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38

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How do you write 'regular expression' in abbreviated form?

View Answers

regexp
11 (30.6%)

regex
24 (66.7%)

Something else
0 (0.0%)

I only ever write it unabbreviated
0 (0.0%)

I don't ever write it at all
1 (2.8%)

How do you pronounce the g in regexp / regex ?

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Hard, like in 'regular' (IPA /ɡ/)
23 (60.5%)

Soft, like in 'Reginald' (IPA /dʒ/)
13 (34.2%)

Something else
1 (2.6%)

I never pronounce these abbreviations
1 (2.6%)

Comments

[simont]

I always used to be a 'regexp' person, but prolonged exposure to 'regex' seems to have recently built up enough activation energy to switch me over.

Now I'm on the other side, I find myself wondering what the point of the p was in the first place – 'regex' is adequately unambiguous and takes fewer characters, so what's not to like? But I can't remember why I adopted the p spelling myself. I'd be quite interested to know whether there are any centralised sources (particular textbooks, library APIs, influential articles or some such) that might be responsible for popularising one or the other.

[simont]

Oh, and a hasty and unscientific Googlefight gave a clear win for "regex", by a convincing 7×10⁶ hits to 6×10⁵.

[ptc24]

For the first question - I think "either, inconsistently, probably depending on which form I've encountered in context".

I think I've been known to use "rexp" as a variable name (partly to avoid a clash with "re" - longer names tend to be "fooBarRe" or "foobarre" depending on language), and I don't think I've been known to use "rex".

[lnr.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, in the end I couldn't answer the first question because I think I'm completely inconsistent and use both. Sorry :)

[emperor]

I'm pretty sure I use both regex and regexp, but the latter more frequently. And both more than reggae, which this infernal mac tried to correct them to...

[gerald_duck]

For me, the surest argument in favour of "regex" over "regexp" is that it's an appreviation of "reg-u-lar ex-press-ion" and the latter pointlessly includes a part-syllable.

IPA not so standard?

[pvaneynd]

I think you would say I use soft g, as I'm Flemish we have a tendency to use soft all the time, but I cannot hear the difference between /ɡ/ and /dʒ/ in your examples using google translate to hear them didn't help much.

Oh and I pronounce it as "are you certain using this is not a mistake?" as when I need to discuss them people are often ... misguided ;).

The sound samples at https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stemhebbende_postalveolaire_affricaat and https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stemhebbende_velaire_plosief were helpful, but strangely enough the samples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_palato-alveolar_affricate and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_stop were confusing.

I thought that IPA should be a sort of standard, so how come I needed to use the Dutch version? Interesting but confusing...

[kaberett]

(on balance, but I actually switch between them)

[fluffymormegil]

At one point I said regexp, but the phonotactical horribleness of /ksp/ as a word-final consonant cluster appears to have resulted in the /p/ getting abraded away in my brain and my typing habit followed (because shorter).

[hairyears]

I've head a couple of the UNIX beardies say "Just 'geck it" - similar to 'grep it out of the file', I guess.